Mobile Phones as Mediating Tools within Augmented Contexts for Development

Abstract

This paper argues for the need to re-examine approaches to the design of, and research into, learning experiences that incorporate mobile phones in the learning context. Following an overview of ‘mobile learning’ the author’s argument describes two initiatives: Firstly, Design Research is presented as an approach that tends to have interventionist characteristics, and is process-oriented and contributes to theory building. Secondly, describing Augmented Contexts for Development; these place context as a core construct that enables collaborative, location-based, mobile device-mediated problem-solving where learners generate their own ‘temporal context for development’, and a case study is used to reify this Vygotskian-oriented initiative. This paper revisits Design Research by making use of various questions, and concludes by briefly outlining intentions on how to move toward some preliminary generalized design principles and implications for broader theory.