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One of the reference manuals on mobile learning (the use of wireless mobile technology in education) is the e-book entitled Mobile Learning – Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training (edited by Mohamed Ally) and published by Canada’s University of Athabasca. This book, published under a Creative Commons licence, brings together interesting, current initiatives in research into the application of mobile technology in education and training.
The book’s various chapters review the latest advances, investigations and applications involving teaching content, learning objects or scenarios, tools, user types, etc., and mobile technology with an impact on teaching and learning.
Among the different experiences and studies from the various authors presented, we would like to highlight one chapter for its conceptual repercussions. The Current State of Mobile Learning by John Traxler looks at how the mobile learning expert community feels the need to set a solid conceptual base for mobile learning theories, in some way distancing them from the conventional literature and rhetoric of e-learning.
As we can see in the book’s other chapters, there are many theories that compare and link mobile learning and e-learning, some seeing m-learning as a natural evolution of e-learning (Hope, Posar, Millard and Sharples, 2003), some others such as (Shepherd, 2001) differentiating between the two arguing that mobile learning is not just electronic learning, but also mobile. Traxler, in part of his chapter, makes some interesting contrasts between both methodologies, considering the definition and conceptualisation that certain defenders make of mobile technology: in terms of products and technologies, in terms of student and learning mobility, and in terms of students’ learning experiences via mobile devices.
Technology
As he says in his work, the technology is not the defining trait of m-learning, and it is hard to use this as a determining factor when differentiating between the two methodologies.
…”Among the virtues of e-learning is the power of its technology (and the investment in it), and soon this virtue will also be accessible to mobile devices as market forces drive improvements in interface design, processor speed, battery life, and connectivity bandwidth.”…
As he himself says, another technical factor is the difficulty in converging laptop and mobile telephone technologies in one single generic mobile learning platform, given that currently these hardwares belong to clearly differentiated and segmented markets.
…”Therefore, it is unlikely that we will be able to build a conceptualisation of mobile learning upon the idea of a generic and expandable mobile hardware platform in the way that tethered e-learning has implicitly been built upon the PC or personal computer platform.”…
With regard to basing the conceptualisation of m-learning on learners’ experiences, and the emphasis on informality, mobility and context, Traxler believes that this will always be inaccessible to conventional tethered e-learning. Let’s see what this is based on.
Learning experience
He states that mobile technologies in modern society have been able to change the very nature of knowledge, the way in which it is supplied and the way in which we access it. In turn, these technologies have also altered the way we work and the balance between training and performance support, especially for knowledge workers and managers.
…”This means that ‘mobile’ is not merely a new adjective qualifying the timeless concept of ‘learning’; rather, ‘mobile learning’ is emerging as an entirely new and distinct concept alongside the mobile workforce and the connected society.
Mobile devices create not only new forms of knowledge and new ways of accessing it, but also create new forms of art and performance, and new ways of accessing them (such as music videos designed and sold for iPods). Mobile devices are creating new forms of commerce and economic activity as well. So mobile learning is not about ‘mobile’ as previously understood, or about ‘learning’ as previously understood, but part of a new mobile conception of society.”…
Mobility
With regard to the idea of mobility as a differentiating factor for m-learning, the author argues:
…”One can also focus on the nature of mobility in order to explore the nature of mobile learning. For each learner, the nature of mobility has a variety of connotations and these will colour conceptualisations of mobile education. It may mean learning whilst travelling, driving, sitting, or walking; it may be hands-free learning or eyes-free learning. These interpretations impact on the implementation and hence the definition of mobile learning.”…
Despite learning experiences (especially formal learning experiences) via mobile devices still being at what could be considered an initial and experimental stage, it is clear that they are growing rapidly, driven by the evolution of the latest generation of mobile phones. Alongside the new applications and features recently incorporated into mobile telephones (GPS, multi-touch screens, accelerometers, etc.), there will soon be a large number of technological improvements (increased mobile bandwidth, higher quality web browsing and viewing, increased third-party applications and add-ons, greater device capacity and battery life, etc.) – all this will have a notable effect on the possibilities and potential of these devices for teaching and learning.
Recommended Reading
- “Mobile Learning -Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training“ ( Mohamed Ally 2009)
- “The Future of the Internet III“ ( Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie, Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2008)
Main Links
- International Association for Mobile Learning (http://mlearning.noe-kaleidoscope.org/)
- Educause (http://www.educause.edu/)
- mLearnopedia (http://cc.mlearnopedia.com/)
tom on 
Realitat augmentada i creació de nous espais « Al mig com el dijous on 
descargas movil on 
David Maniega on 
O2i on
David Maniega says:
Una de las cosas que más me ha llamado la atención desde el punto de vista de la previsión de la evolución futura de los aparatos móviles, es que se enfocan, como en la gran mayoría de casos en que se habla de movilidad, solamente hacia los teléfonos móviles.
En mi opinión esto no es del todo acertado dado que los teléfonos tal y como los concebimos hoy en día son un aparato ya obsoleto. Yo no concibo un aprendizaje eficaz sin una interfaz eficaz. Es tan importante el mensaje como el mensajero, y eso, con los móviles de hoy en día la verdad es que está muy lejos de cumplirse al 100%. La clave está en ver los nuevos dispositivos móviles como la alternativa, y no necesariamente los teléfonos, aparatos que por otra parte son de todo menos teléfonos prácticamente. Los avances en el papel electrónico (ver una muestra de fotos en http://images.google.es/images?q=papel+electronico&rls=com.microsoft:es&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=C-R7SsfZAuWhjAeHgrGIBw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4) son la clave de la explosión que necesitan los estudios, análisis y aplicaciones que se están desarrollando como proyectos piloto en la actualidad para obtener unos verdaderos resultados tangibles más allá de la propia e incipiente investigación.
Mientras tanto, es importante y fundamental ir avanzando en las metodologías más adecuadas para cada uno de los múltiples escenarios que nos plantean y permiten los aparatos móviles, más allá de los simples y anticuados teléfonos que pronto pasarán a nuestros cajones de la obsolescencia llenos de objetos que ahora nos parece increíble haber utilizado.
David Maniega says:
Afegeixo un enllaç que he trobat molt interessant, un bon apunt per a iniciar-se en la pràctica del disseny (gratuït) d’aplicacions senzilles per a mòbil. Adreçat a professors/es que aposten per les noves tecnologies.
http://www.mobiletest.es/
David Maniega says:
fa ja un temps, quan estava cercant informació sobre usabilitat del aparells mòbils, vaig trobar un interessant post al blog Itákora http://www.itakora.com on es feia una interessant reflexió sobre les carències o mancances que ens trobem en la conceptualització d’activitats formatives per a dispositius mòbils, més enllà dels propis telèfons mòbils.
La motivació per al m-learning és fonamental, crear noves dinàmiques, noves formes d’entendre l’aprenentatge, i com no, noves formes d’interacció per tal de construir un entorn nou, diferent, adequat a l’ús de les activitats. Vet aquí que trobem, encara a dia d’avui, un gap important. Perquè? bé, simplement pel fet que els dispositius, en constant evolució, suposen una barrera més que no pas la capacitat de creació d’activitats.
Els dispositius no paren de canviar, què serà de les PDA? Pantalles grans o petites, interacció tàctil, per veu, gestural? Sistemes operatius diferents que suposen diferents models de programació de les aplicacions…, massa criteris que cal racionalitzar per llençar una proposta captivadora i útil.
En aquest punt és on cal fer front a diferents “limitacions”, que per altra banda, amb el temps acabaran desapareixent, o al menys això esperem. Tenim la limitació econòmica, els nous dispositius són cars, així com les tarifes planes de dades. Limitacions ergonòmiques tant a nivell de pantalles, capacitat d’interacció real (touch screen, pen pointers, teclat…), i com no, de consum energètic (les bateries continuen presentant una gran limitació que cal mitigar). També hem de tenir present l’entorn d’ús, generalment en espais oberts, amb molta llum, possiblement soroll i cobertura que afecten a la percepció activa de l’usuari.
Són diferents elements que condicionen a dia d’avui la percepció de l’usuari, i cal presentar un nou model de representació més enllà dels tradicionalismes, si no es fa no tindrà èxit ja que dins el nostre context el paper continua sent l’element mental metacognitiu que representa la capacitat d’estudi, d’anàlisi, de reflexió per a l’adquisició de coneixements. Es tracta doncs de trencar aquestes limitacions i possibles barreres psicològiques per tal de fer del m-learning una eina veritablement útil. No podem construir un nou model de coneixement i aprenentatge fent una simple traslació de les metodologies actuals canviant simplement de mitjà d’emissió, i aquest esforç, pensant des del model d’interacció de l’usuari amb els dispositius mòbils, serà la clau de l’enlairament del m-learning.
Nova modelització d’activitats + nous dispositius + noves formes d’interacció = m-learning eficaç