Investigating into learner perception and use of the handheld affordances in higher education

This paper, based on the literature of handheld applications in higher education, studies the affordances of the handhelds for educational practices. "Affordances" in this paper refers to the potential of handhelds for educational practices. The literature study classifies the handheld applications into two general categories, namely, affordances of available features and affordances of developed learning environments on handhelds in terms of their functions for educational practices. The paper then discusses about the opportunities, challenges and constraints of handheld applications in higher education. The paper concludes by identifying a need for a longitudinal case study directed at student perception and use of the handheld affordances for their educational practices. Copyright © 2007 World Scientific Publishing。