Rethinking the Impact of Activity Design on a Mobile Learning Trail: The Missing Dimension of the Physical Affordances

摘要

This paper investigates the relationship between activity design and discourse on a mobile learning trail, considering the physical affordances of the real world platform in designing contextual learning experiences. We adopted a and pedagogical approach in designing the mobile learning trail conducted at Singapore Sentosa Island. Activities were categorized into and on a continuum from well-structured to ill-structured activities. To examine the impact of activity design on discourse types, all audio-recorded verbal data of the three groups of secondary students was analysed with respect to two key dimensions in the knowledge construction process, namely, and . Analysis showed that activity types and physical affordances of the learning environment have a definitive bearing on group discursive moves. Importantly, the presence of a real world context could generate critical thinking and collaborative knowledge building even for mundane performative activities when they are embedded with unforeseen contextual variables. We argue that the design of activity and the degree of its structuredness, and the assumed desired learning outcomes, are very much subjected to the affordances of physical and social resources in the mobile learning environment—a missing dimension that could possibly be overlooked and understudied.