Abstract:

A hand held computer or smart phone has the capability to present information to the user in an interactive multimedia format. If these devices are used in education, the various learning theories that encourage the presentation of information in a format that includes text, graphics and animation can be applied. Computers also have the capacity to lessen the load on class time by removing the teaching of basic language components from the class and, therefore freeing time which can be used to master more substantive aspects of the syllabus.

This study investigates how a hand held computer or smart phone can facilitate the teaching of basic sentence structure to first-year students at a technical university in South Africa. Software developed by the researcher incorporated cognitive load theory, dual coding theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning in its design in order to exploit the interactive multimedia characteristics of the technology. The application developed for this study was designed to display the relationship between the various parts of a sentence by animating jigsaw shaped pieces, which had the various parts of an example sentence written on them. Twenty-one first-year students were asked to work through the application after which their insights and opinions regarding its usefulness were explored.

Data was collected using questionnaires and semi structured focus group interviews. A content analyses was preformed on transcripts of the interviews and questionnaire responses to established patterns of relationships or theme clusters. The results suggest that handheld technology has the potential to engage students’ enthusiasm, encourage active participation and to enable them to learn basic sentence structure more efficiently.

Keywords:

Handheld computers, Smart phone, Educational technology, Personal digital assistant, interactive multimedia, animation, learning theories, sentence structure.