The iPAC Scale: A Survey to Measure Distinctive Mobile Pedagogies

Abstract

This paper develops and examines a scale to capture teachers’ views of the mobile pedagogies they are adopting. Mobile pedagogies refer to the practices and approaches teachers use that involve mobile technologies to support learning. A mobile technology is any portable, handheld technology that potentially supports learning and includes laptops, tablets and smartphones. This study develops a rigorous scale to capture mobile pedagogies adopted in mobile learning tasks designed by teachers. In particular, the scale focuses on measuring pedagogies related to the iPAC framework which comprises three overarching dimensions of m-learning: personalisation, authenticity and collaboration (PAC). Each dimension has a pair of sub-components associated with it (for personalisation: agency and customisation; for authenticity: context and task; for collaboration: conversation and co-creation). The reliability and validity of a 20-item scale is assessed. A measure of overall m-learning experiences was also established and found to be significantly predicted by m-learning pedagogy. We also report on differences between teachers in m-learning practice with respect to subject area and year of schooling.