by Andrew Martin and Lindsey Joyce Chamberlain, EDUCAUSE Review
To enhance student interactions with community organizations in a service-learning course, Ohio State University’s Sociology Department introduced mobile technology, giving its students iPads to use throughout the semester. Working in teams, the students helped local businesses solve specific problems, using the iPads both for in-class research and to communicate with business owners and each other. Far from diminishing the instructor’s role, the use of iPads both enhanced that role and showed how it must change in a course heavily reliant on mobile technology. Course-end surveys show that students benefitted from the technology use, not only in coursework but also in terms of their confidence about using mobile devices and applications in the job market.
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