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OMay/June 2005 EDUCAEDUCAUSE r e v i e w May/June 2005

By Ellen D. W

2005 El l en D . Wagner

Ellen D. Wagner is Senior Director of Global Education SMacromedia.

M BIL

ENABLING

LEARNI

NG

There is a sense of anticipation in higher

tion technology circles these days, a fe

prickly excitement that hasnt been expe

since the heady days of the dot-com boom

past five years, the landscape has been

with funding shortfalls, problems with n

capacity and security, and the never

scramble of trying to stay ahead of main

and upgrade curves. Today, there is a new

the airalong with a growing cacophony o

ring tones, vibrations, and occasional

sound effects that startle and amuse.

Phot o I l lust r a t ion by Ra ndy L y hus , 2 0 0 5

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define new relationshipsand behaviors among learn-ers, information, personalcomputing devices, and theworld at large. The mobilelearning landscape he envi-sioned as recently as August2004 was described prima-

rily in terms of mobile lap-tops and handheld comput-ers.4 Until the early monthsof 2005, there would havebeen no strong reason forlooking beyond notebookand handheld computersat least not in North Amer-ica. However, with theexpansion of 3G (third-generation) networks andthe increasing availability ofsmartphonesintegrated

communications devicesthat combine telephony,computing, messaging, andmultimediausers in Asiaand Europe are finding thattheir broadband connectiv-it y an d their computingneeds can be met through asingle device. And increas-ingly, that device is a mobiletelephone. U.S. mobileusers are starting to get

some tastes of what mobilemultimedia looks like withthe growing adoption ofGSM telephones with Mul-timedia Messaging System(MMS) functionality, butthe U.S. wireless serviceproviders still do not offerthe kind of broadband dis-tribution capacity needed toensure a high-quality expe-rience for mobile users.Nevertheless, advance-

ments in embedding richmedia players, such as the Web-ubiquitous Macrome-dia Flash, in handsets andcomputers have gone a longw a y t o w a r d m i t i g a t i n gbandwidth limitations byenabling rich, engagingpresentation layers on awide variety of mobile de-

vices, regardless of the form.

The heightened interestin mobile possibilities forteaching, learning, and re-search can be attributed toa number of factors: thecontinuing expansion ofbroadband wireless net-works; the explosion of

power and capacity of thenext generation of cellulartelephones; and the factthat mobile telephones, afamiliar tool for communi-cations, are already fully in-grained in contemporarylife as part of our socialpractice. In other words,unlike most other mobiledevices used in education,devices such as PDAs ortablet computers, there is

very little extra effort re-quired to get people toa d o p t a n d u s e m o b i l ephones. Rather, people canbe offered more things todo with the mobile phonesto which they are alreadyattached and with whichthey are already reasonablycompetent.

Nevertheless, when itcomes to mobile adoption,

the United States is rela-tively behind the curve.The broadband, multime-dia connectedness nowtaken for granted by thetypical Korean or Nordiccitizen is something thatmost U.S. citizens are notlikely to see for some time.

As a result, U.S. educatorsare finding themselves inthe awkward position ofknowing that the mobile

revolution is coming, with-out really being able toimagine what its going tolook like or what the possi-bilities for mobile learningmay be.

Robby Robson and I re-cently presented an EDU-CAUSE NLII meeting ses-sion on the coming of age ofmobile learning. As we

shared what we called our insiders viewon where mobile learning is headedwithmy view based on the Macromedia Flashresearch and development in which mycompany is involved and with Robbys

view based on his work as chair of theIEEE Learning Technology StandardsCommitteeColleen Carmean, a session

attendee, made the following observationin her conference weblog: Scanning in-ternational horizons makes them [Rob-son and Wagner] much more optimisticthan the people in the room, but theyseem to sweep away much of the resist-ance and heel-digging, as they ask us toclap our hands, say I believe, and imag-ine a higher ed that is capable of adapta-tion and change.5

I do believe that higher educationaswell as K12, government, nonprofiteducation, and corporate educationis

capable of adaptation and change, par-ticularly where mobile learning solu-tions are concerned. The reason foroptimism is simply this: whether we likeit or not, whether we are ready for it ornot, mobile learning represents the nextstep in a long tradition of technology-mediated learning. It will feature newstrategies, practices, tools, applications,and resources to realize the promise ofubiquitous, pervasive, personal, andconnected learning. It responds to the

on-demand learning interests of con-nected citizens in an information-centric world. It also connects formal ed-ucational experience (e.g., taking a class,attending a workshop, or participating ina training session) with informal, situ-ated learning experience (e.g., receivingperformance support while on the job ortaking advantage of what David Metcalfhas called stolen moments for learning6

while riding the train or sitting in an air-port waiting for a flight).

Although mobile learning certainly

brings its own unique challenges, thegood news is that many of the an-tecedents of mobile learning have pre-pared educational technology stakehold-ers for the journey ahead. With onlinelearningand later with e-learningwediscovered how to extend the boundariesof the institution and to reach outside theparameters of the four walls of the class-room. We also found ways to take advan-tage of connectivity, connections, and

44 EDUCAUSE r e v i e w May/June 2005

Whether welike it or not,whether we

are ready forit or not,

mobilelearning

represents thenext step in

a longtradition oftechnology-

mediated

learning.

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content-distribution capabilities to givelearners alternatives for pursuing theiracademic ambitions via online coursesand programs. Learning objects helped usconsider ways that we could disaggregatethe course to use content elements ascomponents. We accepted the premisethat modularity makes it easier to update

outdated or inaccurate sections of a majorwork. We also saw great possibilities forcustomization and personalization oflearning experiences by being able to ac-cess just the right content, on just theright device, for just the right person, atjust the right time.7 By separating contentfrom course, we demonstrated that the

notion of flexible learning content ishighly tenable and peer-reviewable (e.g.,MERLOT, ). Ourexperiences with learning objects andwith learning and content managementsystems have helped us to anticipate theneeds for interoperability and learningtechnology standards, digital rights man-


2G: second-generation

mobile telephone technology.

2G cannot normally transfer

data, such as e-mail or soft-

ware, other than the digital

voice call itself and other basicdata such as time and date,

although SMS messaging is

available for data transmission

for some standards. 2G ser-

vices are frequently referred to

as Personal Communications

Service (PCS) in the United

States. 2G technologies are

either TDMA-based or CDMA-

based standards, depending on

the type of multiplexing used

for signal exchange.

2.5G: SeeGeneral PacketRadio Service (GPRS).

3G: third-generation mobile

telephone technology. The ser-

vices associated with 3G pro-

vide the ability to transfer both

voice data (such as making a

telephone call) and non-voice

data (such as downloading

information, exchanging e-mail,

and instant messaging).

4G: fourth-generation mobile

telephone technology. When

implemented, 4G will be the

successor to 3G. It will feature

high-speed mobile wireless

access with a very high data

transmission speed, of the

same order of magnitude as a

local area network connection(10 Mbits/s and up). It also

addresses the notion of perva-

sive networks, an entirely hypo-

thetical concept in which the

user can be simultaneously

connected to several wireless

access technologies and can

seamlessly move between

them.

802.11: the official designa-

tion for the wireless protocol

known asWi-Fi. Short for wire-

less fidelity, Wi-Fi denotes aset of wireless LAN standards

developed by working group 11

of the IEEE LAN/MAN

Standards Committee (IEEE

802). The term is also used to

refer to the original 802.11,

which is now sometimes called

802.11legacy. The 802.11

family currently includes six

over-the-air standards that all

use the same wireless internet

protocol. 802.11b was the first

widely accepted wireless net-

working standard, followed by

802.11a and 802.11g.

Bluetooth: an industrial speci-

fication for wireless personal

area networks (see PAN) using

radio frequencies to link

enabled devices.

Code Division Multiple Access

(CDMA): a rival to the TDMA stan-

dard in the Americas, this stan-

dard was developed by

QualComm, from which

providers must license its use.

CDMA carriers in the United

States include Sprint PCS

(which started as a GSM carrier),

Alltel, and Verizon.

Enhanced Data rates for GlobalEvolution (EDGE): a digital mobile

phone technology that acts as a

bolt-on enhancement to 2G and

GPRS networks. This technology

operates in both TDMA and GSM

networks. EDGE is a superset

to GPRS and can function on

any network with GPRS

deployed on it (provided the

carrier implements the neces-

sary upgrades).

General Packet Radio Service

(GPRS): a mobile data serviceavailable to users of GSM

mobile phones. It is often

described as 2.5Gthat is, a

technology between the sec-

ond generation (2G) and third

generation (3G) of mobile tele-

phony. It provides moderate-

speed data transfer, high-speed

always on data connections

that are much faster than the

traditional 9600 bps, by using

unused TDMA channels in the

GSM network.

Global Positioning System

(GPS): a satellite navigation sys-

tem used for determining ones

precise location and providing a

highly accurate time reference

almost anywhere on earth. GPS

is controlled by the U.S.

Department of Defense and

can be used by anyone, free of

charge.

Global System for Mobile-tele-

phones (GSM): the most com-

monly used cell phone standard

in the world. GSM systems are

used in nearly two hundred

countries, with six hundred mil-

lion subscribers worldwide.

GSM originated in Europe andcan now be found in Africa,

Asia, Australia, and North

America. Originally utilizing the

900 Mhz spectrum, GSM

providers in parts of Europe,

Africa, and Asia later added

additional capacity at 1800 Mhz.

In North America, GSM service

is currently available only at

1900 Mhz. Most cell phone

manufacturers offer dual-band

(900 and 1900 Mhz) or tri-band

(900, 1800, and 1900 Mhz)phones that will work in most

places GSM systems are found.

Instant messaging (IM): a client

that hooks up a user to an

instant messaging service.

Instant messaging differs from

e-mail in that conversations

happen in real time. Most ser-

vices offer a presence aware-

ness feature, indicating

whether people on ones list of

contacts are currently online

and available to chat. Generally,

T

he mobile and wireless landscape is filledwith many acronyms and new expressions.The following descriptions are provided sothat nontechnical stakeholders of mobilelearning can better understand the technical

and industry-specific terms that are likely to beencountered. Please refer to the following Web linksfor more complete descriptions of the terms notedbelow: ;;.

A Mobile and Wireles

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May/June 2005 EDUCAUSE r e v i e w

both parties in the conversation

see each line of text right after it

is typed (line by line), thus

making it more like a telephone

conversation than exchanging

letters.

Integrated Dispatch Enhanced

Network (iDEN): a hybrid of TDMA

digital cell phone and two-way

radio. Providers are limited (e.g.,

NEXTEL in the United States).

Phone equipment is produced

exclusively by Motorola, the

company that created the stan-

dard by blending its historic

experience with handheld radios

with its expertise in cellular

technology.MP3: an audio compression

format capable of a great reduc-

tion in the amount of data

required to reproduce audio

while sounding like a faithful

reproduction of the original

uncompressed audio to most

listeners.

Multimedia Messaging System

(MMS): the successor to SMS,

this enables subscribers to com-

pose and send messages with

one or more multimedia (digitalphotos, audio, video) parts.

Mobile phones with built-in or

attached cameras, or with built-

in MP3 players, are very likely to

also have an MMS messaging

clienta software program that

interacts with the mobile sub-

scriber to compose, address,

send, receive, and view MMS

messages.

Opera: a cross-platform

Internet software suite consist-

ing of a Web browser, e-mail/

news client, address book,

news-feed reader, IRC chat

client, and download manager.

Its core layout engine is licensed

by business partners Macro-

media, for previewing Web

pages, and Dreamweaver. Opera

has gained a leading role in

browsers for smartphones and

PDAs with its Small Screen

Rendering technology.

Personal Area Network (PAN): a

network for communication

among computer devices

(including telephones and per-

sonal digital assistants) close to

one person, where the devices

may or may not belong to theperson in question. The reach of

a PAN is typically a few meters.

PANs can be used for communi-

cation among the personal

devices themselves (intraperson-

al communication) or for con-

necting to a higher-level network

and the Internet.

Personal Digital Cellular (PDC):

behind GSM and D-AMPS, the

worlds mostly widely used digi-

tal system. Its use is limited to

Japan.Personal Handyphone System

(PHS): a newer Japanese stan-

dard especially designed for

high-speed data transmission up

to 32 Kbps. Some installations

may also be found in parts of

China, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Radio Frequency Identification

(RFID): a method of remotely

storing and retrieving data. An

RFID tag is a small object, such

as an adhesive sticker that can

be attached to or incorporated

into a product. RFID tags contain

antennas to enable them to

receive and respond to radio-

frequency queries from an RFID

transceiver.

Short Message Service (SMS):

available on most digital mobile

phones, a service that permits

the sending of short messages

(also known as SMSes, text

messages, messages, or simply

texts or even txts) between

mobile phones and other hand-

held devices. SMS was originally

designed as part of the GSM

digital mobile phone standard

but is now available on a wide

range of networks, including 3Gnetworks.

Smartphone: any handheld

device that integrates personal

information management and

mobile phone capabilities in

the same device. Often, this

includes adding phone functions

to already capable PDAs or put-

ting smart capabilities, such

as PDA functions, into a mobile

phone. The key feature of a

smartphone is that one can

install additional applications tothe device. Features tend to

include Internet access, e-mail

access, scheduling software,

built-in camera, contact manage-

ment, and occasionally the abili-

ty to read files in a variety of

formats including Macromedia

Flash and Microsoft Office

applications.

Symbian: an operating system

for smart phones. In an August

2004 report by In-Stat/MDR,

Symbian-based smartphones

were predicted to dominate over

the next five years. Microsofts

CE platform is predicted to be

second by 2006.

Time Division Multiple Access

(TDMA): the first digital network

widely used in the Americas,

this system is the core of major

U.S. wireless networks. The

increasing growth of GSM and

CDMA in the Americas is pre-

dicted to bring an end to TDMA.

Universal Mobile

Telecommunications System

(UMTS): one of the third-

generations (3G) mobile phone

technologies. It uses W-CDMA as

the underlying standard. UMTSis sometimes marketed as

3GSM, emphasizing the combi-

nation of the 3G nature of the

technology and the GSM stan-

dard, which it was designed to

succeed.

Wideband Code Division

Multiple Access (W-CDMA): a

wideband spread-spectrum 3G

mobile telecommunications air

interface allied with the GSM

standard. W-CDMA is the tech-

nology behind UMTS. Networksusing W-CDMA are a form of

cellular network.

WiFi: See 802.11.

Worldwide Interoperability for

Microwave Access (WiMAX) the

domain of working group num-

ber 16 of the IEEE 802 (IEEE

802.16) that specializes in point-

to-multipoint broadband wireless

access. Predictions suggest that

WiMAX will take over the 3G net-

works and become the 4G wire-

less technology.

agement, and content repositories. Learn-ing and content management systems alsounderscored the critical role of supportfor faculty, students, and staff alike. Mo-bile learning will be built on the founda-tions of these previous educational tech-nology frameworks and thus can take fulladvantage of the experiences, empirical

evidence, and effective practice guide-lines derived by researchers and practi-tioners alike from each of these precedingrevolutions in education.

Lessons E-LearnedEvery introductory research-designcourse warns us to guard against the log-

ical fallacy of self-evident truth, and theself-evident truth of the value pro-position for mobile learning is no excep-tion to this long-established caveat.

As we plan to embark on new mobileinitiatives, it pays to reflect on someof the lessons learned from the earlydays of e-learning implementation,

Technology Lexicon

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back in the good old days of five yearspast.

E-learning represented one of thefirst viable opportunities for bringing to-gether learning stakeholdersfrom theacademy, from government, from thenonprofit sector, and from businesstowork toward what many believed to be a

new world order of personalizedlearning. Unfortunately, the earliest daysof the e-learning phenomenon were a re-markable object lesson in navet,hubris, and missed opportunity.8 Andeven though e-learning has now been ac-knowledged as a successful means ofraising the collective consciousnessabout the importance of anytime, any-where learning in an increasingly con-nected world, for many the e-learningrevolution was both unsettling and un-satisfying.9

If mobile learning really does repre-sent the next stage in an ongoing contin-uum of technology mediation, the fol-lowing lessons e-learned need to bekept in mind:

Learning is a deeply personal act that is facil-itated when learning experiences are relevant,reliable, and engaging. During those earlydays of e-learning, we learned the hardway that simply building a learningsystem that could be accessed over theInternet did not guarantee that peoplewould have much need for or interest

in the courses and programs beinghawkedby institutional and com-mercial provider alike. We learnedthat shoveling courseware online didnot provide anyonefaculty, students,or administratorswith an online ex-perience that was much more than te-dious electronic page-turning. Some-times we learned the hard way thatdoing learning unto others couldquickly demotivate and disengage the

very people we had hoped to serve. Different kinds of learning demand appro-

priate strategies, tools, and resources. Con-crete operational learning can be facil-itated using representational media,whereas teaching complex problem-solvingsuch as performing surgery

or landing an airplanemay be farbetter served by allowing learners topractice developing those skills in asafe, risk-free virtual environment.Having just-in-time access to informa-tion, even in a flat-file text-based form,may be far preferable to having no ac-cess to any information at all. Ques-

tions about media-appropriatenessfrom a pure cognitive perspective arelikely to be mitigated by aesthetic andexperience quality metrics. More thantwenty years of empirical evidenceunderscore that there is no such thingas a one size fits all technology solu-tion for learning.10

Technology in and of itself may not guaranteebetter learning. But when effectively de-ployed, technology can help focus at-tention while attracting and maintain-ing a learners interest. Technology

can engage learners by structuringand organizing information, by dis-playing and demonstrating proce-dures and operations. It can helpmake a learning experience more


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memorable and can help relate newinformation to that which is alreadyknown. Technology can simulate arange of conditions, immerse peoplein virtual environments, and providesafe practice opportunities as masteryis developedall of which are neces-sary conditions for maximizing the

probability that learning will occur.Perhaps even more important, tech-nology allows us to have relationshipswith information in our own, uniqueways. This phenomenon effectivelyshifts the question from Will technol-ogy improve learning? to How muchfurther will technology let us push theenvelope of human cognitive, affec-tive, and kinesthetic experience?

The better the experience and the more inten-tional the results, the greater is the likelihoodthat learning will occur. In reflecting on

the importance of experience designin software development, Kevin Mul-let has noted that early software userswere themselves programmers andconsequently were highly tolerant of

complex interactive models andprimitive visual displays.11 Todaysusers are very different. Interactivesoftware is now considered usefulonly to the extent that ordinary userscan understand and take advantage ofthe functionality it provides. Lookingat it from a learning-oriented perspec-

tive, when technology can helpstrengthen learner motivation, focusattention, make a learning momentmore memorable, or demonstrate therelevancy of learning to performance,the greater is the likelihood that tech-nology will have a direct positive ef-fect on learning. To this end, one ex-citing possibility of the comingmobile movement is an opportunityfor a sharper focus from instructionaltechnology and instructional designprograms on the value of experience

design for learning.

What Makes Mobile Viable Today? As we consider the future of mobilelearning in the United States, it is useful

to take a look at the variables that are thecatalysts for change. Three convergingphenomena are accelerating todaysmobile-adoption curve.

First, there are more wireless networks, ser-vices, and devices than ever before. Todayswireless communications industry is inglobal growth mode. According to the

Telecommunications Market Review and Fore-cast, published by the Telecommunica-tions Industry Association (TIA), totalU.S. spending on wireless communica-tions will grow 9.3 percent in 2005, to$158.6 billion. The report predicts thatthe wireless market will grow at a 10 per-cent compound annual growth ratethrough 2008, reaching $212.5 billion.Revenue in 2004 totaled $145.1 billion,up 11.6 percent from 2003.12 Yet evenwith the steady expansion of wireless net-works and services, mobile experiences

in the United States lag behind the con-nectivity options available in other coun-tries. For example, in South Korea, ac-k nowledg ed by m any as the m ostconnected country in the world, citizens


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are far more likely to have broadband In-ternet access in the home. They are alsomore likely to carry a mobile phone withbroadband access, enabling rich mobileservices. A recent San Francisco Chroniclearticle noted that about 76 percent ofhouseholds have broadband access inSouth Korea, compared with 30 percent

in the United States. Similarly, approxi-mately 75 percent of South Koreans havea mobile phone, whereas only 60 percentof Americans have a mobile phone.13 Thestatistics from Chinas Ministry of Infor-mation Industry (MII) show that totalphone users in that country reached647,267 million last year, comprising334.8 million mobile users and 312.4 mil-lion wireline users. Also according to theMII, in 2004 China had 114,567 millionnew phone subscribers, 64,871 million ofthem being mobile phone subscribers

and 49,696 million fixed phone sub-scribers. One interesting statistic notesthat Chinese mobile phone users sent217.76 billion short messages in 2004, up58.8 percent from the previous year.14

Eilif Trondsen recently described themobile landscape as a connected frame-work of wireless networks.15 Some, no-tably Bluetooth, are typically used for cre-ating a personal area network (e.g., linkinga wireless earpiece to a mobile phoneworn on the belt). Wireless fidelity (WiFi)networks are described as local area net-

works, the kind of network typicallyfound in the home or office. Cellular tech-nologies inhabit the domain described aseither a metropolitan area network or awide area network and are designed tocover broad geographic regions. Tele-phone consumers all over the world areshowing increasing interest in new 3Ghigher-speed mobile phones based on the

W-CDMA (Wideband Code DivisionMultiple Access) standard. At the start of2005, more than 16 million people world-wide owned 3G phones, based on the W-

CDMA standard. The UTMS Forum hadpreviously counted approximately 10 mil-lion handsets sold as of September 2004.

W-CDMA is the fastest-growing successorto the second-generation GSM standard.16

Second, consumers are demanding bettermobile experiences than ever before. In re-flecting on what makes an experiencegreat, Kevin Mullet has noted that otherthings being equal, we want our experi-ences to be as vividas immediate, di-rect, and engaging to our sensesaspossible.17 Experience depends on our

own presence as events unfold. Thecloser we are to the actionor, if notphysically present, the closer we seemto be based on the qualities of themedium through which we follow theactionthe more authentic the experi-ence will seem. Usability is more elu-sive. Software tools need to be usablewithout too much incremental effort.

What is the point of automation if ittakes more work to do the job with thesoftware than without it? In the oftenhands-free and eyes-free environments

where mobile learning is most appro-priate for just-in-time learning support,complicated key controls and difficult-to-read screen presentations will be tol-erated only under certain very limited


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conditions. The rest of us arent willingto risk having a bad experience. Forbroad and long-term adoption, the ex-perience really does matter.

A rich mobile Internet experience in-cludes the following attributes:

Ubiquity: How widely available is the

media player that will be required forthe viewer to see the application onthe device display?

Access: How widely available is thewireless network that will distributethe mobile content?

Richness: Do pages load quickly? Doanimations play in a smooth andseamless manner? Does the stream-ing media (media that is consumedread, heard, viewedwhile it is beingdelivered) flow at a sufficiently rapidrate?

Efficiency: How large is the client thatwill be required to make use of a par-ticular media player? How fast will theapplication load and play?

Flexibility: Will the application be

viewable on a variety of devices? Cancontent designed for use with onekind of device or operating system beplayed on other devices with someexpectation of comparable quality?

Security: Is the interactive mobile device protected from worms and viruses? Is the shared content pro-

tected from being intercepted by un-intended recipients?

Reliability: Will content be displayedin a consistent manner, regardless ofthe browser, device, and screen size?

Interactivity: Does the applicationallow users to interact freely with thedisplay and the content?

Third, people want anytime, anywhereconnections more than ever before. Demandsfor information, performance support,instruction, training, and education are

being shaped by people who want accessto resources, assets, program, and peoplewhen and where they need those con-nections most. As more people gaingreater comfort with simple mobile ap-

plications like SMS text-messaging andmobile Web-surfing, the greater will bethe demand for broadband service. Andas bandwidth increases and media play-ers like Flash continue to improve usersexperiences, the more rapidly will mo-bile applications continue to increase innumber.

Current Mobile Trends in Education Although tablets and laptops have provided the means and the methods fordemonstrating that learning no longerneeds to be classroom- or course-bound,the anticipated rush toward mobile learn-ing will be sparked by the obvious drawof short, stand-alone programs. Currenttrends suggest that the following threeareas are likely to lead the mobile move-ment: educational games, language in-struction, and performance-support and

decision-support tools. In particular,gaming has taken the wireless world bystorm, and there is every reason to believethat educational gaming will provide mo-bile learning with its first big win, in


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term s of adoption. In aMarch 8, 2005, talk given atthe Game Developers Con-ference (GDC) held in SanFrancisco, Robert Tercek,co-chairman of GDC Mo-bile, said that 6 million peo-ple download games to their

mobile devices each monthand that 18 million Ameri-cans play wireless games.He added that worldwide,there are 170 million wire-less gamers.18 This broadfascination with mobilegaming is mirrored in agrowing interest in highereducation developments ininteractive game design cur-riculum, such as the pro-gram at Southern Methodist

University.Mobile learning offers

many rich opportunities forpersonalizing learning ex-periences: broad, compre-hensive community wire-l e s s i n i t i a t i v e s s u c h a sOneCleveland; rich field-based experiences such asthose found at CaliforniaState UniversityMontereyBay; immersive museum-

enrichment experiencessuch as the Blanton Museumat the University of Texas

Austin; and campus-widelaptop initiatives such as at

Winona State University. In-creasingly, mobile learningwill feature rich, dynamicportal applications such asthose available to students at-tending the Wharton Busi-ness School at the Universityof Pennsylvania.

The FutureMobile Landscape

Will 2005 stand out as the year when mobile learningtak es off in the UnitedStates? Will mobile learningd e l i v e r o n t h e e l u s i v epromise of better learningthrough technology? In hisdiscussions of the impact of

disruptive technologies,C l a y t o n C h r i s t i a n s e nnoted that innovations,though initially not as reli-able as the tool or practicethey supplant, do bringabout significant changew h e n t h e y a r e f i n a l l y

adopted on a broad scale.19In describing the possiblechanges that mobile tech-nologies are likely to in-troduce in teaching, learn-ing, and research practice,Penny Wilson has de-scribed mobile wirelessd e v i c e s s u c h a s c e l lphones, handhelds, andnotebook computersastools of mass disruptionthat are going to help

spark a period of innova-tion for learning technol-ogy stakeholders of allkinds. 20 The success ofmobile learning will ulti-mately revolve around amosaic of rich convergedexperiences. These expe-riences will rest, in turn,on a foundation of con-

verged network and de-vice technologies, wireless

services, rights manage-ment, content manage-m ent, search m anag e-ment, and transactionalprocessing power. Suc-cessful mobile learningwill demand a rich presen-tation layer that runs effi-ciently on a variety of plat-forms and a variety ofform factors. Effective mo-bile learning programswill require new digital

com m unication sk ills,new pedagogies, and newpractices. Luckily, as weanticipate the arrival of 3Gand 4G technologies, wehave time to prepare forthe oncoming wave oflearning innovation.e

Notes

1. Mobile Touches All Facets ofLife (excerpt from The Econo-

mist), San Francisco Chronicle, March 15, 2005, B7.2. Robby Robson, personal communication with the

author, January 21, 2005.3. Kenneth Green, The 2004 Campus Computing Project,

.4. Bryan Alexander, M-Learning: Emerging Peda-

gogical and Campus Issues in the Mobile LearningEnvironment, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Re-search (ECAR) Bulletin, vol. 2004, no. 16 (August2004), a publication of ECAR (http://www.

educause.edu/ecar). See also Bryan Alexander,Going Nomadic: Mobile Learning in HigherEducation, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5(September/October 2004): 2835, .

5. Ellen D. Wagner and Robby Robson, EducationUnplugged: Mobile Learning Comes of Age, pre-sentation at the Annual Meeting of the NationalLearning Infrastructure Initiative, New Orleans,Louisiana, January 24, 2005; Colleen Carmean,blog entry, January 24, 2005, .

6. David Metcalf, Stolen Moments for Learning,eLearning Developers Journal, March 2002.

7. Wayne Hodgins, The Future of Learning Ob-jects, presentation at the Learning ObjectsForum, Menlo Park, California, September 3,

2002.8. Ellen D. Wagner, Will Learning Survive Our

Good Intentions?, in Transforming Culture: An Ex-ecutive Briefing on the Power of Learning (Char-lottesville, Va.: Batten Institute at the DardenGraduate School of Business Administration, Uni-versity of Virginia, 2002), 4752.

9. Robert Zemsky and William F. Massy, Thwarted In-novation: What Happened to eLearning and Why(Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania,Learning Alliance for Higher Education, 2004).

10. For example, see Richard E. Clark, ReconsideringResearch on Learning from Media, Review of Edu-cational Research,vol. 53, no. 4 (1983): 44560.

11. Kevin Mullet, The Essence of Effective Rich In-ternet Applications, Macromedia White Paper,November 2003.

12. Telecommunications Industry Association, 2005Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast,.

13. Waiting on Mobile, San Francisco Chronicle ,March 15, 2005, C1.

14. Cellphone Users Send 217.7 bn SMS in 2004,China Daily, January 20, 2005, .

15. Eilif Trondsen, Global Perspective on mLearn-ing, presentation at the Macromedia Higher Edu-cation Leadership Forum, San Francisco, Califor-nia, February 24, 2005, .

16. John Blau, WCDMA Has More Than 16 MillionUsers Worldwide, Infoworld, January 6, 2005,

.

17. Mullet, Effective Rich Internet Applications.18. Robert Tercek, welcoming remarks, Game Devel-

opers Conference, San Francisco, California,March 8, 2005.

19. Clayton M. Christiansen, The Innovators Dilemma:When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail(Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press,1997).

20. Penny Wilson, Where Macromedia Education IsHeaded, presentation at the Macromedia HigherEducation Leadership Forum, San Francisco, Cal-ifornia, February 24, 2005.


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