What is this all about?

The learning process and its goals have to be reflective of the demands of the age. The age we have been living in for the past 20 odd years is commonly identified as the Information Age. 'Information' refers to the manyfold and still ongoing increase in storage capacity of electronic devices that allows for the accumulation of information and knowledge. The consequences for the learning process and its goals are numerous, but the ones relevant for this work are:

Information overload and the subsequent need to sieve out pertinent information,

• which leads to the change in information consumption making it more dosed, fragmented, sporadic and expected to be provided on-demand (Downes, 2005). This induces fundamental changes in the learning materials design and provision patterns. 

Information overload is followed by habitual media overload when information is received simultaneously through two or even three channels, e.g., watching a TV while texting and having a conversation,

• which opens new opportunities for knowledge transmission through employment of various media or, even better, through a combination of media. 

Finally, the nature of the Information Age is such that constant presence online and a tendency for oversharing of non-pertinent and/or personal information have become a common denominator for a majority of digital natives. At first glance, one might exclaim 'The horror! The horror!' to ubiquitous and incessant twitting, status updating and snapchating. There is an argument to be made, however, that, if digital natives can confidently navigate through this informational chaos and since networking skills came to be viewed as desirable for employers, educators should not only not shy away from these trends but embrace them and exploit them to their advantage by transporting learning and teaching experiences online, to mobile devices (Downes, 2005). 

• It is a chance to better connect to students and present them with a tailored learning experience through actions that already come naturally to them while offering instant gratifications and shot-term goals as motivation boosters (Downes, 2005). 
• Moreover, it is a chance to encourage knowledge production and collaboration (again, since students do so seamlessly in their virtual lives). *One thing to look out for here is sharing of content without actual learner's input (analysis, critique, elaboration or source acknowledgement)*
• Lastly, it is a chance to overcome a barrier between formal and informal learning thanks to the processor capacity and versatility of mobile devices. 

All of this has, of course, been the educational buzz of the past decade. As Quinn (2011) aptly summarises: "The future of e-learning is social. ... Mobile devices will make this ... available ubiquitously and support a new level of creativity." The prospects seem to be indeed great, but there is a lot to be done before we can reach these 24/7 collaborative heavens both in terms of hard- and software and pedagogical theories that efficiently incorporate information technology.

Finally, it is necessary to emphasise that overreliance on technology, no matter how promising or advanced, can lead to the same pitfalls as at the dawn of the eLearning era. Technology is by no means a be-all and end-all of future education; nor is it a mere tool allows stakeholders (mainly, teachers and students) to fall back into familiar patterns and do the same routine over and over only faster, cheaper and with less effort. What technology is is "a catalyst for change" (Educause). Technology in education is neither good nor bad, but it is an opportunity to improve, revamp, create, engage and connect. Of course, this opportunity has to be handled with caution and regard to technology limitations and shortcomings.

The purpose of this blog is, thus, to define mLearning and to investigate the place of mobile devices and mLearning as such in the current educational process. Another goal it to look into practical issues that most users of mobile devices for education have to face.

References:

Downes, S. (2005). E-Learning 2.0. Retrieved from http://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=1104968

Mobile Teaching Versus Mobile Learning. (2011, March 29). Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/mobile-teaching-versus-mobile-learning

Quinn, C. N. (2011). Designing MLearning : Tapping Into the Mobile Revolution for Organizational Performance. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.