MCom / Department of Business Management / Mobile technology is progressively being used to support students’ learning, extending learning and educator-student contact beyond class hours. Mobile technology has been identified as a potential solution to the problem of scarcity of computers to access online learning materials in higher education institutions. The University of Venda distributed tablet personal computers to students so that they could use them for facilitating and enhancing their studies. However, the provision of tablet PCs to students may not be a panacea for quality learning, especially to a population that is not familiar with latest information technologies. The aim of the study was to investigate the use of digital mobile devices (tablet personal computers and smartphones) for enhancing teaching and learning at the University of Venda. The research questions focused on determining the current level of use of mobile devices, how they could be used effectively for teaching and learning; and the perceptions of students and lecturers on mobile devices as tools for teaching and learning. Case study research design was considered most suitable for this study as it involves collecting and reporting descriptive information about a specific environment. Mixed methods approach was applied with data being solicited from a convenient sample of 370 students, 8 lecturers and 1 IT technician at the University. Semi-structured questionnaires were distributed to students. The results of the study indicated that many students are active and spending much time on the different internet activities. The study also found that students prefer mobile learning and spend much time on the internet surfing information. Lecturers found it easy to communicate with the students via emails and social media platforms where they send study materials. Students use their smartphones and tablet PCs to download learning materials. However, many lecturers and students are not making use of the Learning Management System, the Blackboard due to lack of training. The results of the study are to be used to explicate, forecast, and advance the integration of the digital mobile devices for promoting learning and teaching accomplishments and standard competencies at the University of Venda. Recommendations were made on how students and lecturers can effectively use digital mobile devices for teaching and learning.

Ao longo dos tempos, a produção de notícias e reportagens precisou se adaptar à modernização do jornal impresso, ao surgimento do rádio, da televisão, mais recentemente, à internet e, por último (por enquanto), aos dispositivos móveis digitais como smartphones e tablets. Cada um desses períodos foi marcado por novos formatos de produzir, distribuir e consumir jornalismo. Dentro deste caminho evolutivo está o objeto de pesquisa desta tese que envolve a busca por formatos narrativos que se adaptem de forma mais personalizada aos dispositivos móveis digitais, às suas características específicas e potencialidades e, ainda, ao jornalismo que se reconfigura a partir das transformações da contemporaneidade. A massiva adoção dos dispositivos móveis digitais entre o público e a evolução tecnológica criam possibilidades de formatação e distribuição jornalísticas mais interativas e ubíquas se comparadas ao que havia antes. Enquanto novos meios de comunicação, os smartphones oferecem qualidades importantes para a redefinição do consumo de informação na atualidade, entre elas estão a portabilidade, a ubiquidade e a sensibilidade ao contexto do usuário. A partir dessa compreensão, entendemos, neste trabalho, que o jornalismo e sua conceituação precisam acompanhar esse processo evolutivo, o que nos leva à adoção do conceito de jornalismo ubíquo e também à elaboração de categorias constituintes desse conceito. Em seguimento a isto, também adotamos o conceito de narrativa sistêmica para fazer parte de nossa compreensão do formato atual dos conteúdos. Esses dois conceitos se unem a uma fundamentação complementar ligada ao design de navegação e interface, à experiência do usuário e à usabilidade para investigar as características específicas do jornalismo ubíquo e do seu formato, e em que patamar está sua adoção pelos aplicativos para smartphones dos jornais The New York Times, The Guardian, El País e O Estado de S. Paulo. Ao final, expomos o momento atual desses produtos jornalísticos e suas diferentes soluções de apresentação para as potencialidades existentes a partir do desenvolvimento tecnológico. / Over the years, the news production has had to adapt itself to the modernization of the printed newspaper, to the emergence of radio, television, more recently to the internet, and finally (for now) to digital mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Each of these periods was marked by new formats for producing, distributing and consuming journalism. Within this evolutionary path is located the research object of this thesis that involves the search for narrative formats that adapt in a more personalized way to the digital mobile devices, their specific characteristics and potentialities and also to the journalism that is reconfigured from the transformations of the contemporaneity. The massive adoption of digital mobile devices within the public and the technological evolution create more interactive and ubiquitous possibilities of formatting and distributing journalistic media than in the past. As a new media, smartphones offer important qualities for today\'s information consumption redefinition, among which are portability, ubiquity, and user context sensitivity. From this understanding, we assume in this work that journalism and its conception need to accompany this evolutionary process, which leads us to adopt the concept of ubiquitous journalism and also to the elaboration of constituent categories of this concept. Following this, we also adopt the concept of systemic narrative to be part of our understanding of the current format of the contents. These two concepts are coupled with a complementary basis linked to navigation and interface design, user experience, and usability to investigate the specific characteristics of ubiquitous journalism and its format, and at what level it is adopted by the smartphone applications of the newspapers The New York Times, The Guardian, El País and O Estado de S. Paulo. At the end, we present the current moment of these journalistic products and their different solutions of presentation to the potentialities emerged from the technological development.

Ao longo dos tempos, a produção de notícias e reportagens precisou se adaptar à modernização do jornal impresso, ao surgimento do rádio, da televisão, mais recentemente, à internet e, por último (por enquanto), aos dispositivos móveis digitais como smartphones e tablets. Cada um desses períodos foi marcado por novos formatos de produzir, distribuir e consumir jornalismo. Dentro deste caminho evolutivo está o objeto de pesquisa desta tese que envolve a busca por formatos narrativos que se adaptem de forma mais personalizada aos dispositivos móveis digitais, às suas características específicas e potencialidades e, ainda, ao jornalismo que se reconfigura a partir das transformações da contemporaneidade. A massiva adoção dos dispositivos móveis digitais entre o público e a evolução tecnológica criam possibilidades de formatação e distribuição jornalísticas mais interativas e ubíquas se comparadas ao que havia antes. Enquanto novos meios de comunicação, os smartphones oferecem qualidades importantes para a redefinição do consumo de informação na atualidade, entre elas estão a portabilidade, a ubiquidade e a sensibilidade ao contexto do usuário. A partir dessa compreensão, entendemos, neste trabalho, que o jornalismo e sua conceituação precisam acompanhar esse processo evolutivo, o que nos leva à adoção do conceito de jornalismo ubíquo e também à elaboração de categorias constituintes desse conceito. Em seguimento a isto, também adotamos o conceito de narrativa sistêmica para fazer parte de nossa compreensão do formato atual dos conteúdos. Esses dois conceitos se unem a uma fundamentação complementar ligada ao design de navegação e interface, à experiência do usuário e à usabilidade para investigar as características específicas do jornalismo ubíquo e do seu formato, e em que patamar está sua adoção pelos aplicativos para smartphones dos jornais The New York Times, The Guardian, El País e O Estado de S. Paulo. Ao final, expomos o momento atual desses produtos jornalísticos e suas diferentes soluções de apresentação para as potencialidades existentes a partir do desenvolvimento tecnológico. / Over the years, the news production has had to adapt itself to the modernization of the printed newspaper, to the emergence of radio, television, more recently to the internet, and finally (for now) to digital mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Each of these periods was marked by new formats for producing, distributing and consuming journalism. Within this evolutionary path is located the research object of this thesis that involves the search for narrative formats that adapt in a more personalized way to the digital mobile devices, their specific characteristics and potentialities and also to the journalism that is reconfigured from the transformations of the contemporaneity. The massive adoption of digital mobile devices within the public and the technological evolution create more interactive and ubiquitous possibilities of formatting and distributing journalistic media than in the past. As a new media, smartphones offer important qualities for today\'s information consumption redefinition, among which are portability, ubiquity, and user context sensitivity. From this understanding, we assume in this work that journalism and its conception need to accompany this evolutionary process, which leads us to adopt the concept of ubiquitous journalism and also to the elaboration of constituent categories of this concept. Following this, we also adopt the concept of systemic narrative to be part of our understanding of the current format of the contents. These two concepts are coupled with a complementary basis linked to navigation and interface design, user experience, and usability to investigate the specific characteristics of ubiquitous journalism and its format, and at what level it is adopted by the smartphone applications of the newspapers The New York Times, The Guardian, El País and O Estado de S. Paulo. At the end, we present the current moment of these journalistic products and their different solutions of presentation to the potentialities emerged from the technological development.