Incorporating new literacies in designing a mobile learning application for secondary/middle school students

Abstract

This paper examines the incorporation of new literacies to an adapted framework by Parsons et al. in Journal of Computers, 2(4), 1-8, (2007) to design mobile learning applications for “Elements of Business Skills (EBS)” for a group of lower academic ability secondary school learners in Singapore. Accounts of the actual process of designing a mobile learning application for teaching and learning are used to consider factors in incorporating new literacies into the modified mobile learning design framework based on mobile learning design principles. The suggested framework incorporating mobile learning and new literacies looks at the interaction dimension, individual learning needs and collective learning for mobile learning through these four perspectives: generic mobile environment issues, learning contexts, learning experiences, and learning objectives. The accounts of the app development process highlight how new literacies come into play when enhancing learning through blending text, sound and imagery, and how app users underscore the importance of mobility and ubiquity for anywhere and anytime continuous, on-the-go learning in terms of the dimensions of new literacies. This paper contributes to the ever evolving and dynamic field of designing future mobile learning systems for the twenty-first century, in a new seamless learning environment.