A blog post

Is M-Learning Worth It?

Posted on the 01 April, 2009 at 10:31 am Written by Robert Kennedy III in Articles

School of Today or The Future? True Mobile Learning

School of Today or The Future? True Mobile Learning

I read an interview with Dr. Werner Oppelbaumer this morning regarding mobile learning or m-learning as it is commonly called. Although there might have been a slight sense of tongue-in-cheek, there was still the legitimate question of the long term use of m-learning. Yes, everyone has cellphones, smartphones, PDA’s and iPhones (which are apparently in their own category). But how many people actually use them for heavy educational/training purposes? This is not meant to be a disparaging question. I am simply asking a question that I might need to research on my own as well.

I also received another email this morning about Blackboard releasing an application for the iPhone, similar to Facebook and other networking apps for the same device. Some of my graduate work was done on Blackboard, e-college and other similar platforms. In trying to think back, I wonder how having a mobile platform for these might have been useful to me as well. It might not have had a great impact for me because I see a mobile platform being extremely useful for those who might not have immediate access to a computer or laptop. So, in attending faculty colloquia as an online professor, the mobile platform might have been useful to me in the airport. I could have answered my discussion questions and prepped myself for the next week of work. Maybe accessing a learning module while sitting in bumper to bumper traffic might have given some advantage. Maybe checking my classmates responses during a boring sermon at church might have gotten me ahead of the game (but church is NEVER boring, right :-) ). Maybe scanning an online document during a meeting or seminar might give me a leg up. Of course, this train of thought might be limiting m-learning to only phones. I am leaving out the possibilities of mediums such as the iPod (or any mp3 player) and handheld gaming systems such as the Sony PSP or the Nintendo DS (Sidebar: Apparently EVERY kid in the world has a DS, or so I am told by my daughter. She is 5 and told me that she “totally” has to have one). This technically means that formats which we are still becoming familiar with such as podcasts are forms of mobile learning. I suppose another use in the educational forum might be automatic dispersion, tracking and submission of homework or other school projects.

I suppose there are a plethora of things that can come from this. I can suppose further that there with be a new and even more exciting medium/format within the next 10 years as well. But for now, what are your thoughts about this one? Is it worth it for me as an Instructional Designer/eLearning Specialist to wrap my mind around m-Learning enough to be able to produce content for it or even format my content from the beginning so that it is easily convertible? Just another thing!

Here’s a smile for you. I was sent this yesterday and as I am talking about m-Learning, I thought this might give you a chuckle: The Trouble With Twitter.

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  1. Robert Kennedy III 23 April 2009 at 9:23 am permalink

    @Susan Neva I must admit that I have my moments of being hooked to my cell. I have friends that go into withdrawal if they are without their BlackBerries. Yes, please send the powerpoint.

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  2. Susan Neva 10 April 2009 at 8:33 pm permalink

    Brandon Hall Research hosted a free webinar this past Wednesday on New Possibilities with Mobile Learning.

    Gary Woodill asked the question,
    Is Mobile Learning
    1) Learning using mobile technologies, or
    2) Learning while being mobile?

    The audience didn’t really come to a consensus. People answered variously 1, 2, or both. Gary told us that he believes we’re moving toward #2.

    He also told us about “nomophobia.” This is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomophobia
    I must admit, I haven’t yet met anyone with this affliction.

    Check out the powerpoint that Gary posted, or I can send you a copy. He discusses 10 new uses for mobile devices, ranging from Mobile Gaming and Virtual Worlds, to Self-Organized Collective Behavior.

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  3. Christy Tucker 2 April 2009 at 7:38 am permalink

    We’ve talked about mobile learning in our team, but it isn’t something I really see us doing much with because of our audience. K-12 teachers are, for the most part, a year or two (or more) behind corporate technology. I’d like to do a survey of our learners to see how many of them would be interested in mobile learning and what kind of phones they actually have before actually doing any work.

    The other issue for me is that I can easily see uses for mobile learning for things like vocabulary practice. If I was developing courses for learning languages, I’d have no problem coming up with things you could do in a few minutes in line at the grocery store. Test prep for high schoolers would work too. But graduate courses for teachers? What skills that I’m trying to teach teachers could be practiced or simulated on a phone?

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  4. Cammy Bean 1 April 2009 at 3:01 pm permalink

    Tom’s post on m-learning with Dr. Oppelbaumer was definitely meant as an April Fool’s joke.

    But m-learning definitely has growing traction in the training world. As an ID, I’ve never come across it face-to-face nor have I designed anything for it. But I think it’s coming. A big issue is that there are so many platforms to design to — some companies have standardization — all sales ees have blackberries., etc.

    Clark Quinn writes a fair bit on mlearning. You might want to check his stuff out.

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