USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN VARIOUS DIDACTIC SITUATIONS IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Taking advantage of smartphones and tablets in education is very interesting, particularly because pupils often have their own devices. It is a piece of technology that children have a natural and positive relationship with; therefore if they were to use them during the educational process it might be motivating for them. Carefully designed and custom-tailored mobile classroom learning applications have been found to be valuable in bridging the gap between indoor and outdoor learning. In particular, mobile learning applications serve as assistive didactic tools that contextualized learning content previously introduced in the classroom. This is achieved by exemplifying and augmenting formal classroom learning experiences in outdoor scenarios, thus enabling students to actively and dynamically construct an understanding of their activities (Melzer et al. 2007). Successfully bridging indoor and outdoor classroom learning is a complex task which includes the use of technology in an individual, social and organizational contexts. These factors comprise the heterogeneity of the involved teachers, students and researchers, as well as their different levels of motivation, knowledge, and the specific learning goals or sub-goals, methodologies and devices, economic factors, and the interrelations and dynamics between these factors (Melzer et al., 2005). In this paper, we would like to present information on the current status and the possibilities of using mobile technology in the teaching of mathematics in elementary schools in Slovakia. It includes a description of a qualitative research study that focuses on the learning and teaching process of pupils aged 9 to 11. During this process, mobile technology was used in many didactic situations.