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Mobile learning inspires the hard-to-reach, claims report

A new approach to learning through mobile technologies may offer some answers to the problem of how to motivate the large number of young adults who are not in employment, education or training.

That’s the view of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) who this month publish findings from a new report into mobile technologies and learning.

The report contains the findings of a three-year pan-European research and development project, called m-learning, that set out to investigate whether mobile technologies - such as smartphones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) - can engage ‘hard to reach’ young people in learning, and help those with literacy and numeracy difficulties.

The project ended with a trial of mobile learning materials and systems involving nearly 250 young people (aged 16-24) in the UK, Italy and Sweden.

According to the report findings, mobile learning can:

* Engage young people who have been put off by traditional education methods. (Almost all the young people in the trials were enthusiastic about mobile learning and nearly two-thirds said they were likely to take part in further learning in the future. The majority were most interested in using a laptop, PC or mobile device).

* Help young people to improve their literacy and numeracy skills and to recognise their existing abilities. (About four out of five felt that the mobile games could help them to improve their reading, spelling or maths. Mentors reported perceived improvements in these areas, particularly among those young people initially described as being ‘less able’ or with ‘very limited ability’).

* Help to remove some of the formality from the learning experience and engage reluctant learners. (Collaborative mobile learning tools were popular, but some young people appreciated the opportunity offered by mobile devices to learn independently and privately in their own time).

* Help to combat resistance to technology and bridge the gap between mobile phone literacy and ICT literacy. (One group of IT-shy young adults studying English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), were more confident about using PCs after using the mobile palmtop computers).

* Help young people to remain more focused for longer periods

* Help to improve self-confidence. Being trusted with ‘cool’, expensive technology was a new experience for some young people, which helped to raise self esteem, build trust and encourage greater personal responsibility.

Jill Attewell, Programme manager for the m-learning project, LSDA, said: “There are many different ways of learning. The traditional classroom situation doesn’t suit everyone. What we set out to discover was whether we could use young people’s interest in, and enthusiasm for, mobile technologies to engage them in learning.

"The findings were very positive. It’s clear that mobile phones and PDAs have enormous potential as learning tools - and we now have pocket sized computers with the ability to deliver learning and provide access to online systems and services that are very sophisticated. Although the aim was to find out whether this mode of learning worked with the disengaged, it clearly has huge potential for others as well."

The m-learners gained access to m-learning project systems and materials via a microportal. The ‘mPortal’ contains a series of mini web pages with navigation that points to:

• Learning materials
• Mini web Page Build tools
• A collaborative activities tool (the mediaBoard); peer-to-peer communication services (messages, chat, discussion and blogs)
• The learning management system
• Simple help guides for the system
• Links to places on the Web that may be helpful or interesting for the target audience

The two mobile devices most used in the project were hybrid PDA/phone devices running the Pocket PC operating system (the XDA II) and hybrid phone/PDA devices running the Symbian operating system (Sony Ericsson P800/P900s).

External links

‘Mobile technologies and learning’ by Jill Attewell is available from: Information Services, LSDA, Regent Arcade House, 19- 25 Argyll Street, London W1F 7LS. It can also be downloaded from www.lsda.org.uk/files/pdf/041923RS.pdf

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