Analyzing the Affordances of Mobile Technologies for Informal Science Learning

Abstract

Parent-child interactions, and particularly parent-child conversations, in Informal Science Institutions (ISIs) have a critical role in helping to shape children's ways of thinking about science and about the world. The incorporation of mobile technology into ISIs opens up new possibilities for supporting informal learning processes, but little attention has been given to how the addition of such technology might affect the parent-child dynamic, as mobile applications are most typically designed with only a single user in mind. Existing research on the practices that parents engage in to support their children's learning in ISIs reveals that while some practices may result in parents' desired learning outcomes, others are less effective or even detrimental. This article discusses ways that mobile technology may be productively integrated into the learning context, either by aligning with successful practices or by strategically interceding with less successful practices.