Mobile Technology

Innovative and creative practices enabling learning environments in Higher Education & Business

Abstract

The digital transformation of society is reaching a state of maturity, which provides people with new and exciting possibilities (NESTA, 2019) and implies a preponderant change in terms of inclusive collaboration, human-centred global economy and governance. Conjointly, ‘knowledge is the impetuous for communication’ (Carayannis & Clark, 2011, p. 203) with respect to foster ‘social capital’ and to thrive ‘cultural knowledge’ (Levallet & Chan, 2019, p. 182). Within this context, mobile technology, thanks to its affordance (Ahonen, 2011; Volkoff & Strong, 2013) and its contextuality (Cochrane et al., 2016), can enable creativity which supports the Cognitive Process Dimension (Anderson et al., 2001). Scilicet, mobile devices become the interface between people and processes (Morel et al., 2018; Dampérat et al., 2019) in relation to innovative practices (Makri et al., 2017) and real-world learning (Saleh et al., 2019) in formal and informal contexts. Moreover, it can enhance the developing of ideas inner/outer an organisation, or a classroom (Hall et al., 2020), and the serendipity flow of learning experiences (Makri et al., 2015). To a certain extent, mobile technology can bolster ‘collective knowledge’ (Pont, 2013; Levallet & Chan, 2019) by enabling quick decision-making and by connecting with a glocal network (Antonczak, 2021).

From a transdisciplinary approach, amidst learning sciences (Sommerhoff et al., 2018), management and organisational research, this presentation canvasses mobile technology (Jones & Marsden, 2006; Ahonen, 2011) as being a key apparatus and interface for collaborative innovation (Demil & Lecocq, 2012; Suire et al., 2018), which allows organisations to develop their ‘information ecology’ (Nardi, 1999) through a dynamic sense of what is inside and what is outside their boundaries. Said differently, it deciphers how mobile technology can enable exchange information and co-creative practices beyond formal structures and systems across industries and/or academia.

To start, the presentation quickly outlines some key concepts from an inter-disciplinary literature reviews (Baumeister & Leary, 1997), including collaboration, creativity, knowledge dynamics such as knowledge creation and/or conversion (Sawyer, 2008) as well as ‘knowledge retention and/or knowledge loss’ (Levallet & Chan, 2019). Next, it epitomises a few technological enabling conditions (Makri, 2017; Levallet & Chan, 2018; Cheng et al., 2019) such as autonomy, diversity, interactivity, contextuality through mobile social media and mobile-first applications (Apps) in relation to collaboration and learning practices beyond the limits of a physical environment. Then, it introduces the methodological and qualitative approach used for the analysis and findings, as well as the interpretations of practices in Education and Business. Finally, this presentation concludes with some features about how mobile technology practices support collaborative and innovative learning environments, the co-creation of new frameworks, and it suggests further avenues for supplementary research.