Saturday, June 6, 2009

Mobile Learning Reading

It is great to see some new books on mobile learning. Recently there was a lot of buzz about Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training edited by Mohamed Ally (March 2009). I had read a couple chapters and got back to it this last week on my Kindle while travelling.

While useful, I was disappointed that most of the examples were from the early and mid-2000’s.

Having followed and participated in mobile learning since 1996, I see very clear stages and believe that we should now be looking forward at the potential of this very powerful opportunity.

We began with standalone devices (PDA) that could be connected to a single computer for a single person. Once these devices were combined with a cell phone, communication opened up. With today’s capabilities to seamlessly move from cellular to Wi-Fi, collaboration opens many more doors. Location-based context and tagging, sensors and feedback, recognition and specialized apps now open up our imaginations and provide powerful learning opportunities not even available on a desktop.

There are three new books just published that appear to be current and looking ahead. I have just started reviewing them, but wanted to share in case you are looking to add to your reading lists on mobile learning:

What have you found? What are you reading about mobile learning? Please share in the comments.

3 comments:

  1. Just ran across another book (also from 2005) entitled Kukulska-Hulme - Mobile Learning: A Handbook For Educators and Trainers." You can download it at http://4ebooks.org/2009/06/11/mobile-learning-a-handbook-for-educators-and-trainers.html

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  2. A research on mobile learning was conducted in Brazil, the results are available here: http://www.mobilelearning.org.br

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  3. Some mobile learning publications free for download include:

    Big Issues in Mobile Learning
    http://www.lsri.nottingham.ac.uk/msh/papers/BIG_ISSUES_REPORT_PUBLISHED.pdf
    (a report from a European workshop of mobile learning researchers on major issues related to mobile learming)

    Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning: Futurelab Report 11
    http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Mobile_Review.pdf

    Proceedings of mLearn 2007 conference, Melbourne, Australia
    http://www.mlearn2007.org/files/mLearn_2007_Conference_Proceedings.pdf

    The proceedings of the mLearn 2008 conference should be available for download at www.mlearn2008.org but the link is currently broken

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