Talking learning

I know. What you really want to know is what you can actually use m-learning for. Given we are talking about a pretty basic piece of kit, what can you realistically do? Well, one way of looking at this is to break the learning process down into phases and see how m-learning could contribute at each phase. One idea is to use m-learning to help in the preparatory phase, before the learning begins, through the use of diagnostics. As Clark explains: “Diagnosis in learning includes pre-tests, learning-style tests, attitudinal surveys and the gathering of pre-requisite data about the learner's experience, job, qualifications and so on. This data is useful as it can prevent wasteful time on courses, where the learner already knows the material. It also allows you to shape the learning experience towards that particular learner.”

There’s no doubt that m-learning can make a contribution in providing information, most likely in the form of simple text and graphics, but with the additional benefit of sound on mobile phones. The provision of information will, in many cases, be the primary use of m-learning, but it does not need to end there. The interactive capabilities of mobile devices provide considerable scope for more practical learning activities.

Tim Gibson, technical director of e-learning provider knowledge=power can see some ingenious ways in which m-learning can add to the mix: “Imagine real-time scenarios, involving virtual clients, with daily questions or problems to solve, the results of which transmit back to the same database where scores from games and exams taken at the desktop are held.” The UK’s North West Learning Grid is already providing a similar facility for schoolchildren, to help them prepare for their exams. Using daily SMS text messaging, they allow users to follow the experiences of three children, Kym, Jez and Abi, as they confront the stress of exam time. And talking of exams, NEXES Education Services is making available its Xams.net tests for PDA users; on the assumption, no doubt, that there are people out there who take tests for fun.

After all this excitement, and in the heady atmosphere of success or failure, some human contact is desirable. As we all know, mobile devices, especially phones, excel in one-to-one communication for people out and about. Your mobile phone could be the link you need to your online tutor, whether that’s by voice or text messaging.

Perhaps the most exciting prospects for m-learning are in the follow-up to learning, the application to real-world problems. Steve Dineen, CEO of fuel, a provider of bespoke e-learning solutions, provides an example: “Imagine the scenario. An engineer is called out on site to fix a problem with a printer. The engineer has never been trained on that printer. When he or she arrives at the client site, the engineer takes out his or her PDA and finds the course that shows step by step, through the use of a 3D animated diagram, how to troubleshoot this printer and how to replace each part.”

Global Knowledge, developed the m-Learning Guide as a wireless tutorial, reference, and support tool that enables IT students or professionals to quickly and easily access course content whenever and wherever they need to. The Guide provides wireless access to the same material used for the Company’s instructor-led classes. Four learning modes are available: Fact Mode allows the user to read and review text; Search Mode finds specific data; the Q&A and Challenge Modes offer testing features for users to check their progress. Said Charles Dew, the Company’s Director of Distance Learning. “Global Knowledge created the m-Learning Guide to provide students with a fast, convenient tool to reinforce the knowledge acquired through classroom instruction. As individuals work through more advanced courses, or begin an IT career once training is completed, they can continue to use the Guide as a reference tool for quick access to data.”

To all intents and purposes this sounds like a blended solution, taking advantage of the unique needs of mobile workers and the unique characteristics of the devices they use, to provide an improved learning service, integrated with the best of what we already have available. As long as common-sense prevails and we are realistic about just what can and can not be achieved on a mobile device, then the ‘m’ in m-learning might not need to stand for ‘maybe’.