VSPad : harnessing learning styles among mobile learners

Abstract

Educational applications that run on mobile devices are fast emerging, supporting a variety of learning activities. Yet one crucial area that has received little attention to date involves the learning styles of users and whether these affect their rate of learning. This paper describes the design and development of Visuo-Spatial Pad (VSPad), an application running on mobile devices that helps people remember lists of keywords better using their visual, spatial and auditory strengths. VSPad uses the number keypad structure of mobile phones for learners to remember the starting letters of keywords. Learners highlight letters that the keywords start with and whenever a list needs to be recalled, they simply retrace the way their fingers moved. Letters are associated with unique tones, helping auditory learners as well. The VSPad is also network-enabled, allowing keyword lists to be shared among learners.