Evaluation of Mobile Teaching and Learning Projects, an Introduction

Abstract

The percentage of people who have access to technological devices has proliferated, which, in turn, has expanded the utility and accessibly of mobile devices for both noneducational and educational purposes. Despite the Joint Information Systems Committee’s (JISC 2011) call for systematic evaluations of mobile learning initiatives almost a decade ago, evaluation projects that take a systematic approach at determining the value of mobile learning are scarce. More knowledge is needed to better understand the organizational support needed for their successful deployment, how to operationalize fidelity of implementation when unintended consequences transpire, and how best to measure the impact of mobility on learning. The chapters in this section entitled “Evaluation of Mobile Teaching and Learning Projects, an Introduction” begin to tackle these issues by articulating the myriad of issues to consider when evaluating mobile learning initiatives in education. These evaluations are primarily positioned in higher education but also span K-12 and informal settings. Taken together, these chapters exhibit the necessity for evaluations to focus on the technology, the user, and the context. Also, the chapters accentuate evaluating the mobility of the person and the learning process, rather than the mobility of the device, per se.