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"mLearning has been a buzzword in eLearning for decades. Nearly every year someone speculates that the time for mLearning has finally arrived – and just about that often we discover that still – very few people actually are producing their learning content for mobile devices. You can imagine then that it is with some trepidation that I enter into the arena, to echo voices that have often proclaimed a start to the mobile land-rush." reports Allen Partridge.
Nonetheless, the landscape is clearly changing all around us.
A recent (2012) study from Sterling Brands and Ipsos, commissioned by Google, found that Americans (participants were from Boston, Austin and Los Angeles) engage with screens (computer, tablet, television & smart phones) 90% of the time. Participants reported that only 10% of their daily interactions with media were with printed publications. It’s a paradigm altering realization when you consider that all but a few interactions with media, are with rich – screen based media. We are truly a screen interfacing nation. The same study went on to identify staggering numbers of individual daily interaction with various devices, and reported that Americans typically spend a lot of time interacting with the screens on their devices and watching their televisions.
According to the same study, we spend an average of 4.1 hours each day interacting with screens. About a quarter of our interactions (24%) are spent on a personal computer, while nearly 4/10 (38%) of those screen interactions are with our smart phones. 9 % of daily interactions are with a Tablet, and the remaining time is spent before a television. Interestingly, the study also revealed that we are attempting to multi-task much of that time. The study found that 77% of TV viewers are using a smart device while they watch television.
It makes sense in this context to also examine the potential of mLearning to add value to learning overall. Just as the behavior of people has changed to adapt to the presence of mobile devices (consider obsessive texting and facebooking over lunch for example) it is also an open door to consider expanding the opportunity for learning content because it is unhinged from the traditional office environment and because of the additional tools that are exposed thanks to the tablet and smartphone capabilities.
You could summarize this enhanced capacity as follows;
- Mobile learners are free to learn anywhere.
- Mobile learners are free to learn anytime.
- Mobile learners are able to move while learning.
- Mobile learners can be tracked physically – the location of their learning becomes a potential learning tool.
- Mobile learners can make use of the conventions of touch computing, including gestures and pinch zooms for example.
- Mobile learners can interact with their devices in unexpected ways – like tilting or flipping a phone to communicate an idea or give an instruction.
- Mobile learners can communicate with others using their devices.
- Mobile learners can create images and video with their devices.
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