Mobile learning

Mobile apps (Source: Sean MacEntee, goo.gl/XZKcae, under CC BY 2.0 licence)

The nature of mobile devices

With the spread of mobile technologies, teachers and students have many ways of using the internet and related software and services in education. The term mobile learning, sometimes also called m-learning, refers to all education involving mobile devices. To date, this category has primarily included mobile handheld devices like mobile phones or tablets, but there are many other emerging mobile technologies. Mobile devices which are dependent on human movement include:

• • mobile handheld devices, e.g., mobile phones, including basic/feature phones & smartphones; tablets, including the iPad; e-readers, including the Kindle; digital media players, including MP3 players and Apple’s now discontinued iPod and iPod Touch; digital cameras; and PDAs, or personal digital assistants; note that some of these have now become quite rare, as discussed under ‘Mobile phones’ below
  • wearables, e.g., fitness bands; extended reality (XR) headsets or head-mounted displays (HMDs); smart watches; smart glasses; lapel pins; and, in the future, possibly smart contact lenses
  • embeddables/implantables, e.g., retinal & cochlear implants; nanobots; and brain chips

In addition to those devices in the list above, it is important to remember that there are devices which are partly or wholly independently mobile:

• • smart vehicles
  • robots
  • drones (which some view as a subclass of flying robots)

Note that laptops are usually seen as portable rather than mobile devices, with the difference being that the former are used in one location, closed down and transported, and then opened up again in a new location, whereas the latter may be used continuously while on the move (a distinction made, for example, in the work of Ruben Puentedura).

Mobile phones >  The most common mobile devices are still mobile phones, ranging from basic phones, also called feature phones, to smartphones. Since 2013, smartphones have been outselling feature phones globally: they are already widely available in the Global North (developed world) but they are also spreading rapidly in the Global South (developing world). Due to the spread of smartphones, some older mobile devices with more restricted functionality are now becoming obsolete; these include MP3 players, digital cameras (for all but professional photographers), and PDAs.

Smart devices >  Smart devices, like smartphones and tablets, run on dedicated mobile operating systems (OS), with the two leading operating systems in the world being Google’s Android and, in second place by market share, Apple’s iOS; in the past, other well-known operating systems have included Blackberry OS and Windows Phone.

Smart devices may be used in two main ways. Firstly, they offer connectivity to the mobile web (which simply refers to the general-purpose web accessed via web browsers on mobile devices, increasingly in the form of mobile-optimised pages) so they can be used to access web 1.0 or web 2.0 tools and platforms. Secondly, they allow users to download apps which in many cases can operate independently of a live web connection and are optimised for mobile devices; indeed, nearly all major web 2.0 services are available in app versions. (Note that some feature phones also allow a limited range of apps to be downloaded.) Many mobile device owners use some combination of mobile web access and apps, but the trend is very much away from browsing the general-purpose web and towards employing specific-purpose apps.

Important recent developments include the emergence of XR apps which immerse users in fully simulated digital environments in the case of virtual reality (VR), or overlay the real world with immersive digital data in the case of augmented reality (AR). The resulting experiences are all the more immersive if an XR headset is used in place of the flat screen of a mobile phone.

Emerging devices >  We are now seeing the arrival of early artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled smartphones, which some claim will allow us to move beyond the app paradigm to control our devices through a single virtual assistant, likely using a range of natural input options such as voice, eye movement and gesture.

New possibilities are opening up with the arrival of smartwatches, smart glasses and headsets, and other types of wearable computing. In late 2023, Humane announced the launch of the first AI Pin, which allows hands-free interaction with AI. The field of robotics is also developing rapidly.

Learning with mobile devices

It has frequently been remarked that mobile learning is not simply about mobile devices, but also about mobile learners and mobile learning experiences. That said, any definition of mobile learning must remain grounded in the use of mobile devices.

Feature phones in education >  Basic phones, or feature phones, which remain common in the Global South, are mainly used for making phone calls and sending SMS messages, but are nevertheless capable of supporting learning in contexts where educational institutions and qualified teachers are in short supply. More advanced feature phones may be able to send MMS messages, take still photos, play MP3 audio files, access the web, and download a limited range of apps, and therefore offer more teaching and learning options.

Smart devices in education >  Smart devices offer enhanced functionality, including options which are better aligned with the contemporary active, collaborative, learner-centred pedagogical approaches which dominate educational thinking in the Global North. Instead of talking about mobile learning, some researchers prefer the term ubiquitous learning, or u-learning, which places less emphasis on mobility and contextual independence, and more emphasis on the situated, contextualised learning enabled by mobile devices, and smart devices in particular.

It is possible to go even further with the use of VR, which allows simulated immersive learning experiences that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve in the classroom (for example, walking on the top of a mountain, or exploring the inside of a cell), and AR, which allows situated learning in real-world settings, supported by digital information and communication channels. XR headsets, as noted above, can make the learning experiences more immersive.

There are however a number of issues with use of smart devices in the classroom. Given that smart device usage is currently still dominated by apps, and that many apps offer end users far less control over their creations and communications than they would have on the general-purpose web 2.0, this may have some negative implications for education. Moreover, at school level, many education ministries and departments, as well as individual institutions, have banned or limited the use of mobile phones in the classroom, mainly to deal with problems of distraction.

BYOD/BYOT >  While some educational institutions continue to provide computers and other digital equipment for students, many have shifted to a BYOD (bring your own device) or BYOT (bring your own technology) model, where students may bring their own internet-enabled devices. This is especially true at tertiary level. At school level, devices must sometimes be chosen from a limited range preselected by an educational institution; and where mobile phone bans are in place, this typically means laptops (which, as noted earlier, are portable rather than mobile). When students do have freedom to choose their own devices, it may sometimes raise issues of network security, hardware and software compatibility, and the digital divide (depending on what equipment individual students have access to).

Mobile learning tools >  In the pages in this section of the website, you’ll find accounts of many of the major mobile learning tools, platforms and techniques, with guidance on how to use them in a variety of educational contexts. They include: apps, augmented reality, chat & messaging, digital storytelling, e-books, gaming, geosocial networking, multimedia recording, polling, QR codes and virtual reality. Some of these are essentially mobile versions of web 2.0 tools, while there is also some overlap with web 3.0, notably the concept of the geospatial web, when it comes to augmented reality, gaming, virtual reality or virtual worlds.

More information about mobile learning is available on the Publications on Mobile Learning page. You might also like to keep up to date with the Mobile Learning board on Pinterest, or Mark Pegrum’s Ubiquitious Learning feed on Scoop.it (with the 10 most recent posts embedded in the slideshow below). For an overview of mobile tools relevant to libraries and librarians, see the ANZ 23 Mobile Things site.

Last update: March 2024.