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IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

MOBILE LEARNING 2008


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PROCEEDINGS OF THE

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

MOBILE LEARNING 2008

ALGARVE, PORTUGAL

APRIL 11-13, 2008

Organised byIADIS

International Association for Development of the Information Society


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Copyright 2008

IADIS Press

All rights reserved

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material

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Permission for use must always be obtained from IADIS Press. Please contact [email protected]

Edited by Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez and Pedro Isaías

Associate Editors: Luís Rodrigues and Patrícia Barbosa

ISBN: 978-972-8924-54-6

SUPPORTED BY


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD xi

PROGRAM COMMITTEE xiii

KEYNOTE LECTURES xvii

CONFERENCE TUTORIALS xx

FULL PAPERS

CO-DESIGN FOR CONCEPTUAL SPACES: AN AGILE DESIGN METHODOLOGYFOR M-LEARNING David E. Millard, Sue J Faulds, Lester Gilbert, Yvonne Howard, Dan Sparks, Gary B. Wills, andPei Zhang

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MOODLBILE: EXTENDING MOODLE TO THE MOBILE ON/OFFLINE SCENARIO Marc Alier Forment and Mª José Casany Guerrero

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MOBILITY IN DIGITAL LEARNING ECOSYSTEMS Irene Karaguilla Ficheman and Roseli de Deus Lopes

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LEARNING THROUGH TREASURE HUNTING: THE ROLE OF MOBILE DEVICESPeta Wyeth, Hilary Smith, Kher Hui Ng, Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Rose Luckin, Kevin Walker, Judith Good, Josh Underwoo, and Steve Benford

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USING MOBILE PHONES FOR EXAM PREPARATION Dick Ng’ambi and Angie Knaggs

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STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ABOUT USING MOBILE DEVICES IN THEIR

STUDIES Agnieszka Bachfischer, Elaine Lawrence , Andrew Litchfield, Laurel Evelyn Dyson and

Richard Raban

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BOOSTING INTERACTION UTILIZING MOBILE SYSTEM IN LECTURE

CONTEXT Annu Ristola and Jaakko Sinisalo

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IMPROVING STUDENT NURSES CLINICAL CARE EXPERIENCE THROUGHTHE USE OF A COMPUTERIZED MOBILE HAND-HELD DECISIONPaul J Fortier

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M-LEARNING ADOPTION IN BRAZIL Amarolinda Zanela Saccol, Eliane Schlemmer, Jorge L. V. Barbosa, Nicolau Reinhard andCarolina Sarmento

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THE MOBILE DIGITAL NARRATIVE TOOL Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez

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SKETCH UML: A TABLET PC-BASED E-LEARNING TOOL FOR UML SYNTAXUSING A MINIMALISTIC INTERFACE Bastian Tenbergen, Colleen Grieshaber, Lisa Lazzaro and Rick Buck

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MOBILE GAME BASED LEARNING - METHODOLOGY TOOLS FOR USER

TRIALS FOCUS GROUPS Dragan Cisic, Ivana Ilijasic Misic and Edvard Tijan

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MOBILE LEARNING ACROSS CONTEXTS: METHODOLOGICAL

CONSIDERATIONSEsra Wali, Niall Winters and Martin Oliver

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SHORT PAPERS

TEACHING AND E-ASSESSMENT IN MOBILE CONTEXTS Maria João Loureiro, Lúcia Pombo, Ana Balula and António Moreira

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COMMUNICATION PLATFORM FOR MOBILE LEARNING APPLICATIONS Ilhan Aslan and Lars Müller

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MOBILE LECTURE INTERACTION: MAKING TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING

CLICK

Joana Cruz e Costa, Timo Ojala and Jani Korhonen

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GUIDELINES FOR THE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF A MOBILE LEARNING

OBJECT Davide Diamantini and Michelle Pieri

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DOES IT MATTER WHO IS HOLDING THE PDA IN A MOBILE LEARNING

EXPERIENCE?Greg Hooper, Geraldine Fitzpatrick and Mark Weal

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THE SIGNIFICANT FACTORS AFFECTING ENGAGEMENT OF VETERINARY

STUDENTS WITH MOBILE LEARNINGKim Whittlestone, Jeffrey Bullock, Birgit Pirkelbauer and Stephen May

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INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING USING LOW COST MOBILE PLATFORMS:PROPOSAL IN GEOMETRY AND ARTS Alexandre Antonino Gonçalves Martinazzo, André Nascimento Mossinato, Rafael Barbolo Lopes, Joyce Alessandra Saul, Nathalia Sautchuk Patrício, Irene Karaguilla Ficheman and Roseli de Deus Lopes

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INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE WITH COGNICTIVE

DISABILITIES Irigoyen E., L. de Ipiña K., Garay N., Goicoechea A., Ezeiza A., Peñagarikano M., Bordel G.,Conde A., Larrañaga M., Rodríguez L.J., López J.M., Zulueta E., Graña M., L. de Ipiña J.M., Rubio J., Vaquero C. and Soraluze A.

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PEER-TO-PEER FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE LEARNING WITH

CONTEXT-AWARE SERVICES Michele Amoretti, Maria Chiara Laghi, Monica Mordonini and Francesco Zanichelli

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MICROBLOGGING - MORE THAN FUN? Martin Ebner and Mandy Schiefner

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THE USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES BY THE PORTUGUESE ACADEMIC

COMMUNITY: AN EXPLORATORY SURVEY João Batista Bottentuit Junior and Clara Pereira Coutinho

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LEARNING ANYTIME, ANYWHERE: USING MOBILE LEARNING IN A LARGE

BLENDED CLASSROOMWanping Gao, Ruimin Shen and Minjuan Wang

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USING A SMART MOBILE DEVICE TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH LONG-TERM

DISEASE TREATMENT

Steinar Kristoffersen and Rune Winther

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LEARNING ON THE ROAD – DESIGNING FOR CONTEXTUAL AND ENGAGING

MOBILE LEARNING Lisa Gjedde

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PREPARE, PLAY – LEARN! Maria Åresund and Carl Heath

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NEW MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES TO SUPPORT AND IMPROVE EDUCATION IN

THE FINNISH ARCHIPELAGO MUNICIPALITIESKristian Packalén, Erkki Patokorpi, Franck Tétard and Ville Harkke

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VIDEO PODCASTS TO AUGMENT THE TEACHING OF PHARMACEUTICAL

MICROBIOLOGY Malcolm Andrew

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COMBINING AUGMENTED REALITY WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES TO

ENRICH LEARNING EXPERIENCES Irene Karaguilla Ficheman, Joyce Alessandra Saul, Gilda Aparecida de Assis, Ana Grasiele Dionisio Correa, Jorge F. Franco, Romero Tori and Roseli de Deus Lopes

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M-LEARNING, TOWARDS U-LEARNING Miguel Ángel Conde González, Carlos Muñoz Martín and Francisco J. García Peñalvo

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EXPLORING NFC FOR SUPPORTING MOBILITY IN LEARNING SCENARIOSGustavo Ramírez González, Mario Muñoz Organero and Carlos Delgado Kloos

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A REFERENCE MODEL AND TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE SOCIAL

SOFTWARE FOR LEARNINGTim de Jong, Marcus Specht and Rob Koper

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FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF MOBILE DEVICES AS EFFECTIVE

TOOLS FOR FOSTERING REFLECTIVE WRITING AMONG LEARNERS Michael Ghebru

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MOBILE LEARNING WITH CELL PHONES AND MOBILE FLICKR: ONEEXPERIENCE IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL Adelina Moura and Ana Amélia Carvalho

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EMPOWERING AN EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY THROUGH USING

MULTIMEDIA TOOLS IN COMBINATION WITH MOBILE LEARNING ACTIONS Jorge Ferreira Franco, Irene Karaguilla Ficheman, Roseli de Deus Lopes, Arlete Lopes da Silva

Ferreira, Maria Eunildes Sales Barbosa Santos, Glaucilaine Ferreira, Vaneide Rodrigues doSantos Araújo and Marlene Moreno

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LEARNERS’ AWARENESS IN A KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMING SOCIALSPACE Raymond M. Kekwaletswe

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REF LECTION PAPERS

MOBILE LEARNING: MOVING THROUGH PHILOSOPHICAL SPACE John Traxler

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ARE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS READY FOR M-LEARNING? A PILOT STUDY IN

GREECE Apostolia Pange, Eugenia I. Toki and Jenny Pange

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THE EDUCATOR’S DILEMMACarolina Marcacci Rossi, Giada Mossi, Sara Da Vinci-Ehrat, Simona Pianezzi and Marco Sassi

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REFLECTIONS ON MOBILE AND LIFE LONG LEARNING: MUSEUMS AS

APPLICATION FIELDS Angeliki Antoniou and George Lepouras

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SCHOOL GOES MOBILE WITH MOODLE: DIMENSIONS OF MOBILITY IN A

SHOWCASE INTRODUCTION OF MOBILE LEARNING IN SECONDARY

SCHOOLSP.D. Gerrit Kalkbrenner and Leonore Dietrich

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MOBILE LEARNING IN A STUDENT-CENTRED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: A

SURPLUS VALUE?Klerkx L., Totté N., Vriens M. and Buelens H.

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POSTERS

WHILE I LIVE, I LEARN!Thais Waisman, Robson Lisboa and Rosaurea Magalhães

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TALKING ABOUT COMPROMISES: THE MERGING OF EDUCATION ANDTECHNOLOGY Davide Krähenbühl and Marco Sassi

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ARE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS READY FOR M-

LEARNING? A PILOT STUDY IN GREECE

Apostolia Pange Laboratory of New Technologies and Distance Learning, Department of Education, University of Ioannina

Panepistimioupoli, Ioannina, 45110 Greece

Eugenia I. Toki Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Epirus,

4th Km National Road Ioanninon- Athinon, Ioannina, 45500 Greeceand

Laboratory of New Technologies and Distance Learning, Department of Education, University of IoanninaPanepistimioupoli, Ioannina, 45110 Greece

Jenny Pange

Laboratory of New Technologies and Distance Learning, Department of Education, University of IoanninaPanepistimioupoli, Ioannina, 45110 Greece

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to investigate students’ needs and attitudes on ICTs and mobile learning, in order to design aneffective solution for university e-learning services. This is a pilot study that aims to investigate the introduction ofmobile learning (m-learning) to Higher Education students in Greece. The results of this pilot study have shown that

students are ready to use new technological opportunities in Higher Education because they offer a different and moreflexible scenario of learning.

KEYWORDSe-learning, m-learning, Higher Education.

1. INTRODUCTION

In today’s life, there is a continuous need to consider alternative ways of learning, in order to educate theeconomically active population. Our society is characterized by a rapid and continuous technologicalevolution. The technological achievements have had an important effect on the way people work and, to agreat extent, on the way they learn. According to Grohmann et al. (2005) human knowledge and capabilitiesmust constantly be renewed and enhanced. Technology, more than ever, is recognized today as a valuabletool in the process of learning, and new educational practices are applied in all educational levels as well asin lifelong learning.

The growing use of mobile devices and wireless communication technologies provide a new and flexible

educational model at all types of Education (formal, informal, non-formal), mobile learning, which isfrequently referred to as m-learning. Brown (2005) suggested that m-learning is a form of e-learning that

specifically employs wireless communications and mobile devices to deliver content and learning support.Additionally, Georgiev et al. (2006) suggested that m-learning enables access to contents at any place at anytime. According to Keegan (2002) m-learning has emerged as an educational application from thetechnological advances in mobile computing and mobile devices (phones, Tablet PCs, iPods, smart phones,PDAs, etc.), intelligent user interfaces, context modeling, wireless communications and networkingtechnologies, like WI-FI, BlueTooth, GPS, GSM, and GPRS (Sharples 2000; Knowledge Anywhere 2002).Recent research, (Sharples 2005) specifies mobile device as PDAs, digital handheld devices and cell phones,

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or even better as any device that is small, autonomous and self-effacing enough to accompany everyone ineveryday life.

Additionally, mobile devices can also be used in learning settings of any type. These portable tools can beseen as instruments for accessing educational content, either stored locally on the device or accessed through

the mobile network. Trifonova & Ronchetti (2003) suggested that handheld devices can enhance theeducational process, due to their ability to support communication through voice, written messages, still or

moving images and videos.The unexpected proliferation of the handheld devices and the need of mobility in education make m-

learning a very challenging research area in the e-learning field. The main advantage of these devices, forteachers and learners, is the freedom to use what is needed wherever it is needed (Trifonova & Ronchetti2006). Uther et al. (2005) have shown that users of m-learning applications, in comparison to e-learningapplication users, can choose to be engaged in learning activities across a greater time span and in a varietyof different environments. Thus, learners are able to decide on the context, the place, the time and the pace of

their learning experience.The mobile devices available today, such as portable computers, telephones, PDAs, etc., are equipped

with all the necessary software and hardware for an appropriate m-learning application. These new deviceshave more memory capacity, as they make use of supplementary memory cards, and their screen size is

larger with better resolution, compared to elderly devices. In addition, mobile providers in most countriesworldwide offer nowadays high Internet speed connection packages in affordable cost.

In Greece, recently, all major mobile network providers (www.vodafone.gr, www.wind.com.gr,www.cosmote.gr) have announced commercial packages offering broadband Internet connections for mobile

devices in economical prices, making the necessary technology available and affordable. Precisely, thenowadays mobile devices, present in the Greek market, are enhanced with technologies like GPRS (2.5G)

and UMTS (3G) presenting the user with the opportunity to exploit all the advantages of an actual Internetconnection. Additionally, the new technology announced by the network providers, High Speed PacketAccess (HSDPA), offer a download speed of 3,6 Mbps, which, in the near future, will be shifted to 7,2 Mbps.

On the other hand, many Universities and Higher Educational Institutes in Greece provide e-learningcourses and educational material through their web pages in both terms of traditional and distance courses forteachers and learners (www.gunet.gr, http://www.auth.gr/admin/services/teledu/index_el.html,http://www.aueb.gr/yphresies/kethl.htm). For instance, the University of Ioannina offers an e-learning

service, through which students and teaching staff can have access to the electronic material and cancommunicate amongst them (www.ecourse.uoi.gr).

The aim of this pilot study is to investigate the current situation in Greece concerning m-learning. In therecent Greek bibliography we did not find any other studies (pilot or full) concerning m-learning.Analytically, we examine whether students are willing to be engaged with the new opportunities thattechnology provides, so as to be able to use a different and more flexible learning pattern, m-learning.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

As pilot study group of our survey, we considered a sample of students within the Educational department ofthe University of Ioannina, in order to investigate the possibility of using mobile phones to accesseducational material. The main reason of investigating this sample is because of the nature of their studies

and their later profession. As future educators, students within the Educational department are highly probable to use a variety of teaching styles and educational methodologies, including m-learning.

This pilot study took place within the Laboratory of New Technologies and Distance Learning of theDepartment of Early Childhood Education, at University of Ioannina, during 2007.

A random sample of undergraduate students (N=66), age range 18-30 years old, filled in a questionnaire.Sixty six (66) students have answered the questionnaire; sixty three (63) of them were females and three (3)males. This is due to the fact that the majority of the students in the Educational Department are females.

The questionnaire designed for the purpose of this project consisted of three sections with a total oftwenty two (22) questions. The first section considered demographic characteristics. The second section

gathered information about their ICT skills in order to investigate the participants’ familiarity with

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technology. Finally, the last section focused on the students’ capabilities to use mobile devices and in particular cell phones, as well as their knowledge and point of view regarding m-learning.

3. RESULTS – DISCUSSION

The data collected was processed and statistically analyzed through SPSS v.13.0. In our sample we foundthat one in every ten students was working during his/her studies for living. The 8% of the participants lives

with their family in Ioannina while the rest 92% of the sample consists of non-permanent citizens ofIoannina. More than 75 % of the participants have a computer at parents’ home, nearly 56 % have a computerat the place where they study, while 43.9 % of the sample does not have a computer in Ioannina, but theyhave access to University computer laboratories. The following table (Table 1) resumes the students’ percentage of having computer and Internet access at their parents’ home, as well as at their home inIoannina, respectively.

Table 1. Sample’s results on owning a computer and having Internet access

Means of ICT / Place Parents’ Home Student’s Home in Ioannina

Own a Computer 75.8 % 56.1 %Have Internet Access 40.9 % 24.2 %

Concerning the ICT skills, 85 % of the participants stated that they feel confident in using MicrosoftOffice programs and more than half of the participants reported that they make use of different forms ofcommunication, like email, chat, blogs, etc., as shown in Figure 1.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Internet Search Web Browsers Chat and other

forms of

electronic

communication

Email

P e r c e n t a g e

Elementary Knowledge

Advanced Knowledge

Figure 1. ICT Skills

The 90 % of the sample have had experience with e-learning activities, among which only five (5%) is

familiar with m-learning term.Concerning the use of mobile devices, all participants state that they own a cellular phone and they send

and receive SMS, among which the 57.6 % send and receive MMS regularly. The majority of these cell phones present advanced characteristics like taking and displaying photos and videos (98.5% and 95.5%respectively). Almost all cell devices have some kind of wireless connection. Figure 2 summarises the mobiletechnologies that enable wireless connection with the mobile network or between two or more devices likeWiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS or Infrared, used on current mobile devices.

1,5

78,8

28,8

7,64,5

0

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30

40

50

60

70

80

90

P e r c e n t a g e

WiFi

Bluetooth

GPRS

Infrared

Nothing

Figure 2. Mobile Technologies

Finally, the majority of the sample, 86.4 %, shows interest in receiving SMS containing information andannouncements on course material. More than 84 % of the participants is keen on using m-learning practices,and confirms a wider intent to access the University site and receive educational material relevant to the

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studies. The 78.8 % of the participants is willing to pay an additional cost in order to have Internet accessthrough cell phones (Figure 3).

0

10

20

30

40

50

6070

80

90

100

Interested in

receiving informative

SMS?

Interested in

accessing course

material from

mobile?

Interesting in

involving in m-

learning activities?

Willing to pay

eventual additional

cost?

P e r c e n t a g e

Yes

No

Figure 3. M-learning perspective

To summarize, the results of the study indicate that the students in the Educational Department possess allthe basic knowledge and ICT skills in order to engage themselves to m-learning activities. In addition, themajority of the students use advanced mobile devices that could support the extended platform, proposed in

the final section. Therefore, the results strongly indicate that the participants have all the necessarycompetences and instruments to participate in m-learning programs. In precise, they appear eager to use their

mobile devices in order to receive information, educational material, and any further services relevant to theircourses.

Concluding, further research could focus on a bigger sample including students from other departments,as well as other Universities. In addition, further investigation should take into account that m-learning is a promising but new teaching style that needs to be tested and evaluated thoroughly.

4. PROPOSED M-LEARNING PLATFORM FOR UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS

The design of the m-learning platform and material should be aligned with the following principles:• Mobile applications should rely on network connectivity as little as possible (Gong & Tarasewich

2004), as the mobile network is often subject to disconnections. In other words, m-learning content should beconsistent and readily available whether the device is connected to the mobile network or not. For such

reason the platform proposed should support the “pure mobility” of m-learning, thus no constant connectionto the mobile network should be required. Any additional needed data should be downloaded to the deviceand then it can be used offline.

• For privacy reasons, the platform should include user identification and authentication.• Authorized students should be able to receive via SMS, information and announcements regarding

the subscribed courses. They should also be able to communicate with other authorized users, perform tests,etc.

• The material should be delivered to a variety of handheld devices with different capabilities, screensizes, input and output facilities. Thus, the portability is a crucial aspect in the implementation of such a

platform, as the material should be displayed properly in a variety of mobile devices. Ideally, the systemshould detect the different mobile device’s capabilities and limitations and select the services that could be provided in each case. Furthermore, the platform should be extensible in order to support different devicesand different types of educational material.

• Finally, the existing educational material should be appropriately formulated in order to concur withsome basic guidelines proposed by researchers like Grasso and Roselli (2005) and Gong and Tarasewich(2004). These guidelines concern the structure of information displayed, and more precisely matters such asaspect (fonts, colours, etc.), type (word documents, spreadsheets, etc.) and elements included (photos, text,multimedia, etc.).

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REFERENCES

Brown, H.T., 2005. Towards a model for MLearning, International Journal on E-Learning, (4)3, p. 299-315.Georgiev, T., et al., 2006. Transitioning from e-Learning to m-Learning: Present Issues and Future Challenges, Seventh

ACIS International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking, andParallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD'06), pp. 349-353.Gong, J. & Tarasewich, P., N.K. Guidelines for Handheld Mobile Device Interface Design, [Internet]. Available at:

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/tarase/GuidelinesGongTarase.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2007].

Grasso, A. & Roselli, T., 2005. Guidelines for designing and developing contents for mobile learning, IEEE InternationalWorkshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, WMTE, p.123-127.

Grohmann, G. et al., 2005. ARIS MOBILE: Helping to define the future of mobile learning, International Conference onMobile Business, ICMB, p.213-219.

Keegan, D., 2002. The Future of Learning: From eLearning to mLearning, [Internet]. Available at:http://learning.ericsson.net/leonardo/book.html [Accessed 23 October 2007].

Knowledge Anywhere, 2002. Flexible Learning: Mobile Learning Objects, [Internet], A White Paper. Available at:www.ottersurf.com/MLO-WP.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2007].

Sharples, M., et al., 2005. Towards a theory of mobile learning, [Internet] Proceedings of mLearn 2005. Available at:

http://www.mlearn.org.za/CD/papers/Sharples%20Theory%20of%20Mobile.pdf [Accessed 23 October 2007].Sharples, M., 2000. The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning, Computers and Education, (34),

p.177-93.

Trifonova, A., & Ronchetti, M., 2006. A General Architecture to Support Mobility in Learning, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, p.26-30.

Trifonova, A., & Ronchetti, M., 2003. Advances In Technology-Based Education: Towards A Knowledge Based Society,

[Internet]. Available at: www.formatex.org/micte2003/micte2003.htm [Accessed 23 October 2007].

Uther, M., et al., 2005. Mobile Adaptive CALL (MAC): A case-study in developing a mobile learning application forspeech/audio language training, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and MobileTechnologies in Education.

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