Company Blog

Spotlight on m-Learning

Posted At : June 15, 2011 8:41 PM

A recent article by Archana Venkatraman in elearning age magazine shines the spotlight on mobile learning and leading solutions providers including Learnosity. Our CEO Gavin Cooney spoke to Venkatraman and shared his thoughts on the future of m-learning.

The article concedes that the growth opportunities for m-learning are linked to the ubiquity of attractive, user friendly and engaging mobile devices. These devices are used in times when employees or students have a few spare minutes to spend on m-learning, such as, on the bus or waiting for a class or meeting to start. These users are already so familiar with the technology and interfaces of the devices that there are no barriers or learning curves.

Gavin sets out some of the benefits of m-learning,

"Mobile devices are apt for language learning. They encourage reflection and improve learner confidence as learners can practice the language within their comfort zones."

Content is seen as a key part of the recipe for m-learning success. Gavin maintains that in order to be effective, content should be suitable for the medium. In mobile learning, less is often more, as learners may be overwhelmed if presented with large amounts of information.

With the launch of smart phones and tablet devices m-learning has ‘best of both worlds’ vehicles to bring it forward – small, mobile devices with significant computing power.

"The real push came when the mobile phone became a multi-purpose device that can be used for communication, accessing data, playing games, performing calculations, access and upload multi-media content and most of all interact seamlessly with the web."

Learnosity has leveraged the power of these smarter devices to launch a range of apps for iPhone, iPod, Android and iPads.

Experts agree that technology is an enabler to learning. Gavin has this advice for those contemplating m-learning,

"Don’t focus on m-learning before deciding whether it will serve the purpose, add value to e-learning and most importantly whether you need it."

Read more about how Learnosity is helping our clients achieve learning and assessment objectives, in our Case Studies section.