Abstract:

While communication has changed rapidly from oral to digital, from one-channel to multichannel and from formal language to short messages, we see that higher education still has its roots in the traditional lecture with one way communication in large auditoriums.

To address this, Sør-Trøndelag University College (HiST) has initiated the project HiST Mobile Initiative, running from 2011 to 2015. The project aims at development of both technological solutions and pedagogical methods for use of the students’ smartphones as response devices during lectures. These devices should be used as powerful learning tools instead of being banned from the classrooms.

The project’s five main areas are
• Constructing, testing and using online Student Response Systems for Smartphones
• Designing and valorizing new assessment models where the test and exam process are turned into a creative learning framework by using students own Smartphones
• Enhancing language learning by use of mobile learning technologies
• Effective inclusion of mobile technology to promote use of new types of games
• Designing new types of digital classrooms
This paper will give an overview both of the project’s achievements so far and of future plans.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, smartphones, peer instruction and learning, activity based training, Peer Learning Assessment Systems.