Interactive classroom mLearning and the experiential transactions between students and lecturer

Abstract

This paper seeks to address a major deficit in understandings of mobile learning, that is, its lack of a solid theoretical foundation. An overview of existing theoretical concepts of mobile learning is presented, followed by an analysis of interactive classroom systems and the learning that they provide. The implementation of a specific interactive system mInteract in the lectures of a large accounting subject is described. mInteract is a Web- based system using no-to-low cost data-packet technology and provides for interactions from students’ own Internet-enabled mobile devices. The paper examines, by means of reflections from the lecturer and students, the learning which took place during the implementation. The analysis demonstrates that interactive mobile learning can be interpreted using experiential learning theory, and that both students and lecturers engage in experiential learning. Furthermore, they enter into transactions of knowledge which are facilitated by the mobile learning system.