1 INTRODUCTION
Today we are witnessing the emergence of
a connected, mobile society, with a variety
of information sources and means of
communication available at home, work,
school and in the community at large.
Some even describe this as the beginning
of the next social revolution (for example,
Rheingold 2003). A high proportion of UK
residents have mobile phones (75%
general population, 90% young adults;
Crabtree et al 2003) that can handle both
voice calls and the display of textual
information. Many newer phones also have
the ability to connect wirelessly to the
internet. Hand-held computers, otherwise
known as personal digital assistants
(PDAs), are also becoming more
widespread (BBC 2004), being distributed
by employers who are eager to keep their
workforce productive whilst on the move.
Laptops, though already a well-established
technology, have gained new appeal when
combined with the connectivity of newer
mobile phones – a laptop can now use a
mobile phone as a means to dial-up the
internet and in doing so offer a truly
mobile web experience. Furthermore,
kiosks and information screens are
appearing all around the country, and
both researchers and industry are
keen to exploit the potential of these
‘ambient’ approaches to providing rich
information spaces.
There is considerable interest from
educators and technical developers in
exploiting the unique capabilities and
characteristics of mobile technologies to
enable new and engaging forms of
learning. This review explores the use of
these mobile technologies for learning,
considered against a backdrop of existing
learning theories that have been applied to
the use of computers in education.
The specific aims of this review are:
• to identify the different types of mobile
technologies that are applicable to
learning
• to explore new and emerging practices
relating to the use of mobile
technologies for learning
• to identify the learning theories that are
relevant to these new practices
• to present a set of exemplary case
studies demonstrating uses of mobile
technologies for learning
• to present key issues and guidelines to
inform current educational practice and
policy
• to encourage educators and technical
developers to rethink their roles for the
future of learning with mobile
technologies.
1.1 MOTIVATION FOR THIS REVIEW
The prevalence of mobile technologies is
in itself a motivator to exploit them for
learning. Mobile technologies are already
widespread among children (NOP 2001).
It makes sense, then, for an educational
system with limited information and
communication technology (ICT) resources
to make the most of what children bring to
the classroom. Sharples (2003) suggests
that rather than seeing them as disruptive
devices, educators should seek to exploit
the potential of the technologies children
bring with them and find ways to put them
into good use for the benefit of learning
practice. Mobile technologies provide an
opportunity for a fundamental change in
education away from occasional use of a
computer in a lab towards more embedded use in the classroom and beyond
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1999). Soloway et al (2001) have further argued that to make any difference
in the classroom at all, computers must be
mobile and within ‘arm’s reach’.
The nature of learning is closely linked
to the concept of mobility. Vavoula and
Sharples (2002) suggest that there are
three ways in which learning can be
considered mobile:
“learning is mobile in terms of space, ie it
happens at the workplace, at home, and at
places of leisure; it is mobile between
different areas of life, ie it may relate to
work demands, self-improvement, or
leisure; and it is mobile with respect to
time, ie it happens at different times
during the day, on working days or on
weekends” (p152).
The close relation of learning to the
context and the situation in which the
learning need arises has been widely
discussed in the literature (Brown et al
1989; Lave and Wenger 1991) and the
benefits of just-in-time, situated learning
have been explored (Goodyear 2000). Nyiri
(2002) notes that knowledge is information
in context and since mobile devices enable
the delivery of context-specific information
they are well placed to enable learning and
the construction of knowledge.
Mobile technologies offer learning
experiences which can effectively engage
and educate contemporary learners and
which are often markedly different from
those afforded by conventional desktop
computers. These devices are used
dynamically, in many different settings,
giving access to a broad range of uses and
situated learning activities. The personal
nature of these technologies means that
they are well suited to engaging learners in individualised learning experiences, and
to giving them increased ownership (and
hence responsibility) over their own work.
Most previous reviews of mobile
technologies for learning categorise
examples of use according to curriculum
area. We believe that the benefits of mobile
technologies for learning encompass more
than just what an individual can do with a
device, and that there is thus a need for
a wider review of new and emerging
practices and how these relate to theories
and paradigms previously established for
the use of computers in education.
1.2 CLASSIFICATION OF MOBILE
TECHNOLOGIES
There are many different kinds of
technology that can be classed as ‘mobile’.
Mobile, to most, means ‘portable’ and
‘movable’. It also seems to implicate a
‘personal’ as opposed to ‘shared’ context
of use, and the terms ‘mobile’ and
‘personal’ are often used interchangeably –
but a device might be one without
necessarily being the other.
We can classify the range of mobile
technologies using the two orthogonal
Fig 1: Classification of mobile technologies
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