Developing a mobile learning system to community-based learning for rural elementary school students

With the driving of experimental programs of Ministry of Education on the "e-Campus", "balance urban and rural digital divide" and "electronic schoolbag" in Taiwan, the Web sites and class blogs were set up one after another in primary school. However, all the experimental schools of Mobile learning or Ubiquitous learning were centralized in the urban area and a few schools, and the discipline was developed to focus on the natural environment, plant learning and foreign language's learning. By using the mobile platform learning system and handheld devices to support community-based learning for elementary school students, we want to combine the community learning issues into a cross-disciplinary integrated curriculum, and that will be able to stimulate the students' learning interest, to promote their positive learning attitude and problem-solving ability in rural area primary school. We selected the primary school students in Min-Hsiung, Chia-yi County as the subjects of this study. This study combines RFID technology with PDA device instruments to design an outdoor situated learning system. This system can help the fifth and sixth grade students of primary school use RFID Reader to access organically cultivated pineapple garden and general cultivated pineapple garden of situated learning by self-direction learning. In this study, the method of quasi-experimental research was used. The pre-test and post-test were used to understand the learning outcomes of experimental group and control group. The pre-test of two groups have significant difference (t =-2.647, P<01), but the post-test statistical results found the learning effectiveness between experimental group and control group have not significant difference (t =-1.536, P>.05). The learning satisfaction of experimental group students is 76% (M = 3.82, SD = .65). These results showed that the design of situated learning in mobile learning system can enhance the fifth and sixth grade students learn more effectively, and interest in learning.