LEARNERS LEFT TO THEIR OWN DEVICES THE CHALLENGES OF STUDENT SCAFFOLDING IN OUTDOORS MOBILE LEARNING ACTIVITIES

An oft touted possibility of mobile learning is the idea of 'learning anytime, anywhere' which can allow for greater student autonomy in learning. The notion of students learning and making sense of the world collaboratively can be an alluring one. To understand the potential of such a notion, a study was conducted as a part of a greater research project conducted by Stockholm University, investigating collaborative mobile learning in an outdoor biology lesson where teachers were not readily available. In this paper, we investigate how performance is affected by emerging scaffolding needs when young students use mobile technology to collaboratively learn without teachers being readily available. What could be observed is when labour is divided asymmetrically and students attempt to scaffold one another, performance results decrease. This indicates an incapability of students to effectively scaffold each other and further puts emphasis on the need for the presence of teachers.