by Barbara Hope

The students in the pilot were involved in numerous mobility activities during the fall 2008 semester. Mobility sessions were held several times each month and included training on newly developed applications, lectures on mobility topics, and interactive activities such as usability studies, focus groups, and research activities. One student pilot participant, Cordell Reid, said, “the Mobility Initiative has been a wonderful experience for me so far. My iPod has become an everyday necessity. I use it to substitute as my clicker in class, to get quick e-mail and news updates, to communicate with my friends, to stay organized, and, of course, to listen to music. The Mobility Initiative pilot program taught me many things about human-computer interaction and the process through which products are molded to users’ wants and needs. As an electrical engineering student, this program has been very valuable.”

At the mobility sessions, participating faculty members have led varied activities. Kent Norman, associate professor of psychology, gave two lectures — one on “iPodiquette,” in which the etiquette of using mobile devices in the classroom was discussed, and another on assessing satisfaction with the iPhone and iPod touch and various applications running on them. Evan Golub, computer science lecturer, gave the students clicker practice by having them vote on various images of items such as traffic intersection signs and computer dialog boxes for the “User Interface Hall of Shame.” This exercise showed that some user interfaces are easy to use and understand, while others are confusing, illustrating the need for user-centric application development. Chip Denman from OIT taught students how to discern primary and secondary research sources and to evaluate the trustworthiness of information found on the Internet by having the students search the Web for information on common myths.

In another special mobility session, students participated in an interactive scavenger hunt developed by Kari Kraus, an assistant professor in the iSchool, and her graduate students. “The scavenger hunt was loosely modeled on Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), which use the real world as a platform for collaboratively telling stories across multiple media,” said Professor Kraus. “We had an opportunity to get feedback in conversation with the students afterwards, and they had some terrific ideas about how to incorporate additional social media, such as Facebook, into the activity. They were particularly enthusiastic about those elements of the game that integrated the offline and online worlds in novel ways.” The exercise made use of the mobile devices’ multiple functions — camera, phone, text messaging, and Web browsing — to teach the students some university history, particularly about the Great Fire of 1912, and required players to walk to different parts of campus to track down sources and follow clues across multiple media.

Assessment is an ongoing pilot activity, and results will assist the Mobility Steering Committee in determining the future of the initiative. Student feedback from focus groups, usability sessions, and beginning- and end-of-semester surveys will provide a better understanding of the usefulness of the devices in academia. If the pilot project shows that incorporating mobile devices into classroom activities enhances student engagement, then the project may be expanded to include additional students, devices, and/or activities. Visit www.mobility.umd.edu to learn more about the university’s Mobility Initiative and to get updates on the project’s progress. Faculty members interested in the initiative and/or wanting to participate should contact Dave Eubanks (eubankd@umd.edu) in the Center for Teaching Excellence.