Using Mobile Device for Learning: Students' Perspective

This study aims to examine students' acceptance of mobile technology usage for learning. A questionnaire designed with five open-ended questions was distributed to 20 students from the Faculty of Industrial Art & Design Technology of Universiti Industri Selangor (Unisel). Results construes that students were not keen on mLearning, as they did not rely greatly on the mobile phone in assessing their learning materials such as lectures and lab sessions. They were more familiar with studio-based and face-to-face learning approach instead of mLearning and were not receptive to this new idea of learning using mobile technology, even though they always use the mobile device features. The limitations in the mobile device feature, costs and its usability become the prominent factors that hinder the students from fully accomplishing their mLearning exercises. They were willing to explore the idea of using mobile technology for learning, especially in a studio-based setting. They did not see any improvement of knowledge from the perspective of the learning process 'know-how' to the 'show-how' on mobile technology usage for learning. They could not relate any learning connection in between mobile technology and studio-based learning, even though in the first part of the case study, the results have shown positive attitude and acceptance on the study made on a sample lesson of form, space and Gestalt Theory in the Graphic Design subject. Students' also obtained analogous experiences on small sized keypads, screen resolutions, and navigation could be the major problematic factors to them and thus, affect their mLearning process as it is unfriendly to use and the device is prone to damage. They have yet to accept that the concept of mobility in learning is applicable to the learning process, apart from utilising a mobile device for casual usage. However, this limitation does not restrict the students from exploring this new learning environment in the future, since they were willing to increase their learning exposure using mobile device.