Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers

This book offers a useful introduction and insight into the whole issue of mobile learning and has at its core a set of twelve case studies of ‘diversity and honesty’ (p. 74) The use of mobile technologies for learning appears to offer benefits for learners and teachers in terms of flexibility and accessibility, but innovators are relatively scarce and systematic and balanced reports of their experiences harder to source.

We are in the age of the iPhone, the Blackberry and mobile game playing devices. Most of us, whether teacher or student, carry multifunctional mobile devices – even relatively inexpensive mobile phones can now access the internet, take high quality digital photographs and record sound and video.

The case studies at the heart of the book are predominantly from UK based higher education organisations, although the US, Scandinavia, Far East and business are also represented. Subject areas covered are diverse and include music composition, language learning, medical studies and education. Mobile devices are used in the case studies for a range of purposes including content delivery, communication with and between learners, and learner support. Most case studies focus on the use of PDAs (usually lent to the learners for a short term project), but the use of phones, laptops and ebooks is also covered.

The succinct and well organised presentation of the case studies adds to their value – there are clear explorations in most of the positive and negative aspects of the authors’ experiences. Problems with technology, funding, usability and organisational issues are described openly and provide useful pointers for others considering the adoption of similar technologies.

Most of the case studies report on projects undertaken in the early 2000s and it is interesting to speculate whether similar issues would be encountered in more up to date projects examining mobile learning in the Web 2.0 age. The chapters surrounding and supporting the case studies cover a range of issues from the terminology and technology of mobile learning (this latter chapter showing signs of being out of date in places already), issues of pedagogy, usability and accessibility.

The chapter on usability is particularly valuable, as it brings together a range of issues from different case studies. That on accessibility might have less value to some readers – there is a clear bias towards the UK situation and little wider exploration of issues raised.

The book closes with a useful chapter on implementation issues which looks outwards to the bigger topic of technological diffusion and helpfully draws together important factors such as staffing issues, organisational change, support, quality and legal and copyright issues. The concluding chapter summarises the reasons for using mobile learning along with benefits and pitfalls and raises possible questions for future research.

This book can be recommended to educators and trainers developing or using mobile learning. Most of the materials in the contextual chapters (and useful glossary) will endure, and the case studies provide a useful and interesting snapshot of some of the projects undertaken by mobile learning pioneers and early adopters. Whilst the technologies used in future mobile learning initiatives may differ from those used in the projects reported in the book, some of the issues faced may be similar, particularly those relating to human and organisational factors, and it is helpful that we can learn from the experiences of others.