Augmented Reality With Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning: Immersive, Enriched, Situated, and Seamless Learning Experiences

Mobile Learning: Just In Time, Just Enough And Just For Me

There are many definitions about what the m-learning is. On the other hand, many of these previous definitions are technology centric and not valid anymore as the mobile technologies advancing rapidly. Traxler (2005) defines m-learning as any educational provision where the sole or dominate technologies are hand held and palmtop devices; According to Trifonova (2003) m-learning is any form of learning (studying) and teaching that occurs through a mobile device, or in a mobile environment; Quinn (2000) defines m-learning as e-learning through mobile computational devices and Harris (2001) defines it as the point at which mobile computing and e-learning intersect to produce an anytime, anywhere learning experience. The distinction among e-learning, m-learning and u-learning is the technology they depend on. With this in mind, we define mobile learning as any learning form that uses mobile technologies to provide just in time, just in place, just for me experience.

Within a holistic perspective, e-learning is the marriage of technology and education (Siemens, 2002) and m-learning is extension of e-learning (Kinshuk, 2003). It is further explained that m-learning actually means “mobile e-learning” (Mehdipour & Zerehkafi, 2013). Finally, ubiquitous learning (u-learning) appears as extension of e/m-learning. Figure 1 illustrates these conceptual shifts from e-learning to m-learning then to u-learning (Park, 2011).

Figure 1.

Comparisons and flow of e/m/u-learning (Park, 2011)

Digital, Nomadic, Anytime, Anywhere

According to CISCO (2013), at the end of the year 2013, mobile devices connected to each other exceeded the whole human population all around the world. This data indicates that educators and learners should comprehend and take advantage of the opportunities derived from differences between the ‘physical vs the digital and the sedentary vs the nomadic’ (Alexander, 2004) paradigm shift that emerged as a natural consequence of technological developments. In addition to that situation, considering that only 20 percent of what’s learned on the job comes from formal learning (Cross, 2005), m-learning rises as the complementary part of lifelong learning.