Exploring the Challenges of Supporting Collaborative Mobile Learning

Mobile technology opens up opportunities for collaborative learning in otherwise remote contexts outside the classroom. A successful realization of these opportunities relies, however, on mobile learning activities providing adequate collaboration structures. This article presents an empirical study aimed at examining the role played by mobile devices, teachers and task structures as a means for collaborative learning in geometry. The study focused on the analysis of the nature of collaboration that unfolded when students measured areas outdoors in the field. The analysis of the mobile learning activity was conducted from an Activity theory perspective. The findings obtained indicate that the collaboration observed may be impaired if: 1) the functionalities needed for collaborative problem-solving are asymmetrically distributed on a number of mobile devices; 2) task-related information is not accessible to all learners; 3) the task structure is not sufficiently complex; 4) teacher scaffolding is too readily available; and 5) necessary collaborative skills are not developed.