The advance of mobile technologies have turned handheld devices a part of people’s daily life, such as in communication and entertainment. Meanwhile, educators strive to facilitate learning by applying mobile technology and appropriate learning strategies. Nowadays mobile devices, such as smart phones, have equipped with location information receiver, camera, RFID reader, and other environmental awareness sensors. These can provide rich and interactive multimedia learning content for educational purpose. In addition, appropriate learning strategies can help educators facilitate mobile learning process and achieve their educational goals.
Most of previous work about mobile technologies has been focused varied strength to emphasize the assistance in mobile learning activity. In this review study, we take more practical points of view to describe how mobile technologies facilitate mobile learning activity. The advanced mobile technology provides users with two important features in recent mobile learning research, situated context and ubiquitous mobility. Ubiquitous mobility has been considered and implemented in several researches in recent years (Sharples Beale, 2003; Joiner et al., 2006;
Fallahkhair, 2007). With ubiquitous mobility, students can facilitate learning activity in the outside world and connect to other peers by connecting to network. Mobile technologies offer rich content of mobile learning and deliver information effectively for students during their learning activities. The feature of mobility also makes mobile learning become more and more distributed (Chang et al., 2003; Corlett, et al., 2005; Clough, 2008). Situated learning is one of mobile learning applications (Hall & Bannon, 2006; Morken, et al., 2007; Lai, et al., 2007); it is the learning that takes place in the context corresponding to the learning materials. Situated learning provides learners with authentic learning examples which suit the learner’s
References: Brown, S. B., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32–42. Chang, C. Y., Sheu, J. P., & Chan, T. W. (2003). Concept and design of ad hoc and mobile classrooms. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19(3), 336–346. Chen, C. M., & Hsu, S. H. (2008). Personalized intelligent m-learning system for supporting effective English learning Chen, G. D., Chang, C. K., & Wang, C. Y. (2008). Ubiquitous learning website: scaffold learners by mobile devices with information-aware techniques Clough, G., Jones, A. C., McAndrew, P., & Scanlon, E. (2008). Informal learning with PDAs and smartphones. Corlett, D., Sharples, M., Bull, S., & Chan, T. (2005). Evaluation of a mobile learning organiser for university students Danesh, A., Inkpen, K. M., Lau, F., Shu, K., & Booth, K. S. (2001). Geney: designing a collaborative activity for the Palm handheld computer Dearman, D., Hawkey, K., & Inkpen, K. M. (2005). Rendezvousing with location-aware devices: Enhancing social coordination El-Bishouty, M. M., Ogata, H., & Yano, Y. (2007). PERKAM: personalized knowledge awareness map for computer supported ubiquitous learning Fallahkhair, S., Pemberton, L., & Griffiths, R. (2007). Development of a cross-platform ubiquitous language learning service via mobile phone and interactive television Gaedke, M., Beigl, M., Gellersen, H. W., & Segor, C. (1998). Web content delivery to heterogeneous platforms. 215 Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 1552. Ghiani, G., Paterno, F., Santoro, C., & Spano, L. D. (2009). UbiCicero: a location-aware, multi-device museum guide Goh T. T., Kinshuk, & Lin, T. (2003). Developing an adaptive learning system. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education 2003, 1062-1065. Hall, T., & Bannon, L. (2006). Designing ubiquitous computing to enhance children’s learning in museums. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 22, 231–243. Hourcade, J. P., & Berkel, T. R. (2008). Simple pen interaction performance of young and older adults using handheld computers Huang, W. A., & Sundaresan, N. (2000). Aurora: a conceptual model for Web-content adaptation to support the universal usability of Web-based services Huang, Y. M., Huang, T. C., & Hsieh, M. Y. (2008). Using annotation services in a ubiquitous Jigsaw cooperative learning environment Huang, Y. M., Jeng, Y. L., & Huang, T. C. (2009). An educational mobile blogging system for supporting collaborative learning Huang, Y. M., Kuo, Y. H., Lin, Y. T., & Cheng, S. C. (2008). Toward interactive mobile synchronous learning environment with context-awareness service Hwang, G. J., Tsai, C. C., & Yang, S. J. H. (2008). Criteria, strategies and research issues of context-aware ubiquitous learning Hwang, G. J., Yang, T. C., Tsai, C. C., & Yang, S. J. H. (2009). A context-aware ubiquitous learning environment for conducting complex science experiments Inkpen, K. M. (1991). Designing handheld technologies for kids. Personal Technologies Journal, 3 (1&2), 81- 89. Järvelä, S., Näykki, P., Laru, J., & Luokkanen, T. (2007). Structuring and regulating collaborative learning in higher education with wireless networks and mobile tools Joiner, R., Nethercott, J., Hull, R., & Reid, J. (2006). Designing educational experiences using ubiquitous technology Lai, C. H., Yang, J. C., Chen, F. C., Ho, C. W., & Chan, T. W. (2007). Affordances of mobile technologies for experiential learning: the interplay of technology and pedagogical practices Lundin, J., & Magnusson, M. (2003). Collaborative learning in mobile work. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 273-283 Lan, Y. J., Sung, Y. T., Chang, K. E. (2009). A mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning system for collaborative early EFL reading Lan, Y. J., Sung, Y. T., Chang, K. E. (2009). Let us read together: development and evaluation of a computerassisted reciprocal early English reading system. Computers & Education, in press. Lemlouma, T., & Layaïda, N. (2003). Adapted content delivery for different contexts. Proceedings of the 2003 Symposium on Applications and the Internet. Lemlouma, T., & Layaïda, N. (2004). Context-aware adaptation for mobile devices. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management, 106-111. Lundin, J., & Magnusson, M. (2003). Collaborative learning in mobile work. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19, 273-283. Mandryk, R. L., Inkpen, K. M., Bilezikjian, M., Klemmer, S. R., & Landay, J. A. (2001). Supporting children’s collaboration across handheld computers Monahan, T., McArdle, G., & Bertolotto, M. (2008). Virtual reality for collaborative e-learning. Computers & Education, 50, 1339–1353. Morken, E. M., Divitini, M., & Haugaløkken, O. K. (2007). Enriching spaces in practice-based education to support collaboration while mobile: the case of teacher education O’Grady, M. J., O’Hare, G.M.P., & Sas, C. (2005). Mobile agents for mobile tourists: a user evaluation of Gulliver’s Genie Paterno`, F., & Santoro, C. (2003). A unified method for designing interactive systems adaptable to mobile and stationary platforms Patten, B., Sa´nchez, I. A., & Tangney, B. (2006). Designing collaborative, constructionist and contextual applications for handheld devices Peng, H., Chuang, P. Y., Hwang, G. J., Chu, H. C., Wu, T. T., & Huang, S. X. (2009). Ubiquitous Performancesupport System as Mindtool: a case study of instructional decision making and learning assistant. Educational Technology & Society, 12(1), 107–120. Pianesi, F., Graziola, I., Zancanaro, M., & Goren-Bar, D. (2009). The motivational and control structure underlying the acceptance of adaptive museum guides – an empirical study Price, S., & Rogers, Y. (2004). Let 's get physical: The learning benefits of interacting in digitally augmented physical spaces Rogers, Y., Price, S., Randell, C., Stanton Fraser, D., Weal, M., & Fitzpatrick, G. (2005). Ubi-learning integrates indoor and outdoor experiences Sakamura, K., & Koshizuka, N. (2005). Ubiquitous computing technologies for ubiquitous learning. Proceeding of the International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer