About Me

I am currently a phd student studying educational technology in the Patton College at Ohio University. My research interests include technology access in rural and developing areas.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Reflections on Mobile Learning

The fact that mobile technology has changed the world is something all fields are facing. From the disruption of traditional businesses like transportation, retail, banking and television, the traditional modes of teaching and learning is not safe from technological disruption[i]

Mobile learning(mLearning) is one of the areas where there has been huge leaps and bounds in expanding what is possible when it comes to teaching and learning [ii]. AAs highlighted by Squire, the possibilities are endless and the innovations are not ending anytime soon.

While imagining the possibilities and endless opportunities mlearning has opened up, one of the questions raised by Kurzweill and echoed implicitly by Romrell et.al, and numerous is the issue of use and consistent engagement with the technology by students for various reasons. As Romrell et.al pointed out, sometimes students need to be taught how to use their own devices beyond the information acquisition and dissemination functions.

This highlights the issues of secondary access especially in education[iii] . While a lot of students have access to technology, using it for more functional operations as required in education is not a strength. In addition, the technical and management issues that affect standardizing educational tech products across all the different phone platforms is not easy. This puts the onus on the instructional designer to be mindful of design choices and practices and how they affect learning and teaching for all students, not just the ideal student.



[i] (Bill Joy, 2004; Chalmers, 2010; Kurzweil, 2005)
[ii] (Dikkers, Martin, & Coulter, 2012; Romrell, Kidder, & Wood, 2014)
[iii] (Dolan, 2015; Helsper, 2012; Norris, 2001; Warschauer, 2003)

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