An interactive concept map approach to supporting mobile learning activities for natural science courses

Mobile and wireless communication technologies not only enable anytime and anywhere learning, but also provide the opportunity to develop learning environments that combine real-world and digital-world resources. Nevertheless, researchers have indicated that, without effective tools for helping students organize their observations in the field, the mobile learning performance could be disappointing. To cope with this problem, this study proposes an interactive concept map-oriented approach for supporting mobile learning activities. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school natural science course to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed approach not only enhances learning attitudes, but also improves the learning achievements of the students.

► An interactive concept map approach for supporting mobile learning is proposed.
► The approach has been applied to an in-field activity of a natural science course.
► The approach has significantly improved the in-field learning achievement of students.
► The approach has significantly improved the students’ learning attitudes.
► The students highly accepted the new approach.