Mobile 2.0: Crossing the Border into Formal Learning?

Ownership In Tertiary Education

The metaphor of the two territories with which the chapter opened is, of course, an over-simplification. The differences are not so stark or the border so clear, and this chapter seeks to explore a more nuanced understanding of how Mobile 2.0 can enrich formal learning. Nevertheless, there is a sense that tertiary education has been seriously challenged by the phenomenon of Web 2.0/Mobile 2.0, where users generate and share content and have considerable ownership.

This has happened at a time when mobile devices—whether handhelds, or portables such as laptops—have arrived on campus largely on the learners’ own terms. These devices support what one report, based on a study in 2006 of over 400 “technology-savvy” UK students, described as an “underworld of communication and information-sharing invisible to tutors” (Conole & Creanor, 2007, p. 11). The use of “underworld” here is not so much sinister as making the point that these students, who indicate one likely future for tertiary education, use their own devices in their own ways to support their learning.