{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]],"date-time":"2026-06-16T11:29:23Z","timestamp":1781609363344,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,19]],"date-time":"2017-06-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1497830400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["ITSE"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2017,6,19]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>This paper presents a thematic review of app-enabled learning in the context of recent developments in mobile technology and m-learning. Three key themes are presented that reflect the issues that teachers, school leaders and systems have grappled with in recent years.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Drawing on findings from a range of case studies and literature reviews, the present time is examined as an opportunity to explore more pedagogically informed uses of mobile devices, and \u201capp smashing\u201d is suggested as an approach that moves the learner beyond the underlying limitations of constraining the learning to individual apps.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Findings include the benefits and limitations of mobile devices for learning in current education institutions. The paper also highlights several contexts where \u201capp smashing\u201d has been achieved and identifies the implications for educators across all educational contexts moving forward.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>While educators and learners alike continue to wrestle with understanding and meaningfully using a growing number of tools, platforms and ecosystems, more recent paradigms such as cloud computing now point to \u201cdevice agnosticism\u201d and \u201cconvergence\u201d as the new normal (Garner <jats:italic>et al.<\/jats:italic>, 2005; Prince, 2011).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>At the same time, there is the emergence of what Rideout <jats:italic>et al.<\/jats:italic> (2013) refer to as the \u201capp gap\u201d, in which \u201clower-income children (ages 0-8) have more than 50 per cent less experience using mobile devices than higher-income children in the same age group\u201d (p. 10). Combined with the problems of app overload, the lack of institutional support, insufficient guidance and unclear policy, there remain some pressing issues that need to be addressed.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Social implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>By designing the learning task as independent of the technology, the teacher is arguably better equipped to carefully and purposefully select apps as cognitive steppingstones within the learning task, resulting in tasks that more consistently challenge students to develop a wide range of digital skills. As Berson <jats:italic>et al.<\/jats:italic> (2012) note, through the use of carefully selected apps, students \u201clearn a new form of literacy as they move between apps and engage in both personalized and collaborative learning experiences\u201d (p. 89).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The paper sheds light on the areas where mobile devices are most likely to benefit learning in the coming years.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/itse-02-2017-0017","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,12]],"date-time":"2017-05-12T19:22:15Z","timestamp":1494616935000},"page":"126-137","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Mobilizing learning: a thematic review of apps in K-12 and higher education"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Michael Eric","family":"Stevenson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"John Gordon","family":"Hedberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1109\/MC.2004.1297253","article-title":"Mobile supercomputers","volume":"37","year":"2004","journal-title":"Computer"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref002","article-title":"Educational outcomes and research from 1:1 computing settings","volume":"9","year":"2010","journal-title":"The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref003","volume-title":"Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing for 21st Century Learning","year":"2013"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref004","first-page":"43:1","article-title":"Adoption of bring your own device in HE & FE institutions","year":"2016"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref005","first-page":"88","article-title":"Touch, type, and transform: iPads in the social studies classroom","volume":"76","year":"2012","journal-title":"Social Education"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref006","first-page":"3654","article-title":"Mathematics apps and mobile learning","year":"2013"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref007","first-page":"337","article-title":"Creating innovative, student-centered projects with app smashing","volume-title":"Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2015)","year":"2015"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref008","unstructured":"Buck Institute for Education (2014), Buck Institute for Education: Project-based Learning, available at: http:\/\/bie.org\/"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref009","first-page":"192","article-title":"Making the case for BYOD instruction in teacher education","volume":"11","year":"2014","journal-title":"Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref010","first-page":"54","article-title":"Teaching teachers for the future: modelling and exploring immersive personal learning networks","volume":"27","year":"2013","journal-title":"Australian Educational Computing"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref011","first-page":"1","article-title":"Cleaning up that mess: a framework for classifying educational apps","volume":"14","year":"2014","journal-title":"Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020120703585984700_ref012","first-page":"23","article-title":"Personal devices in public settings: lessons learned from an iPod Touch\/iPad project","volume":"10","year":"2012","journal-title":"Electronic Journal of E-Learning"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref013","volume-title":"Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom","year":"2001"},{"key":"key2020120703585984700_ref014","first-page":"199","article-title":"iPad: a new classroom technology? 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