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This article introduces the Learning Activity Design (LEAD) framework for the development and implementation of mobile learning activities in primary schools. The LEAD framework draws on methodological perspectives suggested by design-based research and interaction design in the specific field of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). The LEAD framework is grounded in four design projects conducted over a period of six years. It contributes a new understanding of the intricacies and multifaceted aspects of the design-process characterizing the development and implementation of mobile devices (i.e. smart phones and tablets) in curricular activities conducted in Swedish primary schools. This framework is intended to provide both designers and researchers with methodological tools that take account of the pedagogical foundations of technologically-based educational interventions, usability issues related to the interaction with the mobile application developed, multiple data streams generated during the design project, multiple stakeholders involved in the design process and sustainability aspects of the mobile learning activities implemented in the school classroom.

With the digitalisation of education increasing, the relationship between student engagement in Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL) and digital skills has remained largely unexplored. There is a strong consensus that engagement is necessary for students to succeed in school. We hypothesised that students reporting high and low levels of general engagement display differences in terms of their engagement in TEL, and that students' digital skills correlate with their engagement in and disengagement in TEL, which in turn is related to their learning outcomes. We used statistical tests to explore the relationship between the students' (N = 410) general engagement and engagement in TEL, and investigated how digital skills were related to engagement and disengagement in TEL. We found significant correlations between students' digital skills and engagement in TEL, showing that the possession of high levels of digital skill is related to engagement in TEL. Interestingly, digital skills were not related to disengagement. This suggests that students reporting both high and low levels of digital skills disengage to some extent when learning with technologies. We also identified variables reflecting both engagement and disengagement in TEL that predict student performance as measured via final grades, implying that in order to understand and support students who learn with technologies, a broader understanding of the factors influencing engagement and disengagement is key.

In this paper, we argue that in order to gain a deeper understanding of collaborative mobile learning in schools, it is important to know not only how mobile devices affect collaborative learning but also how collaborative learning emerges and is mediated by these devices. We develop our argument by applying the instrumental genesis theory and the collective instrumented activities and situations model for the analysis of learners' collaborative learning in the tablet-mediated classroom. This analysis is grounded in data collected in four elementary Swedish schools (i.e., from fourth to eighth grade). From the data, we considered the learners' conversation in English as a foreign language, inquiry-based learning in the natural sciences classroom and game-based learning in the arithmetic classroom. On the one hand, the scrutiny of these specific activities led us to distinguish the pragmatic, epistemic, and reflexive instrumental mediations that have already been theorized in the instrumental genesis theory. On the other hand, they helped us to identify two additional ones, which we call emotional and spatial. Based on these findings, we claim that collaboration in the tablet-mediated classroom is a complex activity that emerges from a variety of instrumental mediations that configure contemporary collaborative mobile learning.

Mobile technologies have not yet triggered the knowledge revolution in schools anticipated, in particular, by the telecommunications industry. On the contrary, mobile technologies remain extensively used outside the frontiers of formal education. The reasons for this are many and varied. In this paper, we concentrate on those associated with the prevalent methodological weakness in the study of innovative educational interventions with mobile technologies. In this context, the paper investigates the following question: what is the potential of second-generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) for characterizing learning activities mediated by mobile technologies? To this end, an empirical study was designed with the goal of examining five small groups of students (fifth grade, age 12) who were using mobile devices in authentic educational settings, within a natural science inquiry-based learning activity outdoors. Second-generation CHAT was operationalized as an analytical and dialectic methodological framework for understanding learning activities mediated by mobile devices. The study contributes a characterization of mobile learning and identification of constraints and transformations introduced by mobile technology into students' tasks.

In 2019, the mobile learning body of knowledge is extensive and much is known about the technology impacts and affordances of mobile devices in educational settings. A particular focus has now shifted toward specific technologies in specific subjects. Mathematics is one such subject and tablets are one such technology that is gaining attention. This systematic review representing the latest generation of tablet technology within the tablet-mediated learning in mathematics body of knowledge sought to derive evidence that supported questions into (a) what math sub-disciplines were covered, (b) what technology (application/hardware) was utilized, and (c) what pedagogical approaches were deployed in educational settings. This included analysis of the (d) advantages and (e) disadvantages present in those elements. Thirty-nine relevant articles were collected from various academic technology and educational databases. The results demonstrate that tablets are being predominantly deployed in various sub-disciplines such as Arithmetic, Computation, and Geometry with the iPad as the dominant choice for tablet hardware/applications. Pedagogical approaches lean heavily on game-based learning, environment interaction, and special needs support. Technological advantages include increased collaboration and mathematics engagement enabled by tablet mobility and a high potential for customization of solutions. Developers, teachers, and researchers need to be informed of potential challenges in designing content for tablet technology deployments in mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As been highlighted by many, for instance by PISA, Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is a critical and necessary 21st century skill across educational settings. While many initiatives have been launched to investigate the nature of these skills, fewer are the attempts to understand how they should be assessed. However, in 2015, the PISA organization presented a framework for assessing CPS skills. This paper reports on an exploratory study investigating the predictive validity of the PISA assessment framework and if and how modes of communication influence the assessment of 24 students' collaborative problem solving activities when using a computer-based assessment task system. The findings presented demonstrate that the PISA CPS assessment framework have a weak predictive validity, does not count for quality or productivity in communication, and that the mode of communication indeed influence CPS processes and in turn what is possible to assess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]