Social networks and mobile devices in higher education: pilot project

Reflecting latest trends in higher education, social networks and mobile devices have been detected to be important tools. Collecting the appropriate data the main objective of the research was to consider whether mobile-assisted learning could be used within the faculty. The survey monitoring their use for private and education purposes was held at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Data were collected by the questionnaire from the sample of 203 respondents. Totally twelve questions were included monitoring (1) the types and access frequency to 19 social networks and (2) the ownership and purpose of use of 12 types of mobile devices. The results showed students were sufficiently equipped with the mobile devices and using them for private purposes they reached high level of literacy. This result entitled us to start the pilot process of mobile-assisted learning using the Blackboard Mobile Learn (TM) version 4.0 for Apple and Android devices.