What Does the Research Say?

10 Ways That Mobile Learning Will Revolutionize Education - Fabio Sergio 

Continuous Learning

Education is getting increasingly interspersed with our daily activities. On our phones, tablets, and PCs, we download and digest life or work-related articles with instructions on how to fix our appliances or how to use a new professional software program. 

Educational Leapfrogging

The ability to instantly access educational content during pauses throughout their daily routine, or at night, or even as a running “soundtrack” that accompanies them during their tasks are all novel opportunities offered by a classroom that can follow you wherever you go.

A New Crop of Lifelong Learners (and Educators)

A by-product of the continuous learning phenomenon is the fact that the grandparents of children growing up with a touchscreen in their hands--people in their 60s today--are being pulled into Mobile Learning more than ever, motivated to adoption by the need to stay in touch with their grandkids. The availability of tablets and other touch-enabled devices has radically reduced the perceived complexity of computers, helping older users to more easily communicate with their middle-aged children and grandkids via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype.

Breaking Gender Boundaries, Reducing Physical Burdens 

In parts of the globe where young women may still not be allowed to access a formal education, Mobile Learning promises to be able to put girls and women of all ages in contact with high-quality education privately and on their own time. Along similar lines Mobile Learning also helps bring educational material within the reach of people with extreme disabilities.

A New Literacy Emerges: Software Literacy

Mobile Learning could usher in a boom of interest in learning software programming languages, which could very well become a new universal language. This is already happening; Numerous start-up web-based businesses today such as Codecademy teach people via interactive lessons how to understand and write software programs. Barely a year old, they now have more than a million "students" and has raised over $3 million in venture-capital funds. 

Education's Long Tail

Examples:

YouTube

Vimeo

TED-Ed

Salman Khan - The Khan Academy

The range of Mobile Learning materials does not need to be limited to higher education but can easily encompass valuable, practical know-how, from grandmothers showing how to prepare traditional recipes to companies demonstrating how to install solar panels on mud huts.

Teachers and Pupils Trade Roles

Imagine kids who are raised with programming and video-production knowledge from very early ages creating educational materials for their peers, or even to teach adults, exposing them to very young people’s points of view of the world. Imagine a 12-year-old boy explaining how effectively to communicate health information to him as a tutorial for nurses, physicians, and parents.

New Opportunities for Traditional Educational Institutions

The Mobile Learning phenomenon will not necessarily compete with well-established schools but actually complement and extend their current offerings. An intriguing new model was offered when Harvard and MIT announced that they have teamed up to offer free online courses via a joint nonprofit organization, edX. Both universities will observe how students respond to the courses to better understand distance learning.

A Revolution Leading to Customized Education

The key for successfully channeling the Mobile Learning revolution will not simply be about digitizing current educational systems. The real appeal will be allowing people to choose their own paths, leverage their talents, and follow their passions and callings.