Professional Experience Placement

A study by Gikas and Grant (2013) explored learning and teaching by students in higher education. It reports on student perceptions of on learning using a mobile or portable device and also the role of social media. The authors discuss the ubiquity of mobile and portable devices and how learning can be delivered and supported by these devices. They also mention that mobile computing can be used as a bridge between formal and informal learning opportunities. It is especially relevant to workplaces where a leaning is situated and in context. However, learning this way can also produce fragmented knowledge and incomplete schema.

The use of social media has been argued enables learning to be more student centred because it enables learners to interact and collaborate with each other and their instructors. Students are able to create their own understanding of content. However, it has also been noted that a lack of structure social media can negatively impact on student learning.

Interviews and focus groups were used to collect the data from students and instructors at three tertiary institutions in the United States. The authors reported two main themes. These were advantages of mobile devices. The findings within this category were accessing information quickly,communication and content collaboration, variety of ways to learn and situated learning. The frustrations of learning with a mobile devices were anti- technology instructors, device challenges and devices as a distraction.

The authors discussed the implications of the advantages where students rooted being more engaged with the course content, able to communicate quickly and allowed to have immediate feedback and interaction with experts. Students were also able to situate their learning in the context of the environment. The uploading and posting of course content also enabled students to make connection with the material. This informal and formal learning reinforced knowledge building. The authors concluded that the constant connectivity made possible by Mobile devices enabled the ‘break down’ of the separation of learning from life.

This paper provides insights into the opportunities for introducing mobile learning to  students in the healthcare professions within the higher education setting that could then be transferred into use within clinical environments. Students could learn to use mobile devices appropriately for searching evidence-based information in a timely manner while at University and transfer these skills into the clinical setting. This process could lead to the legitimisation of the use of mobile learning as an adjunct process to augment and support knowledge and skill acquisition in the workplace. This informal learning could support the theoretical frameworks developed within the curriculum and be part of a larger workforce development strategy to upskill and keep health profession personnel contemporary in their practice and improve employability.

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