Using Smartphone Apps for Learning in a Major Korean University

Are students from one of the high tech universities in the world fully aware of their permanent linkage to the global learning network, the World Wide Web? In their pockets, backpacks, and purses are the latest smartphones loaded will countless apps. But, how aware are these students of the use they put them to as tools for learning? One class at Seoul National University undertook a study of this question as part of its collective learning class in lifelong learning. Both the process of the class and the outcomes of the research reveal much of how the practices of learning are changing in a dynamic, globally-linked university. Forty graduate students in engineering and education were interviewed about how they use smartphone apps for learning and which apps they consider useful for learning. Their answers are reported and a comparison is made between the students in the two disciplines. The surprising outcome of our research is that the definition of learning is in transition. Learning moves from learning in a classroom towards learning within a communication-technology-based network of students, professors, and information.