STUDENT LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY-RICH AUTHENTIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (TALE) THROUGH MOBILE APP

Affordances of technology open up a plethora of seamless learning environments that can effectively engage the learners because whatever they are learning is real and relevant. The paper looks at students' learning and engagement through a technology-rich authentic learning environment (TALE) using a mobile app for learning "Elements of Business Skills". The paper will report on factors affecting student learning and engagement through a mobile app where learning occurs within and outside the classroom as well as in authentic learning environments like a shopping mall or the workplace, hence, achieving seamless learning environment. The findings from the two-year study will inform the field of pedagogy on the use of mobile apps for students' knowledge acquisition, creation and transfer in and across different sites of learning. The students' perceptions of the mobile app as a tool for learning content are explored through the theoretical lens of authentic learning as well as mobile learning (m-learning) and the features of mlearning: instant access, portability and user interface.