About Mobile Technology

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this essay is to investigate the concept of m-learning and the extent to which it is being implemented in higher education and to educate the students and institutes that how technology can be helpful in learning the programmes or getting the knowledge about the subject of their interest anytime anywhere they are located with the help of devices such as Smart Phones and the applications are being used in those Smart Phones.

Examples of the mobile apps: Apple's iTunesU, BlackBoard Mobile, the Amazon Kindle etc.

Ally (2009) stated that "Mobile learning is done through the use of wireless mobile technology that allows anyone to access information and learning materials from anywhere and at anytime." As a result, learners have control of when they want to learn and from which location they want to learn.

Students and trainers/teachers are empowered to communicate with each other from anywhere at any time to share thoughts or data with each other and at the same time they can access the learning resources from anywhere at any time to plan the lessons which are too delivered to the students.

Bereiter and Scardamalia(1994) said that the users can upload contents such as videos, word file or photos through their smart phones directly, into the discussion threads just by logging into the thread which is ongoing or they can create a new thread at any time they want despite of their location. This will enhance the functions provided by 3rd generation mobile phones and help in making the discussion more interactive.

Lonsdale et al(2004) "Mobile learning is distinguished by rapid and continual changes of context, as the learner moves between locations and encounters localised resources, services, and co-learners. Informal learning covers any learning that takes place beyond the classroom and formal curriculum, including learning for hobbies, curiosity, personal development, community involvement and everyday survival."

What is Mobile Learning or mLearning?

Osman et al. (2010) cited "learning by means of wireless technological devices that can be pocketed and utilized wherever the learner's device is able to receive unbroken transmission signals".

Sharples et al. (2007) argues that "learning supported by mobile devices such as cellular (mobile) phones, portable computers, and personal audio players".

It has been suggested by Brasher and Taylor(2004, p33-37) "any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies".

Rajasingham (2011) states that "an activity that allows individuals to be more productive when consuming, interacting, or creating information, mediated through a compact digital portable device that the individual carries on a regular basis and has reliable connectivity and fits in a pocket or purse".

With the help of Mobile learning participants are not required to sit in the classroom, just similar to distant learning. Because of increase in Mobile Learning, learning has taken a new route that can occur anywhere and at any point of time. Sharples et al (2007) states that Mobile Learning can occur "wherever people, individually or collectively, have problems to solve or knowledge to share".

Traxler (2007) and some others defined mobile learning as learning that is wireless and is done with the help of digital devices and technologies that are currently in trend, which is generated to help the general public, and it is being used by anyone who is trying to learn something remotely. And some of the others define mobile learning by concentrating only on the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning by the means of mobile devices used by learners such as smart phones.

Osman(2010) cited in his article that "Traxler (2007) writes: "so, mobile learning is not about 'mobile' or about 'learning' as previously understood, but part of a new mobile conception of society"". Mobile Learning is not only to provide learning to learners whenever they are mobile but it should overcome the outdated concepts and the assumptions that were made about learning and how & what it can change in the society(also from the technological point of view).

Osman(2010) notes that some of the definitions and the understandings for mobile education/learning, which put the basic focus on the technologies and hardware, and it doesn't matter that it can be a handheld device such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile device such as Smartphones or Tablets. He also states that "These definitions undermine a proper understanding of the uses of mobile technology in learning by confining their explanations and descriptions to the actual physical way in which the technology operates." According to him some of the definitions puts "more focus on what learners experience when they use mobile technologies in education, while others inquire how mobile learning can be used to make a unique contribution to the advancement of education and other forms of e-learning.Ally (2009) writes in his book of Mobile Learning the major benefit of using wireless mobile technology in his book which is to reach people who live in remote locations where there are no schools, teachers, or libraries. With the help of Mobile technology that can be used by anyone despite of their geographical location which will in turn benefit communities in such places as a result students and workers will stay with their families and are not suppose to move for jobs or to go to a different location to learn or to access information. He also said that "At the same time, business owners, agriculture workers, and other working sectors can access information to increase productivity and improve the quality of their products by learning about agriculture and there aspects remotely using mobile devices. Finally, because remote access using wireless mobile technology reduces the need for travel, its use can reduce humanity's carbon footprint on earth to help maintain a cleaner environment".

ECAR (2012) reported that "students value anytime, anywhere access to the Internet. In the most recent ECAR study of students and IT, 78% of students considered Wi-Fi extremely valuable to their academic success. While a wireless telecommunications network is obviously preferable because it allows interaction, updates, hyperlinks, and more, it is still not ubiquitous. The ECAR research report Mobile IT in Higher Education, 2011 found that 76% of institutions report good or very good mobile communication signal coverage in the area of our institution. This is a positive trend for on-campus mobile learning; however, off-campus access to networks is important as well."

Application Store for Mobile Learning in the Market

According to a survey done by ECAR in 2011 it states that "App Brain & BlackBoard website where Stand-alone mobile learning applications are proliferating at an astonishing rate: As of September 2011, the iTunes App store offered 46,340 apps in the education category, accounting for 9.35% of all apps available; as of October 2011, the total number of education apps for the Android platform (available from the Android Market) was 12,129. Established e-learning systems have evolved to offer mobile components, fostering anytime, anywhere access to coursework. Blackboard Mobile is a mobile interface for the Blackboard learning management system that runs on iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and WebOS mobile devices."

Description about the use of BlackBoard App in Higher Education

Most effective use of this use is to provide the users or learners with the benefit of accessing the information anytime irrespective of their geographical location and enhance the ways to enrich teaching &learning. As a result it gives the students the benefits to stay connected to teachers & the discussion forum and updated to the information regarding their studies. Everyone will have everything they need right on the mobile devices they wanted just a click away or a touch away from their variety of mobile devices including Android"', BlackBerry and IPhone OS. With this application students and teachers can access and upload and download the multiple format document or information. This application also provide user to create thread or discussion forum to share their thoughts on a particular topic or they can seek help online by posting their problem in the discussion thread and get a reply as soon as possible from the ones who are in present in the thread.

Three basic concepts of Mobile Learning

Osman(2010) showed in which he tried to cite the three basic concepts of Mobile Learning.

Mobility of Technology: means with advancement of technology nowadays the processors of mobile phones are very fast as compared to the earlier smart phones. At present day we can say that there is a tsunami coming in respect of the technology as new mobile phones are being launched in every two or three week of time. Wi-Fi networks are moving the capability as of a home broadband with 3G and now 4G in market:

Wikipedia states 4G networks promise up to 1 GB per second transfer speed for walking or stationary pedestrian usage.

Wikipedia says that 4G wireless began rollouts in the United States in late 2010, and by 2015 the United States will have the largest 4G coverage in the world.

The processing of mobile devices is increasing along with that of the networks:

Phone CPUs, the chips that power mobile computing; have recently reached the 1 GHz speed, comparable to netbooks.

Almost every smart phone has sensors for landscape & portrait depending upon the comfort of the user for example Nokia N8, iPhone's etc.

Mobility of Learning/Learner: with the help of this it doesn't depend where the user or learner is located he or she can get the access of the information whenever they want to and from wherever they are located geographically, for example: Distant Learning.

The m-learning projects WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR

Through out the world many projects and programs are going on in development of the mLearning applications and to promote mLearning within the educational institutes among the students and educators or trainers and help them to communicate remotely to share views and data.