Can mobile device use in the classroom facilitate student engagement in higher education

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has been heralded by many in academia and industry as a means of integrating new technology into existing processes, thus enhancing the learning experience but without the need for significant capital outlay or resources. One potential benefit of BYOD is an improvement in student engagement in the classroom. This research paper shall seek to identify if this is the case and if so by which means should this be applied. As education is an increasingly global enterprise the research shall be conducted from an international perspective to assess the impact of mobile technology across different countries. What can be alluded to from these findings is that from a student’s perspective there are surprisingly few differences between the reasons why and how they use their mobile devices in the classroom, just that they want to. What is notable however is the variation from an institutions outlook; those countries with more established HE provision are less receptive to the ideas of using mobile technology in their classrooms than their less established counterparts.