Mobile Learning, Is It Applicable?

“Mobile e-learning will go away. There is always the latest thing in e-learning that everyone must do. One of my least favorite of these is mobile e-learning. E-learning will not happen, at least not seriously, on mobile phones.

Why not? Because it takes time to learn something. You have to really understand a situation. You have to practice a skill. You have to consider alternatives. You have to create deliverables. At least you do for the e-learning that I build. This takes time—a lot of time. It was seriously suggested recently in a full year all day every day course I was building, that we needed to make it available on mobile phones. I don’t know about you, but staring at mobile phone for an hour makes my eyes hurt. Try doing it all day for a year. It makes no sense.

We don’t learn anything instantly. Real learning is not done on a train or a bus. The kinds of courses that can be delivered that way will be shown to not be particularly useful.“

That was a quote from Mr. Schank article about technology in education.

At the first we may think that he’s wrong, and that can be expected from me as I am someone who’s passionate about the subject of mLearning. But then I dissected his quote and realized that he’s right to say that mobile learning will not happen the same way it does with real eLearning. That’s true, and mLearning is not supposed to be like eLearning. Mobile devices are not the venue for deep, broad learning, at least not as a single source for that learning (i.e. they can be part of a deeper, longer process of learning, but they are not a great place for that type of learning by themselves).

Mobile learning is often best as an extension to that core knowledge that you learn in a classroom or a good eLearning course. Mobile learning also has the potential to allow someone to access the information from those courses at any time because of the ubiquitous nature and portability of mobile devices.

Mobile learning at its’ best conforms to the learner’s lifestyle in a way that traditional classroom learning and eLearning titles just can’t. So while a learner is building a base of knowledge in a traditional setting, mobile learning can act as an extension to that, allowing the learner to practice certain tasks and recall important concepts at the point of need or simply to brush up on skills.

I don’t think mobile learning will or should ever come in the form of large multi-hour courses. But I do think that mobile learning has its’ place and I do think that Mobile Learning is gaining strength not because it’s another learning technology trend, but because it has real promise and shows real potential to help learners. 

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Social Relations: Online vs Offline

Have you ever heard that someone who is “hyperactive” (read: exist) in social networking often revealed as a “standard” (read: normal) or even ignorant person in the real life?

Some people worry about losing touch with friends and family if they too focus on social networking. Then, I personally don’t worry about that problem. I think we'll continue to honor the human needs that have been hard-wired into us over the millions of years of evolution. I do think technologies ranging from email to social networks can help us make new friends and collaborate over long distances.

However, I do worry that social norms aren't keeping up with technology. For instance, it's hard to turn down a "friend" request on a social network, particularly from someone you know, and even harder to "unfriend" someone. We've got to learn that these things are OK to do. And we have to be able to partition our groups of contacts as we do in real life (College, Family, Best friends etc.). More sophisticated social networks will probably evolve to reflect our real relationships more closely, but people have to take the lead and refuse to let technical options determine how they conduct their relationships. Therefore, we are recommended to use social networking as long as we become the controller of our own relationship and not become controlled by the social networking.

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Wikis and Social Networking Sites in Educational World

In this digital era, technology is continually evolving. Years later in 2004, Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc) have skyrocketed in the number of users. Then, most of the users are dominated by the students from all over the world. Therefore, nowadays it becomes an issue in the educational world.

A wiki is a communal, subject-specific Web site where users are free to add and/or edit content. When it comes to Internet-based collaboration, there’s nothing easier to use. In schools, wikis enable groups of students, parents, teachers, or all of them to gather content and share written work. While social networking site are often called “social content-sharing sites” where members create profiles, network, and share opinions, photos, and audio-visual content. 

When wikis and social networking sites are integrated into classroom, does not mean that it will automatically engage students in learning. Planning for integration requires rethinking teaching strategies and techniques to take advantage of their full potential. There are two major pointsthat highlighted in this essay. First are collaborative projects. This technology tool is ideal for project-based learning, cross curricular projects in middle school teams, and thematic units. For example, exhibition orfair projects which could be set up for middle or high school students to brainstorm ideas for and plan the projects. Initially it would mostly be brainstorming, posting ideas and information to back them up with text, images or video. Another example is collaborative textbooks and literature circles.Instead of sharing their thoughts on paper, they could post them to the wikis or social networking sites, respond to their peers’ thoughts or questions and best of all preserve this work for the next class to review at some time during their exploration of the same novel.

The second isonline resources for classroom use. A list of websites that provided appropriate information related to subject content is provided by the teacher for student use during the school year. It is possible to create and postclass notes, parental and student communication, handouts, course syllabus, course links and resource notes, school or class calendar, teacher information page, school newspaper, and platform for peer review of student work.

However, in 2006, Canole, de Laat, Dillon, and Darby reported student frustrations were attributed to the Web 2.0 applications being misused or to the instructor failing to provide appropriate support for the technology itself. There are some inconsistencies in positive feedback regarding the use of Web 2.0 technologies especially wikis and social networking sites. These inconsistencies were related to technical issues, instructors managing group work, and student expectations of how the instruction should be delivered. Therefore, these tools and practices should lead to pedagogical innovations in education. Then, ambiguity must be reduced so students are aware of what is expected in the use of these technologies and instructors know how to best utilize them.

These tools have changed the way we interact with each other both socially and educationally. Public schools and universities are exploring the use of these emerging tools to increase the effectiveness of instruction. The first step in this transition is encouraging teachers to try the new technology and providing support as they struggle to learn and understand how to use it. Once teachers are comfortable with the technology, they are free to integrate the use of social software into their classes creatively. Use of current software helps to prepare the next generation of students to be effective 21st century learners which will lead to a better educational world.