A study on the usage of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops: An approach based on flow experience

• Autor(a) principal: Abrantes, Steven
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Gouveia, Luis Borges
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10284/6981
• topic: Flow experience; Mobile devices; Comparing mobile with desktop

The teaching method using the computer is an added value, it is certainly very appealing to students and more motivating, stimulating them to interact with different situations and depictions of real life, forcing the student to think creatively and independently new subjects and materials. New technologies have created new spaces of knowledge. Now, besides the school, also the company and place of residence became places of education and learning. The number of people in their homes using the Internet to increase their knowledge is increasing. The combination of a personal atmosphere, together with the ability to manage their time and what to learn, makes the use of courses of e-learning increase. In order to evaluate the use of mobile devices and desktops and the potential of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops, it was performed a experiment involving students of higher education. This study has the main objective to validate if the students that use laptops or desktops are in the flow experience and witch of them are more in the flow experience. This study is based on the flow experience introduced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975). The main purpose of this study is to establish whether the user is feeling the flow experience when using Google Groups when using laptops or desktops. In the context of this study, information has been gathered through a survey, applying the five dimensions of the flow state. The sample used consisted on one hundred and twelve students. At the end of the study, after analyzing the gathered information, it was possible to conclude that students have experienced the flow and that it had a positive effect on their learning experiences both by students using laptops or desktops, but having the students that used the laptops more engaged in the flow experience than the students that used desktops.