Mobile technology-assisted personalized learning in science inquiry

This paper reports on a mobile technology-assisted seamless learning process design for developing primary school students’ diversified understanding on the science topic of the life cycles of various organisms. An inquiry-based learning model was adopted as the pedagogical design to support the student‘s personalized learning process. We chose to report the student’s inquiry into the life cycles of the spinach plant and the butterfly to illuminate how the student’s personalized learning was fostered in the experiential learning. A smartphone was assigned to each student to mediate his/her seamless learning experience across multiple contexts. Through our analysis of the learning content, processes and products, we discuss how mobile-assisted inquiry learning facilitates students’ self-agency in such personalized learning experiences. Copyright © 2013 MIT Departmental Seminar.