The learners' expressed values of learning in a media tablet learning culture

Abstract

What do learners value as learning and how does this value relate to the use of mobile technology? Inspired by Stimulated Recall and Photo Eliciting, 207 K-9 students took photos (a total of 283 photos) of what they considered learning situations. Using these photos as starting points, we conducted 21 group interviews that generated 293 utterances. From these utterances, seven themes were generated that shows how the learners expressed their values of learning in a rich and diverse way. Without asking explicitly about technology, 33% of the utterances addressed the adoption of media tablets. These statements also revealed that when the learners personally "see" a perceived value for them as individuals, then they label the situation as learning. This study's findings show that identifying what young learners value as learning per se should be considered when designing teaching and learning towards learner-friendly active environments for pro-sumers. These findings also open the door for developing alternative ways for evaluating projects in schools that integrate educational technology. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.