Learning has just acquired a new – nimbler – form. While e-learning is still being used as a supplementary tool to the conventional forms of learning, a new method of knowledge addition called m-learning has emerged in the global scenario.M-learning or mobile learning refers to the deployment of training programmes on wireless handheld devices, like cell phones and personal digital assistants.Not many in India would have heard of the m-learning concept, as it requires the use of advanced phones with 3G technology or BlackBerry devices.
The field of learning through technology is a vast one with subtle distinctions among its various branches. Distance learning incorporates all forms of instruction in which instructor and student are physically removed from one another by time or space from traditional correspondence courses to web-based instruction. Electronic or e-learning incorporates all forms of online instruction using personal computers.
Mobile learning is enabled by the use of portable computing devices, such as PDAs, palmtops, smartphones, and tablet PCs, communicating over wireless networks. The use of computing in teaching and learning is being extended to spaces beyond the traditional classroom and, within the classroom, teachers and learners are gaining increased flexibility and new opportunities for interaction. Mobile learning is a key theme because this unfettering of teaching and learning with technology has the potential to enable learning experiences that are more collaborative, more richly contextualized, and continuously accessible.
Students, who have traditionally used their time on public transport to catch up on required reading or last-minute revision, Mobile Learning has been catching up for quite a while.
By blending more conventional learning with mobile phones, PDAs and handhelds, you can experience flexible learning that extends the use of ICT beyond the classroom. M-learning benefits all types of learners, from those at primary schools, secondary schools and FE colleges, to those at universities and employers.
By enabling learning on the go, m-learning is the perfect solution for today’s mobile community.The combination of wireless technology and mobile computing is resulting in escalating transformations of the educational world.
M-learning can enhance learning by putting students in a real context and make the process of learning more appealing, motivating, interesting. Students may maximize their acquisition of skills,competencies, may optimize their time of studying. Students simply go out from their classroom, offices, they are not compelled to stay in a place with a personal computer/laptop. They learn really and immediately, everywhere, in any time, while they are walking, travelling, doing their routine actions, and above all “in motion.
M-learning has been used to help those students who are outside formal education, who have abandoned their studies, teenagers no longer motivated by traditional curricula, and to prevent the risk of leaving school. Students using mobile phones and smart-phones to learn mathematics through SMS with the help of a tutor in an informal environment, out of school, outside. They could send text messages, keep in touch with friends, play computer games, learn by doing.
M-learning can also offer educational opportunities to impaired students in order to overcome some of the barriers encountered in a traditional learning. Motor impaired students may access to PDAs and mobile phones more easily because they are light and easy to handle. Visual impaired learners can use PDAs with text to speech software installed. Deaf learners can take advantages of the rich visual content of PDAs such as photos, images. Dyslexic learners may receive benefits from navigating web resources and also use the rich visual material offered by PDAs..
If the future is already here, where can we find it?
Mobile learning can be used as a ‘hook’ to re-engage disaffected youth. It is around us. It is in the air-literally. Industry has been taking advantage of the fact that computers without wires allow new applications and processes. In addition to mobility, we can access the Internet any time, any place.
Mobile technology is changing the classroom in obvious ways. Wireless Internet access is often depicted by pastoral scenes of students gathered around the proverbial tree with their laptops. However, the scene not often shown is the nervous faculty member competing with the Internet for students' attention.
There are some clues about the future. Signity Solutions paint a picture of the future where anyone can contribute to the reflection of reality on the Internet. Others are using mobility to explore spaces that could not be accessed before.
Learn With Us: Signity Solutions
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