Mobile learning in museums

Nomadic scientific inquiry -- technology-supported authentic inquiry done on-the-go, across settings -- has the potential to engage students in learning new concepts and practicing essential science skills. We developed the Zydeco system to support nomadic inquiry in part through enabling the collection and annotation of multimodal data (photographs and audio notes). The system was designed to bridge school and museum contexts through project-based science inquiry. In this study, we explore how Zydeco influences student behavior and sensemaking in the museum. We compared the behaviors of middle-school students who used either Zydeco or paper worksheets to perform inquiry in a museum, and found that, while both the worksheets and the system engendered heads-down behavior, the Zydeco system increased active sociocultural engagement.