Abstract:

With the proliferation of mobile technology in society and, in particular, in the academic community, there are more and more tools and services that allow the simultaneous use of multiple communication channels, transforming social practices, mainly in the way they interact and communicate. Currently, mobile technology is a determining factor to increase the efficiency of institutional communication. The evolution of technology, especially, the multimedia characteristics of these means of communication, allows flexibility in access to content, which, together with the expansion of the service, are factors of digital inclusion. By adapting didactic content to multiple supports, Higher Education Institutions promote the teaching-learning process and allow, in a disseminated way, the interactive construction of knowledge.

The purpose of this article is to study the dissemination of mobile devices, as well as their use by students in the Communication area of the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, in order to adjust the institution's communication and education strategies.

We sought, through a questionnaire survey, to investigate how they use mobile devices in their daily lives, their characteristics, the type of internet access and to identify the most commonly used applications and services. Based on the results obtained, it is possible to conclude that both the approach to institutional communication, as well as the availability of new pedagogical content that improves the mobile learning experience, must continue to evolve in order to allow responding to the current dissemination of mobile devices, enabling the ubiquity in the interaction with more services and content.

Keywords:

m-learning, mobile communication, information technologies.