Tablets and Trees: Equipping Forestry Students with Mobile Tools for Learning in and Out of Classroom
This paper presents the case of how a department of applied science went about implementing a tablet initiative in a two-year diploma program. Tablets were a required tool for entry into the program with a goal of reducing textbook purchase costs for students, mirroring industry standard practices in mobile device usage, and enabling collaborative and active learning in the classroom. Based on surveys, interviews, and classroom observations we found that the integration of tablets, when explicitly positioned as a teaching and learning tool supported new forms of peer-to-peer collaboration, encouraged the use of open educational resources, and shifted traditional classroom dynamics reformulating the division of labour between faculty and students. Using activity theory as a lens for the analysis, we examine how the introduction of this tool changes the system of activity and impacts the division of labour, community, and rules both within and beyond the classroom.
