Mobile learning is a new and emerging field that is difficult to define. This document discusses efforts to conceptualize mobile learning and provides some preliminary definitions. It summarizes that mobile learning can be defined based on the portable technologies used (handheld devices) or based on the learner's experiences (characteristics like spontaneity, informality, context-awareness). The document also examines differences between mobile learning and e-learning and how factors like usability, latency and connectivity may influence the nature of mobile learning.

1. IADIS International Conference Mobile Learning 2005
DEFINING MOBILE LEARNING
John Traxler
University of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK
John.traxler@wlv.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
Mobile learning is new. It is currently difficult to define, conceptualise and discuss. It could perhaps be a wholly new and
distinct educational format, needing to set its own standards and expectations, or it could be a variety of e-learning,
inheriting the discourse and limitations of this slightly more mature discipline. This paper is a preliminary attempt to
address this issue of definition and conceptualisation, and draws on recent research examining case studies from the UK
and elsewhere.
KEYWORDS
Mobile learning;
1. THE STATE OF MOBILE LEARNING
There is considerable evidence to suggest that mobile learning is growing in visibility and significance. First,
there is the growing size and frequency of dedicated conferences, seminars and workshops, both in the
United Kingdom and internationally. MLEARN 2002 (Birmingham) and MLEARN 2003 (London, which
attracted more than 200 delegates from 13 countries) were followed by MLEARN 2004 (Rome) in July 2004.
Another dedicated event, the International Workshop on Mobile and Wireless Technologies in Education
(WMTE 2002), sponsored by IEEE, took place in Sweden in August 2002 (http://lttf.ieee.org/wmte2002/).
The second WMTE (http://lttf.ieee.org/wmte2003/) was held at National Central University in Taiwan in
March 2004. Another notable event was the ICML International Conference on Mobile Learning: New
Frontiers and Challenges, 5-7, March 2003, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(http://www.umcced.edu.my/conference/mlearn/).
There are also a growing number of national and international workshops such as the June 2002 national
workshop in Telford on mobile learning in the computing discipline with 60 delegates from UK higher
education (http://www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/events) and the National Workshop and Tutorial on Handheld
Computers in Universities and Colleges series held at Wolverhampton (http://www.e-
innovationcentre.co.uk/eic_event.htm) on 11 June 2004 and Telford on 12 January 2005, each with 95
delegates. Other European events have included ‘The Social Science of Mobile Learning’, in Budapest, on 29
November 2002 (http://21st.century.phil-inst.hu/m-learning_conference/), and the Workshop on Ubiquitous
and Mobile Computing for Educational Communities: Enriching and Enlarging Community Spaces,
Amsterdam, 19 September 2003 (http://www.idi.ntnu.no/~divitini/umocec2003/), part of the International
Conference on Communities and Technologies.
Second, there have also been a rising number of references to mobile learning at generalist academic
conferences. Online Educa Berlin, the world's largest e-learning conference, annually attracts 1200
participants from over 60 countries. It includes mobile learning in its theme on Future Technologies for
Learning; the latest one was held in December 2003 (http://www.online-educa.com/en/). Issues of usability
and interaction with mobile devices are the focus of events such as the annual International Symposium on
Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, held in Italy in September 2003
http://hcilab.uniud.it/mobilehci/index.html; in Glasgow in September 2004
http://www.cis.strath.ac.uk/~mdd/mobilehci04/).
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2. MOBILE LEARNING EXAMPLES
The practice of mobile learning currently exploits both handheld computers and mobile ‘phones.
2.1 Mobile Learning Using Handheld Computers
Mobile learning using handheld computers is obviously relatively immature in terms of both its technologies
and its pedagogies but is nevertheless developing rapidly. It sometimes draws on the theory and practice of
pedagogies used in technology supported learning and others used in the classroom and the community, and
takes place as mobile devices are transforming notions of space, community and discourse (Katz & Aakhus,
2002), (Brown, 2001) and the investigative ethics and tools (Hewson et al, 2003). The term mobile learning
covers the personalised, connected and interactive use of handheld computers in classrooms (Perry, 2003),
(O’Malley & Stanton, 2002), in collaborative learning (Pinkwart et al, 2003), in fieldwork (Chen, 2003) and
in counselling and guidance (Vuorinen & Sampson, 2003). Mobile devices are supporting corporate training
for mobile workers (Gayeski, 2002), (Pasanen, 2003), (Lundin & Magnusson, 2003) and are enhancing
medical education (Smordal, 2003), teacher training (Seppala & Alamaki, 2003), music composition
(Polishook, 2005), nurse training (Kneebone, 2005) and numerous other disciplines. Mobile devices are
becoming a viable and imaginative component of institutional support and provision (Griswold et al, 2002),
(Sariola, 2003), (Hackemer & Peterson, 2005). In many of these cases, they give uniquely ‘situated’ and
‘context-aware’ learning experiences but in other cases they may be reaching remote or inaccessible learners
and supporting conventional learning or conventional e-learning.
There is developmental work that looks at the issues of extending standards to mobile learning (Shih,
2004), of delivering usable content in mobile devices (Kukulska-Hulme, 2002) and of supporting online
mobile learner communities (Salmon, 2000). There is as yet little research that looks at how the dominant
pedagogies of e-learning might translate into the mobile domain (Rudman et al, 2002), (Sharples, 2001),
(Luckin et al, 2003) and not a great deal of work that moves beyond using technologies provided by the
market-place to looking at ones underpinned by sound pedagogic theory (Rudman et al, 2003), (Lyons,
2003). The specifics of evaluation and ethical aspects of mobile learning are only starting to be considered
(Traxler, 2004), (Taylor, 2003).
2.2 Mobile Learning Using Mobile Phones
Mobile learning also covers the delivery and support of learning using mobile ‘phones and in the last five
years, mobile ‘phones have steadily assumed a place in further and higher education in the USA, the Far
East/Pacific Rim and the UK (Garner et al, 2002), (Briggs & Stone, 2002), (Alsop et al, 2002), supporting
distance learners and part-time students. There has also been a growing understanding of mobile ‘phones’
potential for supporting learning (Attewell & Savill-Smith, 2003) and of the evolution of cultural life and
social behaviour with the take up of mobile ‘phones in many parts of the world (Plant, 2001).
There is experience of using mobile phones’ to deliver educational content. One study looks at SMS in
learning Italian (Levy & Kennedy, 2005), another at learning literature (Hoppe, 2004). There is also
experience in using mobile ‘phones to provide study support (Traxler & Riordan, 2003). This work shows
that SMS can be used to provide support, motivation and continuity; alerts and reminders; bite-size content,
introductions, tips and revision; study guide structure. Experts in online learning are mapping out how to
transfer their support strategies (Salmon, 2000) to SMS and anticipate the gradual transition of any SMS
service from operational issues, through tutorial and pastoral support, to fully moderated asynchronous
conferences.
3. DEFINING MOBILE LEARNING
Mobile learning can perhaps be defined as ‘any educational provision where the sole or dominant
technologies are handheld or palmtop devices’. This definition may mean that mobile learning could include
mobile ‘phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and their peripherals, perhaps tablet PCs and
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perhaps laptop PCs, but not desktops in carts and other similar solutions. Perhaps the definition should
address also the growing number of experiments with dedicated mobile devices such as games consoles and
iPODs, and it should encompass both mainstream industrial technologies and one-off experimental
technologies.
m-learning vs. e-learning
ubiquitous
static mobile wearable
luggable
pervasive
PDA
laptop phone
PC tablet
Figure 1.
Figure 1
However any such definitions and description of mobile learning are perhaps rather technocentric, not
very stable and based around a set of hardware devices. Such definitions merely put mobile learning
somewhere on e-learning’s spectrum of portability and also perhaps draw attention to its technical limitations
rather than promoting its unique pedagogic advantages and characteristics (Figure 1). The uncertainty about
whether laptops and Tablets deliver mobile learning (Figure 2) illustrates the difficulty with this definition.
m-learning vs. e-learning
e-learning
PC
m-learning
MMS Tablet PC
SMS laptop
PDA
smartphone
Figure 2
Figure 2.
When we look at learning from the learners’ and users’ perspective, a definition of mobile learning
becomes clearer. People use a variety of words to describe the nature of learning when it is mobile. Many of
these characteristics are the core of what separates mobile learning (m-learning) from (‘tethered’) e-learning
(Figure 3) and we are beginning, just beginning, to see the emergence of a distinct mobile learning
community.
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m-learning vs. e-learning
e-learning
intelligent
personalised
interactive
media-rich
m-learning structured institutional
spontaneous
usable multimedia
situated portable ? massive
context-aware hyper-linked
lightweight
accessible
informal
personal connected
Figure 3
Figure 3.
If we look back at the examples described earlier, we can see these characteristics emerging. So there are
core characteristics that define mobile learning and these characterize mobile learning as
• Spontaneous
• Private
• Portable
• Situated
• Informal
• Bite-sized
• Light-weight
• Context aware
And perhaps soon
• Connected
• Personalised
• Interactive
Examples of these attributes can be found across many or most of the recent trials, pilots and
implementations of mobile learning but not in such a conclusive enough fashion to support a case that mobile
learning is wholly distinct from (‘tethered’) e-learning. Perhaps this will emerge as educationalists become
more confident in exploiting and integrating the diversity of ways that mobile devices can interact with the
outside world, including cameras and speech technologies. If it is to emerge, it will need to refer back to
theories and accounts of for example informal learning, situated learning and bite-sized learning that have
little connection with e-learning or other forms of technology supported learning. Incidentally this line of
argument, namely that mobile learning is potentially a distinct phenomenon when defined in terms of
learners’ experiences, also begs the question of whether some more traditional forms of learning are also
‘mobile’ – learning.
But finally, once we look more closely we see some characteristics that separate and define different
types of mobile learning experience (Figure 4). Latency is the waiting associated with a particular service
(anyone booting up a Windows PC knows latency can be quite an overhead, anyone looking at their wrist-
watch knows it needn’t be); mobile learning usability varies from reading and writing SMS text on a
matchbox-sized device to something comparable to a desktop PC and mobile learning connectivity can vary
from ‘always-on’ to ‘haven’t got any’.
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m-learning vs. e-learning
usability PC
laptop
PDA
latency
connectivity
SMS
Figure 4
Figure
4.
Again, these apparently technical characteristics will probably have direct consequences for the nature of
mobile learning (and teaching). Put simplistically, problems or limitations with usability or latency may
inhibit models of teaching that concentrate on the delivery of content whereas problems or limitations with
connectivity may hamper models of teaching and learning based on discourse and conversation. In more
practical terms, the ability to exploit educationally the popularity of standalone downloadable games may
favour a model of learning based around behaviourist practice-and-drill whilst the ability to exploit
educationally any fashion for beaming or peer-to-peer connectivity may underpin a more conversational
model of learning. These issues are discussed at greater length elsewhere (Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler,
2005).
4. CONCLUSION
This paper attempts to summarise the factors that will influence our understanding of mobile learning in the
coming years. This understanding will itself influence the progress and direction of mobile learning and its
perception and acceptance by the wider educational community. The definition and depiction of mobile
learning as ‘merely’ portable e-learning is a gradualist position which will ease its diffusion but weaken its
contribution whereas the definition and depiction of mobile learning as something wholly new and distinct is
a radical position that will make diffusion and acceptance more problematic but maintain its identity and
coherence. What we have not considered here is the extent to which mobile learning could draw on
discourses outside e-learning.
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