Search results

This study seeks to explore the utilization of mobile phone services in the educational environment, explore the nature of mobile phone use among university students, and investigate the perception of university students on mobile phone uses in library and information services.

The study used a review of literature to investigate about the nature of wireless phone application in education institution and a survey to collect data from 206 undergraduate students from two academic faculties in a Malaysian public university to explore the respondents' perception and the nature of wireless phone use.

The respondents' perceptions on the application of wireless hand services in the context of library and information services were found to be very positive. A high majority of the respondents indicated their willingness to become the users of such services if offered.

Limitations in this study are related with the ability of the result to be generalized to other user groups. More research needs to be conducted on the interface design and retrieval to fit information in a much smaller application device that is also limited by a smaller bandwidth.

The findings should assist information providers such as libraries and telecommunication service providers in designing the system that allows for effective access to various information and library services using mobile phones.

This study should be an eye opener for both the researcher and the practitioners that the wireless application services are still lacking, despite the increasing needs from the users.

A variety of alternate technology-enhanced teaching approaches are now available to university students to broaden their learning experiences and complement conventional face-to-face teaching. This paper aims to outline a study conducted at an English Medium Instruction (EMI) University in the Arabian Gulf where students were studying media. The study explored an innovative teaching approach that sought to enhance the students’ interaction with mobile phone applications as part of their learning experiences during the course.

The focus of the study was on enhancing the students’ English writing skills such as vocabulary, spelling and grammar and on improving their technical skills such as in video production. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data.

The results indicated that mobile phone applications were helpful in improving students’ journalistic writing skills where they had a good level of proficiency in English, more so than students with poor English who are more dependent on traditional learning methods. Students also benefitted from mobile phone video production workshops that were intensive and creative. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes.

wBased on the results of this study, it is recommended that courses and labs in media courses have skilled technicians that can train students in creative mobile phone video production while faculty members need to be trained and proactively encouraged to use mobile phones for teaching and learning purposes.

This paper aims to present a research outcome to an investigation towards the innovative use of electronic-learning (e-Learning) software solutions to strengthen the interactive component of mobile learning (m-Learning) in university contexts. This work was motivated by observations of interactive limitations in existing m-Learning solutions in well-intentioned software development and e-Learning efforts. The aim of the project, thus, was to interrogate hindrances to the potency of m-Learning interventions. The idea was to strengthen the interactive component, to improve the compatibility of the desktop e-Learning process – with mobile appliances such as mobile phones and, finally, to explore cost minimizing avenues of downloading learning materials over mobile phones.

The methodology of the project was twofold: that is, both literature-based and experimental. Literature background offered insight on existing efforts towards interactive m-Learning solutions. Against this background, the project was then designed to explore ways to provide presentations and interactive chats for effective m-Learning over mobile phones. The idea was to reduce the file size of presentations slides for effective display on mobile devices. Finally, the aim was also to minimize airtime costs when transmitting presentation slides and when conducting interactive chats on mobile phones. An experiment research method was, thus, used. In this method, a problem and question were articulated first. Then, a practical technological solution was conceptualized, developed, pre-tested, modified and re-tested until it complied with sought specifications, Finally, the solution was implemented, to confirm its viability and response to a research problem and, ultimately, was reported in the findings.

Slides were developed with light colour resolutions to open effortlessly on tiny mobile screens. The best quality was between 128 and 201.188 (out of 255) pixels (more visible mobile phone screens), using Open Source Software. Clear slides also had a font greater than size 32. The average data per presentation were 9,872.66 bytes, and, when seven learners were chatting, it was 3,686.63 bytes (0.03 megabytes). For airtime costs, the Vodacom rate of R0.46 per megabyte was used. This translates to 0.8 × 0.46 = R0.0368 cost per slide. The m-Chisimba platform therefore, seems to be cost-effective, quality expedient and most appropriate for interactive m-Learning.

Existing m-Learning has been inadequate, failing to align adequately the desktop e-Learning solutions with mobile phone platforms. Desktop presentation slides, for example, have been incompatible with mobile phones’ operations and screen sizes. Mostly, content could consume a lot more airtime, owing to large sizes of desktop originated material that was incompatible with mobile platforms. A solution that emerged from original experiments, leading to the enhanced interactive m-Learning solution, the m-Chisimba platform, is, therefore, presented in this paper. The thinking is that mobile applications are convenient enablers which extend access to information. Nevertheless, mobile applications (including m-Learning solutions) cannot be seen as panaceas to solve all learning concerns as literacy and affordability remain challenges in many under-developed social environments. As a newly developed innovation, the m-Chisimba platform offers an improved m-Learning solution for learning activities over mobile gadgets such as mobile phones.

The research work offers new innovative solutions in a number of practical ways. It improves the interactivity component of the m-Learning process, to empower educators and learners to effectively engage learning over m-Learning devices.

The innovation makes it easier to for learning to take place effortlessly, over mobile platforms. Implications are that more people will be able to access learning processes on the move, meaning that obstacles to access learning opportunities are minimised.

Existing m-Learning has been inadequate, failing to align adequately the desktop e-Learning solutions with mobile phone platforms. Desktop presentation slides, for example, have been incompatible with mobile phones’ operations and screen sizes. Mostly, content could consume a lot more airtime, owing to large sizes of desktop-originated material that was incompatible with mobile-platforms. A solution that emerged from original experiments, leading to the enhanced interactive m-Learning solution, the m-Chisimba platform, is, therefore, presented in this paper. The thinking is that mobile applications are convenient enablers which extend access to information. Nevertheless, mobile applications (including m-Learning solutions) cannot be seen as panaceas to solve all learning concerns as literacy and affordability remain challenges in many under-developed social environments. As a newly developed innovation, the m-Chisimba platform offers an improved m-Learning solution for learning activities over mobile gadgets such as mobile phones.

A unified application management framework for Linux and Java applications on mobile phones is presented. Although Java‐based applications for mobile phones are in strong demand, the complexity of interaction between these platform independent programs and the core functionality of mobile phones has made software development difficult. The unified framework presented here provides uniform application state management and inter‐application communication between Java based and operating‐system specific applications, allowing native Linux applications to be directly replaced with the equivalent Java application. The framework is described in detail and a trial implementation of the system is evaluated.

This paper describes the key technological trajectories and their potential effect on the expansion of mobile Internet applications. The initial success of entertainment content in Japan in 1999 caused manufacturers to introduce phones with color displays, polyphonic tones, cameras, and Java programs, and these functions are supported by other technological improvements like faster microprocessors, larger memory, and faster network speeds. Coupled with an evolution in user behavior, these technologies are making the phone a portable entertainment player, a new marketing tool for retailers and manufacturers, a multi‐channel shopping device, a navigation tool, a new type of ticket and money, and a new mobile intranet device. These trends will have a large impact on competition in the global mobile phone market as dominant designs emerge at the global level.

Mobile users increasingly employ location-based map searches in their daily lives. However, it is still relatively unknown about mobile users’ map related search behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to discover the interactions between the users and mobile map search systems, to reveal the shortcomings of existing mobile map search functions, and to propose improvement suggestions.

Based on a set of controlled user experiments performed on the Baidu mobile phone map, this paper empirically examines users’ location-based mobile search behaviors, such as timing, metering, judging and so on. This paper also conducts statistical correlation tests to generate relation tables and diagrams regarding each variable, for example, the relation between the retrieval time and the retrieval steps.

The results indicate that mobile map users have two important characteristics in their search behaviors: first, mobile map users always follow the single search path. Second, the mobile map search efficiency of users is always low.

The situation simulation testing method is mainly used for the construction of a mobile information search behavior environment, which may make the users be nervous and have some effect on the search efficiency.

Based on the identification of user behaviors, this paper provides suggestions to optimize and improve mobile map search systems.

This paper studies users’ mobile map search behavior based on location and explores the features of user behavior from the perspective of human-computer interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social adoption of the mobile phone by Irish teenagers in city, town and rural settings. It aims to investigate two key areas that have influenced the teenagers' social adoption of the mobile phone: first, the influence of locational and socio‐economic factors on mobile phone usage; second, how the teenagers' adoption of recently emergent Web 2.0 applications (social‐networking web sites and instant messaging services) tends to bring about a re‐positioning of the mobile phone's role as a communications channel.

The paper draws on a social shaping and domestication of media technologies approach, using original empirical data from a survey of teenage respondents and six focus groups.

The findings suggest that the teenagers' relationship to the mobile phone is evolving as newer communications applications emerge. In particular, the technical competencies and media literacies necessary for multi‐model communication are evolving fastest where locational and socio‐economic conditions are most favourable.

Although access to the mobile phone cuts across the strata of society, people's capacity to benefit from it – and from other forms of multi‐modal communication – is not evenly distributed. The paper argues that, despite universal ownership of the technological device among the sample of teenagers, the mobile phone is caught up in wider digital and socio‐economic divides.

There is a contradictive debate on factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among scholars. This study aims to examine factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness for accessing agricultural marketing information.

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used with 400 smallholder grape farmers. The use of structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews helped to collect primary data. Data analysis was subjected to descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches.

This study found that farmers were mostly aware of voice calls helping to access buyers and price information. Education, age and sex were the critical factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among grape smallholder farmers.

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing an understanding of the perceived factors on mobile phone usage awareness within the grape subsector to inform policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to measure prevalence and predictors of mobile phone access and use among adolescents in Soweto, South Africa.

The current study was an interviewer-administered, cross-sectional survey among adolescents 14-19 years living in a hyper-endemic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) setting in South Africa.

Of 830 participants; 57 per cent were female. The median age was 18 years (IQR: 17-18). Mobile phone access was high (91 per cent). Almost half of participants (42 per cent) spent more than five hours daily using their mobile phones. Two-thirds (62 per cent) had access to the internet, most (84 per cent) accessed the internet via their mobile phones. Mobile phone access was more likely amongst Sotho language speakers (aOR: 2.87, 95 per cent CI: 1.30-6.36), those living in formal housing (aOR: 3.55, 95 per cent CI: 1.97-6.42) and those who reported heterosexual orientation (aOR: 2.37, CI: 1.35-4.16).

This study substantially contributes to the literature about mobile phones usage and patterns among school-going adolescents in Soweto, South Africa.