Mobile Learning: Definition, Uses and Challenges

Abstract

New mobile platforms, connected seamlessly to the Internet via wireless access, become increasingly more powerful as each day passes. Smartphones and tablet computers, as well as other ultraportable devices, have already gained enough critical mass to be considered mainstream devices, being present in the daily lives of millions of higher education students. Whole firms, devoted solely to developing high-quality and high engagement content to these devices, have emerged, populating an application market of thousands of teaching applications (apps) focused on diverse higher education topics, from physics and calculus to anatomy and law. Many universities throughout the world have already adopted or are planning to adopt mobile technologies in many of their courses as a better way to connect students with the subjects they are studying. These new mobile platforms allow students to access content anywhere/anytime to immerse himself/herself into that content (alone or interacting with teachers or colleagues via web communication forms) and to interact with that content in ways that were not previously possible (via touch and voice recognition technologies, for instance). The study of such technologies and their possible uses for higher education, as well as the impacts they can have on stimulating more active participation and engagement with the course subjects and research in higher education, while at the same time fostering collaboration among students and even different institutions, is the goal of the proposed chapter. Through the evaluation of the teacher/student acceptance and adoption of such mobile technologies, this chapter plans to provide a thorough overview of the possibilities and consequences of mobile learning in higher education environments as a gateway to ubiquitous learning – perhaps the ultimate form of learner engagement, since it allows the student to learn, access and interact with important content in any way or at any time or place she/he might want.

Citation

Brantes Ferreira, J., Zanela Klein, A., Freitas, A. and Schlemmer, E. (2013), "Mobile Learning: Definition, Uses and Challenges", Wankel, L.A. and Blessinger, P. (Ed.) Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Mobile Applications: Smartphones, Skype and Texting Technologies (Cutting-Edge Technologies in Higher Education, Vol. 6 Part D), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-9968(2013)000006D005