Ubiquitous and mobile technologies provide opportunities for designing novel learning experiences that move out of the classroom. Information can be presented and interacted with in a variety of ways while exploring a physical environment. A key issue this raises is when, where, what and how much? Our research is concerned with the design, delivery and interaction of digital information when learning about ecology outdoors. We present a framework of the different forms of digital augmentation and the different processes by which they can be accessed. Using the framework, we designed an outdoors learning experience, aimed at encouraging students to carry out contextualized scientific enquiry and to reflect on their interactions. Pairs of 11-12 year olds explored a woodland and were presented at certain times with different forms of digital augmentation. Our study showed that this kind of exploration promoted interpretation and reflection at a number of levels of abstraction.

Digital augmentation dissolves many of the physical barriers to learning by offering tools to integrate data and discoveries that travel with students as they explore new terrain.

The increased acquisition of touch-screen technologies, such as tablet computers, in both homes and schools raises important questions about their role for very young children’s learning and development. Their inherent touch-based interaction offers new opportunities for mark making practices, which are linked to literacy development, through the emergent process of using marks as symbolic representation. This paper reports a comparative study of touch-based interaction using a tablet computer versus traditional physical paint and paper. Children aged 2-3 years engaged in a free finger painting activity and colouring in activity in both paper and digital environments. Video data of their interactions was used to develop a coding scheme for analyzing touch-based interaction, providing insight into how the use of fingers and hands differed in each environment, the different types and qualities of touch that were engendered, and the composition of the final paintings produced. Findings show that while the tablet computer limited the number of fingers used for interaction, its material affordances supported speed and continuity, which led to more mark making, and different 'scales' of mark making extending the range of mark making practices. At the same time it limited the sensory experience of physical paint and resulted in more uniform final compositions. The findings are discussed in terms of shaping young children’s mark making, the implications of the use of touch screen technologies in literacy development for educational practitioners and technology design, and key future research directions