UC San Diego

The dissertation studied secondary student perceptions of mobile technology in a 1:1 implementation setting. The study resulted in three major findings; students reported learning that was specific to their use of tablets, students reported an increase in metacognitive strategies utilized due to continuous access to their school data, and there was a change in the communication ecology of students over a prolonged period of device use (one year). The purpose of this study was to better understand how the use of mobile technologies impacts the education of secondary school students. Specifically, this study addresses how the use of iPads for one year impacts middle school students' conceptions of their own learning. The research questions were how do students' conceptions of their own learning change after using mobile technologies, how do 8th grade students think about their own learning, after a year of using mobile tablets, and how do their conceptions of learning compare to those of 7th grade students, who are about to use mobile tablets? To address the research questions, a mixed methods cross-sectional study was conducted where the unit of analysis was the individual middle school student. Surveys of both seventh and eighth grade students were collected to determine how students are utilizing their iPads in both formal and informal educational settings. Additionally, interviews were conducted to further determine how students perceive their own learning with and without the use of iPads. The findings from this study adds to the limited amount of research on students' perceptions of mobile technology use in a secondary school setting with a 1:1 device implementation