The adoption of mobile technologies in a higher education institution: A mixed methods study

Abstract

This paper is about the implementation of mobile technologies to improve teaching and learning. By mobile technologies is meant any wireless and transferable device which includes laptops, smartphones, tablets, smart devices and PDAs. Research on the use of mobile technology for educational purposes is relatively new. As a result various findings might not be either generalizable or valid as review of literature showed that some findings are contradictory. However, these contradictions in literature areacceptable for any new idea that deals with human phenomena like education. Since mobile technologies are part of the broader ICT their appropriate usage could contribute to the teaching and learning situation be it distance or face to face education (secondary or tertiary). A study was conducted at the International University of Management in Namibia to discover the impact of mobile technologies in the teaching and learning in the field of Business Information Systems, using one undergraduate and one postgraduate group. Structured interviews were conducted and a questionnaire was completedby both groups. 2 Tests were written by anexperimental and a control group. The results, although not generalizable, were very encouraging as it indicated that there was a significant difference in performance in the tests between the two groups.