Mobile Learning as a kind of Distance Learning
Mobile learning, now commonly abbreviated to "mLearning", has different meanings for different communities. Although related to e-learning and distance education, it is distinct in its focus on learning across contexts and learning with mobile devices. One definition of mobile learning is: Learning that happens across locations, or that takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by portable technologies. More here
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Hello dear participants and especially Anna!
M-learning!!! Sounds very, very interesting. As for me, I always try to use modern technologies in my education. Electronic dictionary has become a part of my life and I think that some students of foreign language department will share this opinion with me. I learn new words using Lingvo tutor program and that is very convenient for me. I watch the word, type it several times and even hear its pronunciation. Doesn’t it sound extremely useful? We live in the 21st century and the era of electronic devices helps us to study the language in some easier way. As far as M-learning is concerned one may also install Lingvo Tutor on his Smartphone, pocket pc etc. There are a lot of programs that can be installed on the phones and what you need is to use your brains and desire of course.
But still my final idea is simple: we can use m-learning only for our own self-advancement but not as the original way to get our education. Who knows, maybe I am not right and my future children will get their M-learning degree)))).
Dima.
Hi Anna and Dima,
Thanks a lot for the interesting discussion. You, Dima, have absolutely a good prediction about future M- or E-learning. Your children will definitely get their M-learning dgree. I am sure.
Anna, can you give an example of Mobile educational gaming?
Thank in advance.
Warmly,
Nina Lyulkun
First of all, thank you, Dima and Nina, for your attention.
Now I’d like to answer the question concerning mobile educational gaming. To be honest, I can’t say I use my phone much in order to learn something new… mostly to speak or send SMS. But, the question is really good! Nowadays there’re lots of educational games of various types which may be used in order to gain knowledge. Of course, it’s understood that kids like to play more than just to study. Then why not combine business with pleasure?
Mobile educational games are very popular, indeed, and sometimes kids even don’t suspect they’re playing something like that. First of all, there’s such a kind of games called “Quests” on both computers and mobile phones. Playing such games, children use their brains, think hard to solve this or that problem, find the answers to the questions, etc. Thus, motivation here is really high as everyone would like to continue playing and get to the next level.
Well, I’ve also got information about particular companies which create such Mobile educational games, programmes and just explain the things:
***
Ambient Insight identified the five primary educational gaming areas that are expected to fuel the growth of this segment.
Knowledge-based, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of about 22 percent;
Skill-based (approximately 34 percent five-year CAGR);
Brain trainers and cognitive remediation (approximately 15 percent five-year CAGR);
Role-playing and simulation (approximately 67 percent five-year CAGR); and
Language learning (approximately 42 percent five-year CAGR)…
***
In collaboration with a local school, The Waag Society in Amsterdam has developed a concept for a 'mobile learning game'.
The game is designed for students in the age of 11-12 and employ mobile phones and GPS-technology to examine whether it's possible to provide an educational location-based experience.
In the Frequency 1550 mobile game, students are transported to the medieval Amsterdam of 1550 via mobile phone. For one to two days, they roam through the city in small groups, using GPS to know their own positions as well as other players or objects. The students - or players - will need to demonstrate their knowledge of medieval Amsterdam by doing location-based media-assignments on the city's history…
See also:
http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/soa/iJungle-game-for-kids/0,239030384,10849457s,00.htm
Thus, it would be useful for kids to play educational games than useless shooters. The only thing is left is to promote and spread such games, isn’t it?
Best regards,
Anna Maranchuk
Wow, that sounds really interesting! I think that adults can also play such games and not only kids))
LOL. I enjoy using mobile phones because we always can be available if we want to for the others. And moreover, we can use our mobile phones to reach some educational aims. We can observe educational process and it is very useful. I think this kind of learning has big prospectives in future.
Dear participants of the annual conference!
Thank you for leaving comments. I’m glad that the topic I’ve chosen is up to date. But still, it seems to me that there’s a problem. M-learning, especially educational games, are not very popular or well-known among children and adults. Frankly speaking, I’ve never played something like that on my mobile phone. Perhaps, teachers should cooperate with programmers in order to create new kinds of Mobile educational games. We also need some promotion of such games or advertisement. Being an optimist I believe that such a thing is theoretically possible. So, let's try to realize it in practice.
Best regards,
Anna Maranchuk
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