Mobile and Wireless technologies has been used in various areas, and it begins to have a huge impact on how education takes place in several disciplines. This technology has been improved considerably, making mobile devices extraordinarily suitable and reasonable in M-Learning a reality. Wireless Response System (WRS) is a developed generation of Student Response System (SRS). It uses devices that enable students and trainers to provide definite responses to many questions during the lesson with an immediate feedback to the students about their level of knowledge and understanding. However, teaching in Arabic language needs some specific features which have been included in the existing WRS and the steps of implementing them are considered in this paper. The developed version of WRS seeks to increase the users’ interactions and engagement through adding a new function to WRS which is Arabic language. Nevertheless, some universities and institutes in Arab world signed strategic corporations with mobile service providers to start this type of services for their education branches. This paper contains an analysis of ICT penetration and the level of m-learning environments in Arabic countries.
Top1. Introduction
The traditional education process presents the learning materials to students in classrooms using a traditional way. This type of education has many disadvantages whereas, modern education depends on technology to make education process more effective and interactive.
Since a few years ago and specifically in the beginning of this century many countries use a new concept in the field of education called in English Mobile Learning and In French Le-mobile learning, which is becoming widely known.
M-learning method has been adopted in the educational field in several countries but is not widely used in Arabic countries at the moment. However, several attempts have been made to identify and discover the importance of m-learning and its use for improving the educational services and developing the existing systems. Also the benefits of using modern technology produced by telecommunications companies in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of educational programs have been studied.
Mobile and Wireless technologies has been used in various areas such as, education, travel and medical emergency. Mobile and wireless system covers two areas mobility and computing which means accessibility to users whereas wireless implies communicating without supports (Al-Fahad, 2009). Mobile and wireless technology has improved considerably, making mobile devices extraordinarily suitable and reasonable to use in m-learning environments.
Involving mobile devices in education process is providing another way of learning, by using a variety of them, such as PADS, which give great features. Also, implying the Learning Management System (LMS) and link them with Electronic voting system (EVS) offer effective solutions to display multimedia. It is properly making the communication more efficiently (Pein et al., 2009, Al-Fahad, 2009).
The current study seeks to shed light on some aspects of using mobile phones in Arabic education systems. This paper argues that technology based education (such as M-learning and E-learning) can be identified as a way to answer the increased demand in education in the developing countries in general (and particularly in the Arabic countries). The usage of modern technology for teaching within universities and schools will make the educational processes more cost-effectively and enable the training of learners so they are better prepared to live and work in a technologically based society. M-learning can represent a solution for some problems of the traditional education systems (such as limited learning opportunities for learners living on large geographical areas, etc.).
The main aim of this paper is to describe how the existing WRS system was improved so it can be used for delivering the lecture material and providing means of interaction between teachers and students in Arabic counties. The following aspects are presented in this paper:
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Understand the linguistic differences between Arabic language and English language.
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Clarify the advantages of mobile based education compared with traditional methods and the difficulties of using mobile phones in Arabic education systems.
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Determine the technical and linguistic aspects of implementing Arabic texts in the existing WRS system.