Effects of mindful learning using a smartphone lens in everyday life and beliefs toward mobile-based learning on creativity enhancement

Abstract

To date, no study has examined whether enhancing mindfulness in everyday life through varied smartphone-based interventions involving photo taking could improve creativity or whether the beliefs toward mobile-based learning would influence such mindfulness learning effect. This study, therefore, developed the inventory "Beliefs toward Mobile Devices for Creativity Learning" and designed four interventions to validate the feasibility of such a new approach. One hundred and eighty-three college students participated in the inventory development, and 149 college students, who were randomly assigned to a control group (Group 1) or one of the three experimental groups, participated in a one-week experimental instruction. While Group 1 did not receive any smartphone intervention, the experimental groups used their smartphones to take photos with different emphases for four days and to share the photos with imaginative narratives on a designated website. Group 2 emphasized free choices of photo taking (self-determination), Group 3 emphasized self-determination and idea sharing, and Group 4 emphasized self-determination in varied categories and idea sharing. The results suggest the developed inventory has good reliability and validity; moreover, incorporating both self-determination and knowledge sharing lead to the best learning effect. Notably, beliefs toward mobile-based learning influence intervention effects on the enhancement of creativity self-efficacy. Accordingly, even a small amount of mindful learning in everyday life using a smartphone lens may enhance creativity. This study provides a valid instrument and smartphone-based mindfulness approach for ubiquitous learning of creativity.