Mobile Learning

by Pachler, Norbert; Bachmair, Ben; Cook, John; Kress, Gunther (CON); Seipold, Judith (CON)

• ISBN13: 9781441905840
• ISBN10: 1441905847
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-26
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

This book is a response to the increasing importance at all levels of educational policy and practice internationally in information and communication technologies as a lever for innovation and improvement in standards. The book focuses on an emergent area of digital technology, namely mobile learning. It starts by providing an overview of current debates and publications before exploring issues around cultural transformation and rationales for the use of mobile technologies in formal education. The origin of mobile devices as mass media and patterns of their use in everyday life will be considered as a prerequisite for their ability to transform sites of learning. With reference to international policy trends, the book will then examine current examples of the use of mobile technologies in school-related learning in relation to the themes of cultural transformation and technological innovation. For example, in the MyArtSpace project thirty school students explored a D-Day museum using mobile phones to help them discover information about exhibits, take photos, and record audio and text notes. Photos and notes were sent automatically from the phones to their personal museum visit webspace, thus allowing students to construct personal contexts and narratives to share with family, friends and the general public. Such examples will be discussed with reference to pedagogical practice in school contexts as well as empirical, theoretical and conceptual underpinnings. Throughout the book, there will be a focus on at-risk learners , the challenges they face for example in the areas of literacy, numeracy and intercultural competence, and how mobile learning might be used to address and overcome them. The analytical engagement with mobile learning in practice offered by this book will take the shape of a conceptual model in which pedagogical applications of mobile technologies will be viewed in ecological terms as part of a cultural and pedagogical context in transformation. In addition to current cultural and technological applications, emergent trends will be reflected.