Mobile Technology and its Applications in Instructional Conversation

Abstract

Mobile learning (mLearning) is the most recently developed category of electronic learning (eLearning), both of which are valuable tools in instructional conversation. What makes mLearning unique, and thus deserving of its study as an independent concept, is mobility; learners have the opportunity to go not just beyond the classroom, but beyond the limits of desktop and even laptop computers to engage in instructional environments. As an independent concept, mLearning has its own hardware and network technology, as well as a relationship with and difference from eLearning. As a component of instructional conversation, mLearning provides learners with opportunities to engage in discussion from almost any location at any time, making the conversations much more natural and beneficial to the group. mLearning technology is, to support the uniqueness of the discipline, mobile. Devices that people carry on a regular basis and can access at almost any location are what drive mLearning practice. Working in concert with these devices is mobile networking technology, which provides the mobile learner with access to instructional material from a wide variety of locations and frees them from being tied to a cabled network connection at a static location.