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The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns and ownership of smartphone apps among students at the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at the South Valley University (SVU), Egypt. This study may help faculty members and students, as well as DLISs in general and SVU’s DLIS, in particular, to understand the nature and purpose of such use.

This study used quantitative research methodology in the form of a survey, which was undertaken from February to March 2015. The survey instrument was a self-administrated questionnaire, with a response rate 82.7 per cent (441/533).

The findings of this study showed that smartphone users (82.7 per cent) at SVU’s DLIS tended to be junior females. Smartphone non-users (17.3 per cent) tended to be also young females but primarily sophomores. The highest percentage of smartphone users had been using smartphones for four to five years, and the largest number of students was described to be advanced users who heard first about these mobile devices through friends and the Web. Most users had 21 to 25 apps. Social apps were the most popular and included Facebook, e-mail and Twitter. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. Apps related to educational purposes included Google Mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia Mobile. Students perceived most apps to be easy to use and useful to them. There were a number of uses for socializing including messaging, following the news and playing games. Students had mainly positive attitudes towards apps with a few negative concerns. Almost all students confirmed that they trust most apps. Barriers related to the use of apps included training and lack of awareness. Further research may be needed to specify the relationship between the students’ use of these apps and their academic performance. The main tasks done on smartphone devices were mainly for socializing. Students indicated that popular tasks and activities, such as sending and receiving messages, following the news, making communications, making chat, making friends, finding specific information, finding general information, making discussion groups, playing games, completing class assignments, checking materials related to courses, doing business, seeking jobs, watching movies, listening to music and accessing library services are important tasks accomplished by them through the use of these devices. The current study indicated very positive attitudes towards the use of these apps. Student at least agree with the statement that smartphone apps allow for easy dissemination of information, provide too much information, increase the speed of finding information, help communication, convenient, secure, build confident and reduce paper use. However, a large number of students also at least agree with the statement that these apps are time consuming, intimidating, addictive, violate privacy, require high language and technical skills, harmful and frustrating. Almost all students confirmed that they are at least trustful in some apps, such as WhatsApp, e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Viber. A large number of smartphone users surveyed in this study have been described to make excessive usage of social apps, such as communication apps, messaging/texting apps and social networking sites, which were at the forefront of use. Additionally, a large number of them adopted these devices, especially for communication purposes. The most used apps were Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Viber. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. However, some of the students were using some of apps related to educational purposes, such as Google mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia mobile but not on a regular basis. Students perceived the use of e-mail app, Google mobile, Facebook app WhatsApp, Kik, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Viber, Line, Skype, Tango, Instagram, Flickr and Wikipedia mobile as at least fairly easy to them. Additionally, they perceived the use of e-mail app Google mobile, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Viber, Instagram, Wikipedia mobile, Google maps, Kik, Skype, Line, Tango and Flickr as at least fairly useful to them, especially for the purpose socialization more than learning.

This study focuses only on undergraduate library and information science students belonging to SVU’s DLIS, Egypt. Any findings and conclusions resulting from this study are limited in scope to only SVU’s DLIS’s undergraduate students. The study does not contain a significantly large sample of a population from across Egypt to draw meaningful widespread conclusions indicative of such a larger population.

This study provides valuable insight into the use pattern of smartphones among a very important client group. It may serve as useful input to researchers who are interested in the study of mobile internet technologies (MITs), particularly in the education society.

Being the first study of its kind about university students in Egypt, it is considered a pioneering and a unique study among studies conducted in the field of ICTs and MITs, especially with this category of information users.

Mobile devices used in educational settings are usually employed within a collaborative learning activity in which learning takes place in the form of social interactions between team members while performing a shared task. The authors aim to introduce MobiTOP (Mobile Tagging of Objects and People), a mobile annotation system that allows users to contribute and share geospatial multimedia annotations via mobile devices.

Field observations and interviews were conducted. A group of trainee teachers involved in a geography field study were instructed to identify rock formations by collaborating with each other using the MobiTOP system. The trainee teachers who were in the field were guided by their lab counterparts on the tasks required to identify the rock formations.

Participants were able to appreciate the fieldwork task as it augmented their classroom lessons. The system allowed them to communicate with one another in order to meet the objectives of the study. However, there were some technical difficulties in relation to the affordance of the mobile and web applications that affected the usefulness of the applications.

This study reports the design and implementation of a mobile annotation system that was evaluated in an actual classroom setting. The results of this work have implications for both mobile applications design and mobile learning.

Mobile technology can offer new opportunities for online learning that extends beyond the learning management system. Advancing a teaching strategy that incorporates mobile technology for online classes does not need to require a large budget. Two adoption strategies are presented here: leveraging of mobile web 2.0 tools and use of native mobile tools. The paradigm of mobile learning brings new pedagogical affordances to context for authentic learning. We demonstrate an activity-based approach to provide learners with additional tools to create meaningful learning experiences anytime, anywhere. This approach fits nicely into learner-centered and constructivist environments because students are learning through their own active involvement. At the same time, it allows students to get excited about what they are learning. In addition, we discuss the institutional, architectural, and pedagogical challenges arising from the use of mobile technology in online courses.

The combination of mobile devices and innovative tools offers new possibilities for the development of a community of practice for design makers. Mobile learning has become an essential method that design makers should adopt. The main content of this study is to explore the characteristics of learning behaviors and learning needs of creative design makers' group in forming a community of practice in the era of mobile learning.

This study conducted questionnaire research on the potentially associated or directly associated population of design makers. The process of the study also combined observational and interview studies to compensate for the lack of questionnaire research.

Based on the support of mobile learning technology, design makers share and co-create to achieve individual development and evolution of learning organizations, and produce creative value. Design-maker communities of practice form common communities in the framework of informal organizations to support continuous individual learning. Convergent interests or concerns in making things, real-world contexts based on makerspaces and hands-on practice based on real projects are the basis for forming design-maker communities of practice. A variety of open-source hardware, software and platforms that can support mobile learning are important for the development of design-maker communities of practice. The design-maker community of practice needs group factors, activity development, physical and technical resources, spatial support and institutional norms to enhance learning behaviors and satisfy learning needs.

The discovery and construction of these associated factors can help creative design practitioners form a lasting and virtuous organizational development. This study facilitates the formation of a social network for learning and knowledge sharing among design-maker communities of practice. It enhances the innovation ability and enthusiasm of design makers according to the population characteristics and learning needs of design makers. This study also facilitates the generation of a positive adaptive maker culture and maker spirit within design maker organizations.

Lack of internet access and availability of computers in Africa has hindered learning and teaching there. However, the growing prevalence of mobile phones in Africa and elsewhere has created a way for information to be quickly and easily disseminated in areas where access to the internet and computers are limited. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Mobile phones in Africa are currently being used to share information relating to agriculture, health, and finance. This paper will examine these current uses, investigate the current and future use of mobile phones by academic libraries and in education in Africa, and discuss how mobile phones might be leveraged to further education and information dissemination through academic libraries.

Limited access to electricity, computers, and the internet has prevented technological growth in Africa in the past, but innovative uses of mobile phones have provided an alternate avenue of progress. More still needs to be done so that this technology is accessible by all, such as training in basic adult literacy and English as a second language. African librarians should adopt mobile phone technologies as an integral part of their service, and employ them particularly in the areas of text reference, information literacy, and outreach.

Librarians around the world are at a critical time, when the rapid developments brought about by the internet and mobile phones must be sought as a way to enhance library services. African librarians are in a unique position to utilize mobile phones to create new avenues of information sharing and instruction.

The merits of acculturation and marginality theses are considered for the particular Management Bibliography case of upwardly mobile individuals who have followed educational and non‐educational routes. Two indicators — values and social integration — have been chosen as basic to the assumptions of the accultural and marginality theses, and the relation of upward occupational mobility to each is examined independently.

This paper seeks to build a theory of mobile media learning by studying indigenous use of these media and theorizing what impact they might have on learning and education.

Using a critical approach, the paper reviews contemporary developments in mobile media learning particularly those happening outside of schools. It includes reviews of games and/or media, literature (particularly firsthand accounts published by designers and/or users), and analyses of online communities.

Although mobile media learning has mostly been framed as “anytime, anywhere” their more profound impact may be in the experience of place. Mobile media enables a multiplicity and hybridity of place that causes opportunities and challenges to learning and education.

To date, there has been relatively little close study of how youth use such media in educational and learning contexts, and more case studies are needed to understand the impact of mobile media on learning.

Those designing learning environments for a mobile media‐enabled world will need to rethink some basic assumptions about classroom configurations and learning. Rather than designing for large groups, educators might design for students to be in multiple places in time and place.

As handheld computing initiatives continue to proliferate, educators might benefit from taking a step back and reconsidering how mobile media is understood, and this paper argues that looking at mobile media as media with unique affordances makes new kinds of interactions come to light.

Available research on mobile learning all stand on the viewpoint of teachers. However, as mobile learning is learner-centric, learners' roles must be understood clearly from the learners' viewpoint, particularly considering its self-directed learning feature. It is well-known learners for self-directed learning must bear some teachers' core responsibilities. The knowledge gap on this important issue inspires the present work which tries to answer two questions: which “teacher roles” can learners play and how will learners play their “teacher roles” in a mobile learning context. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.

A novel research approach integrating an action research model and a teaching presence scale analysis is proposed to answer the questions. The mobile learning courses conducted by the present authors for engineering undergraduate students, during the COVID-19 pandemic, provided the experimental data for this study.

The experimental results reveal that the learners could play a number of “teacher roles” actively for mobile learning. Some of this research studies are consistent with available studies but a discrepancy is also observed. Discussion is conducted for such discrepancy.

The findings will contribute to improve the pedagogy of mobile learning theoretically and practically.

Research advocates for the use of good teaching practices and approaches while integrating technology in digitally enhanced learning. This is on the premise that previous studies on mobile learning have neglected this aspect of technology integration resulting in numerous challenges. Moreover, there is evidence in the literature showing a scarcity of studies on the use of mobile learning in teaching productive skills. On the other hand, linguists recommend the use of responsive lesson design frameworks in language teaching, claiming effectiveness in teaching all language skills. However, responsive lesson design frameworks are yet to be implemented in a classroom setting. To bridge these gaps in scientific literature, our study decides to utilize the CAPE framework as a good teaching method for improving the productive skills of students in mobile-based instruction.

This study utilizes a mixed-methods research design with an experimental approach. Post-tests and interviews were employed to elicit information from the student-participants on the objective of the study.

Following the analysis of the collected data, notable findings were obtained. While there was evidence to show that the students perceived m-learning as boring and ineffective when incorporated with a traditional lesson framework, our study unveiled that students showed a different perception when incorporated with the CAPE framework.

Our study unveils that integrating responsive lesson frameworks with m-learning improves the speaking and writing skills of students.

This study provides empirical evidence to show the role of good teaching practices like integrating responsive LDFs and mobile learning in improving the productive skills of students. This study is the first to investigate the integration of CAPE and mobile learning in enhancing expressive skills.