Quiet captures: A tool for capturing the evidence of seamless learning with mobile devices

Abstract

Seamless learning environments help students in extending their learning experiences across social, personal and environmental dimensions, and are supported by different tools, information and communication technology. In order to capture the evidence of the ways students utilize mobile devices in their formal and informal learning pursuits, a quiet data capture program was designed and pilot-tested. It is used to capture both quantitative and qualitative data about device use, to track user generated data and artefacts persistent across time and to generate and render aggregated reports identifying usage patterns. It is supposed to serve as a mechanism of identifying affordances of mobile devices within the landscape of seamless learning. Some preliminary findings raising multiple questions and inevitably sharpening our research lenses are presented towards the end of the paper.