If you have studied mobile learning in the academic literature, it is a field fixated on defining itself which suggests, perhaps, some structural flaws in its own rendering. Every paper begins more or less with a definition of what mobile learning is, which doesn’t seem to be the case with more mature fields. The issue is that mobile learning is a mature field; it has been around for a few decades now. The literature just doesn’t reflect that with its preponderance on acceptance models, granular observations at specific sites with little generalization, and little underlying theory.
I have always supported a definition of mobile learning that moves beyond the normal tropes of anytime, anywhere configuration and into something a bit more cognitive. I have mentioned it before here on this blog and it keeps evolving so I will keep sharing it. Parts of this are borrowed directly from Sharples and other figures from the mlearning literature and parts are my own.
Tags: definition • Higher Education, • mLearning • Mobile Learning