This paper draws on a case study of one student’s mobile phone use in higher education. I focus on the student’s use of the mobile phone to produce complex academic texts, using data drawn from extended video-interviews and comprehensive multimodal textual analysis. In doing so, I aim to illuminate mobile learning and literacy practices which are likely to be widespread, given the near-ubiquity and prosthetic quality of mobile, internet-enabled devices, yet which are not currently well understood by teachers or researchers. Discussion of mobile learning and literacies is becoming increasingly widespread, yet these terms are surprisingly ill-defined; through building on an existing body of work which seeks to define literacies, digital literacies and mobile learning, I propose a definition of mobile literacies as pertains to higher education. The definition takes account of the mobility of technology, of learners, and of learning in current HE contexts. I use this definition and my empirical data to begin to theorise the role of mobility in the student’s learning and consider implications for pedagogy.
The International Education Studies Association
Supporting research in Education Studies
The International Education Studies Association
Supporting research in Education Studies