Beginners guide to mlearning: Some observations to provide context

This is one of a series of posts about mobile learning using smart devices. I will be adding more as the paradigm matures.

Since the advent of mobile or cellular phones in the eighties they have been objects of desire. Initially they represented prosperity and status, owned by the affluent or powerful. In the nineties they became must-have accessories. In the noughties they moved beyond fashion—though the iPhone remains a fashion statement—to function, be that business or leisure. The migration from mobile to smart, and the long awaited arrival of useable tablets in the form of the iPad, took mobile device usage to a new plane. Their development reflects the evolution of the Internet, so that when the Web became a social playground, with the arrival of Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, the devices on which we consume these social networking platforms became social too. It is a symbiotic relationship between device and content, with each driving the other to greater heights.

Some Interesting Stats (if you like that kind of thing)

The explosion in the sales and projected sales of mobile devices vs. desktop or even laptop computers shows that there is an increasing shift towards mobility in device purchasing, as you can see in the table from Gartner. 

Worldwide Devices Shipments and Projections by Segment (Thousands of Units)

Device Type	2012	2013	2014	2017
PC (Desk-Based and Notebook)	341,263	315,229	302,315	271,612
Ultramobile	9,822	23,592	38,687	96,350
Tablet	116,113	197,202	265,731	467,951
Mobile Phone (~25% smartphones)	1,746,176	1,875,774	1,949,722	2,128,871
Total	2,213,373	2,411,796	2,556,455	2,964,783

Source: Gartner (April 2013)

Perhaps more interesting for training designers is the push for schools to provide tablets for students (Times Educational Supplement: Technology - Governments seek tablets for all as takeover continues). Whatever your feelings on the place of government in education, it is increasingly clear that tomorrow’s workforce will probably regard smart devices as a common piece of educational hardware.

Smartphones are being used by one sixth of the world for lots more than making phone calls (http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/smartphone/). Tablets and smartphones are becoming—realistically, have become—the digital content consumption devices of choice. For digital learning designers and developers, this is an important shift. We have a whole new world of possibilities and challenges that are opening up; some of these are technological and just as many are educational and cultural. So when should we embrace the new mobile world, and when are we best to stick with traditional, PC digital learning options or classrooms?

This is not an either or question. In the digital space, there may be times when only a PC will do—screen size being an obvious advantage of these devices—but there are other, non-physical, drivers. As we have become more familiar with the idea of carrying our everyday communications—TV, telephone, newspaper, book—in our pocket, it is only logical this paradigm should expand. Mobile officeware, in the form of platforms such as Office365, Google Apps and OfficeSuite, means that we can now do our mail, read documents, view presentations and even hold meetings on our smartphone or tablet anywhere; on the train, in a café, or sitting on a beach. The social impact of this “always on” culture is not up for discussion here; let’s just accept that many millions of people are always connected. (If you are interested in the psychology of always being connected, have a look at Sherry Turkle’s article, http://sodacity.net/system/files/Sherry-Turkle_The-Tethered-Self.pdf. It is a little old [2006], but intriguing, as we now have even greater historical perspective).

The Classroom in Your Pocket

We are all familiar with the classroom training archetype; people come into a classroom and are presented with new information which they, hopefully, assimilate and then use in their working lives. There is usually a manual, some presentation materials, some exercise materials and possibly equipment, and an instructor. Let’s think about what these thing are. In a florid, but ultimately perceptive article, Leander (2010), in The Changing Social Spaces of Learning: Mapping New Mobilities, says that the classroom is like a house; there are lots of energies flowing into it—water, gas, electricity, morning delivered newspaper, TV, radio, and so forth. A classroom is just the same. All of the materials listed previously are simply energies which hopefully engage and educate the student.

We are now in a place where the classroom just went into our pocket with the office. We carry around with us a Dr Who’s Tardis of educational and informational possibilities. It is as big as the Internet and as small as a bar of chocolate. And there are any number of energies that can flow into that environment—video, audio, text, simulations, et al. The problem with something so huge and brimming with possibilities it that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between what we can do with it and what we should do.

Are You Already Too Late?

If you Google mobile learning you may well get the impression that, if you are thinking about going mobile, you are already too late. Today “mlearning” gets you 991,000 hits on Google (“m-learning” get a staggering 7,550,000!). That’s a lot of people who are offering either solutions for or comments on mobile learning. 

DON’T PANIC!

Mlearning is still very new, so remember the old adage about sex at 16: everyone is talking about it, but only a few are doing it (and they aren’t doing it very well). Don’t be rushed into migrating everything you have to mobile platforms. Take some time, maintain your focus on business need and good educational design. When you identify possible benefits, build a pilot and review the outcomes, so that each deployment improves on the last.