ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANY PACE-REALLY? EXAMINING MOBILE LEARNING IN A VIRTUAL SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Over the past decade, the number of K-12 students engaged in online learning has increased from between 40,000 and 50,000 to more than two million. Students have also gained increased access to mobile devices throughout recent years, and educators have actively looked for ways to capitalize on this trend. A case study of students enrolled in an Advanced Placement European History course, offered by a statewide, supplemental virtual school in the Midwest. The students were studied over the course of four weeks, using Mobl21, an app that works on mobile devices, and offers an emulated version that runs on a computer. The results showed that despite the fact that existing literature indicated students’ perceptions were positive toward mobile technologies; these students’ perceptions were negative. The isolated implementation of the project may have affected these perceptions. However, students’ access to mobile devices limited the project implementation.