The Affordances of 4G Mobile Networks Within the UK Higher Education Sector

摘要

Although 4G mobile networks have been available within twelve countries such as the USA, Japan and Germany since 2008 (Tung, 2008) the United Kingdom (UK) has been somewhat slower to adopt these technologies. It is not surprising therefore that the launch of 4G services within the UK in August 2012 has been subject to much publicity particularly as it is stated that the UK will have the world's fastest 4G network with coverage across 98 per cent of the country by the end of 2014 (Garside, 2013) This paper seeks to determine the affordances to the Higher Education (HE) sector of the rollout of 4G services across the UK. Affordances are considered within the existing literature to include factors such as an ability to study in an any time, any place manner, improved access to education, particularly for those in remote and rural areas and a transformation of teaching and learning. The degree to which these benefits will.impact upon the manner in which mobile technologies are used within the UK HE sector will be discussed through the use of a case study of teaching staff who have taken part in a trial of 4G devices provided by EE as part of a Janet funded project. From this study the affordances of the use of 4G mobile technologies are seen to relate to key areas such as the general effectiveness of 4G services, any time, any place access, the transformation of teaching and learning and personal and organisational effectiveness. Overall this paper concludes that teaching staff can envisage significant affordances to the HE sector as a result of the adoption of 4G technologies within the UK although full benefits will not be realised until the network is fully evolved and accessible to all.