Mobile Phone Technology
It was not until the early 1980s that mobile phones became commercially available (Klemens, 2010). Since then, many mobile phone (and more recently, smartphone) capabilities have changed, making them more relevant as educational tools. Smartphones allow owners to use GPS, take pictures, write notes, record voices or short videos, listen to music, watch audio-visual material, use a bilingual dictionary or language study software, play games, send text messages, access the internet, interact in social network communities and make phone or video calls. With the emergence of newer, cheaper and more complex phones, subscribers are capable of using these devices to capture, transform, and transmit new content of interest to them and their peers. Since they became commercially available, mobile phones services have increased dramatically. Mobile phones do not have to be used in a set location, rather mobile users are “out and about, they are social, they are moving” (Ballard, 2007, p. 10). Mobile phones are now apparent on streets, in shops, cafes, planes, cars, and everywhere imaginable (Ling, 2004). The acceptance of the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones means that people are no longer curious about it. Instead they have developed particular mobile phone behavior and new acceptable social rules have evolved (Lipscomb, Totten, Cook, & Lesch, 2007; Murray, 2001; Walsh, White, Cox, & Young, 2011). Smartphone subscribers (also learners) are conversant in Web 2.0, an environment where technology and online software are utilized to create and transform digital media through the collective intelligence (Mason & Rennie, 2008; O’Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 supplies learners with access to all the tools and information necessary to construct new knowledge at the click of a button (Friedman, 2005).
Now that mobile phones have become an indispensable tool for many who require mobility and easy access to applications and the Internet, the literature available is rather extensive. Institutions are providing more funding to examine the educational benefits of using mobile phones. This literature review reports on the use of the mobile phone video recording feature, which has received little research interest to date, and yet, it is the opinion of this author that this feature could become an influential learning tool.
Video production as a learning method simply engages learners to use filming equipment and software to film and edit their own production. Kindon (2009) defined participatory video as a method to engage learners to become engaged in their community to present issues of importance to them. Gromik (2012) has used this method to engaged language learner to present their experiences and reflections of community issues relevant to them.
Current Scientific Knowledge
The leading experts in the area of mobile technology are many. Researcher Professor Kukuska-Hulme (2013) at the Open University in England, has a strong research interest in the area of mobile-based education and is a prominent figure in this field. Professor Stockwell (2010) at Waseda University is a pioneering scholar leading research in the area of mobile technology and language learning (there are many more researchers interested in this area, see Levy and Kennedy, 2005). Similarly, there are many experts in the area of video production for enhancing learning outcomes, however, Kindon (2009) is a leader in the field of participatory video. Very little research has investigated the role of the smartphone video camera as a tool for developing independent lifelong learning. Gromik (2012) as an independent researcher and Lee (2013) from the University of Western Sydney are pioneering scholars establishing a research path in this direction. This review acknowledges that many researchers are beginning to investigate the smartphone video camera as a potential learning and this is a growing research area (for example Pereira, Echeazarra, Sanz-Santamaria & Gurierrez, 2014).