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Abstract: 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 (ie, 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central proclamation of the mobile learning field is that decontextualized traditional classroom education can be replaced, or at least complemented, with for instance inquiry-based learning in authentic contexts supported by mobile technology. This paper examines such a proclamation asking the following question: How do children's learning processes and outcomes develop in the context of traditional inquiry-based field trips without technology and in the context of inquiry-based field trips with technological support? A quasi-experimental study was designed to examine the research question. The treatment group in the study consisted of one group of 15 students performing a mobile supported natural science inquiry-based learning activity while the control group also comprised of 15 students performing a so-called traditional natural science field-activity without mobile support. To study potential learning advantages and disadvantages of respective groups, a qualitative analysis of the learning processes studied was conducted, along with a quantitative analysis of students' performance. Among the results we found there was no statistically significant difference between the two teaching methods but that mobile technology could support actions relevant to inquiry-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]