Assessing the value of a mobile application in fostering ideation within a school context

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the mobile application NeedIT in fostering ideation and idea generation in a school context. After having been used and tested in three public schools a research was undertaken in an elementary school in order to examine the application usability from instructor and student perspectives. In order to gain an insight into the context of using the mobile application in teaching and learning, the authors examined current literature and collected data through observations, semi-structured interviews, and by observing the NeedIT underlying database. The study attempted to answer the following questions: 1) How can mobile technology be used to support students' ideation? 2) What obstacles are there in developing students' ideation within this context? 3) How can the methods be further developed or refined? 4) What are the benefits of using mobile technology for ideation in schools? The study also highlighted the importance of teaching students to differentiate between problem-needs to be independently identified by students within their home or community environment and possible solutions to be developed and evaluated in collaboration with the classroom teacher. The application has proved to be valuable for its intended use; however it needs to be further developed so that it may also be used as a medium in establishing course content based on students'homework assignments passed electronically to school. The perceived overall value of mobile technology in schools lies partly in the multifaceted capabilities associated with this modern technology and novel attempts have been made to employ its use in many different educational settings.