Mobile learning – what is it?

Mobile learning in a classroom - Photo credit: Victor Zimu

Lately researchers, developers, and practitioners in the field of education have presented a lot of interest on testing and developing mobile tools for teaching and learning. Same time as the penetration of mobile phones has keep on growing educators have started to think how they could utilize the technology school children and teenagers are anyway carrying with them.

What is mobile learning?

Mobile learning (or m-learning) means learning that is enhanced with mobile tools and mobile communication. Many people see it as a follow-up of e-learning, where computers and Internet in used for teaching and learning.

We may assume that the future of Internet and the web is mobile. For this reason also the future of e-learning is mobile. However, an interesting question is will learning on mobile devices be very different from the e-learning with desktop computers and laptops?

There are several issues related to the use of mobile phones and communication that makes them very different if compared to desktop and even laptop computers. These differences are meaningful also from teaching and learning point of views.

Firstly, mobile phones are almost always with us and on. Several studies show that there are three things people almost always carry with them: keys, wallet and mobile phone. People want to carry mobile phones with them because they want to be reachable.

The fact that the mobile phone is so easily accessible makes it a great tool for problem solving. You can simply call or SMS your friends and ask their opinion or advice. The easy access makes mobile phones also a great tool to spend time while waiting or travelling. You may play games and other interactive application, listen podcasts, watch videos, read news or even some longer texts.

Secondly mobile phones are by nature social devices. As such they are very potential tools for collaborative learning. They are everyday tools to exchange information and for creating and maintaining social networks. This kind of use - very important in learning - seems to be hard-coded to the mobile phone user cultures.

Learning is a strange thing. It happens all the time. We learn all the time. Most of our learning takes place in non-formal situations where we do not even think about learning. We simply adapt to the environment and social situations we are living in.

When we start to think and guide our learning it becomes much more efficient. We may read a book or listen podcast with an aim to learn something from it. This kind of learning is called informal learning. Informal learning takes place outside the traditional learning situations.

Mobile phones are very useful tools for informal learning. Learning materials that are delivered on mobile phones may reach many people that can be hard to reach with any other media. For instance organizations, governments and companies may offer educational mobile games, podcasts or video clips for their target groups. Users may order them with SMS and share them with each other with Bluetooth.

Using mobile phones and communication is not limited to informal learning. Several schools and universities are already using mobile phones to manage learning related tasks, such as calendars, reminders, announcements, registration, and school-home communication. Furthermore mobile phones have been tested in field-trips where students are capturing images while in the field and later back in school sharing, organizing and annotating them.

If you are interested in mobile learning here are some good starting points for your own research:

• Mobile technologies and learning by Laura Naismith, Peter Lonsdale, Giasemi Vavoula and Mike Sharples.

• Abstracts from the Mlearn 2006 conference.

• Publications of the MobilED project

• What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone? – Almost Anything! By Mark Prensky.

If you are more interested in practical implementation of mobile learning, the Shareideas.org’s education section already has some interesting case studies. If your case is not yet in the shareidea.org please write it to the wiki.