Mobile Education - A Glance at the Future: 5 Conclusion

Conclusion

"Look back to learn how to look forward."
-Joe Girard, Salesperson and Author

We conclude by answering each of the four research questions that address the purpose of this report. Important moments from sections 5.1 to 5.4 have then been extracted to form an overall conclusion which is presented in section 5.5. Finally, we have provided a genuine evaluation of our work.

5.1 Technologies that impact mLearning
The conclusions on technology are based on answers from research question one: Which technologies (both existent and non-existent) and / or factors do you think will have the biggest impact on the adaptation of mLearning?

High bandwidth wireless data transfer such as UMTS. Technologies such as UMTS allow for the transfer of large chunks of data, including voice and multimedia. Voice and multimedia are particularly important for streaming media presentations.

Communication costs have to be low for mLearning to be a useful tool in education. Current data transfer prices are too high to warrant the use of mobile devices in education. A low customer base in turn means that content suppliers will be reluctant to develop courses designed for mobile devices. What is needed is an earning model that is affordable to the general public and lucrative enough for the telecommunications companies.

3G mobile devices including PDAs with integrated communication technology will be rich in features that are targeted towards mobile education. These include large screens, and support for voice and multimedia data.

Wireless Internet access is the backbone of mLearning. Wireless Internet access is a prerequisite for a true mLearning experience. It allows for efficient distribution of course content located on remote servers at any time and place, while also providing a means for peers and tutors to communicate.

5.2 The properties of the device
The conclusions on the properties of the device are based on responses to our second research question: Which properties of the mobile device do you think will have the biggest impact on how fast mLearning is adapted?

Internet access is an essential ingredient for mLearning. The mobile device should be able to connect to the Internet via a wireless connection, and download necessary course content.

The mobile device should also be user friendly. By this, we mean that the usability of the mobile device should be such that it not only offers a rich set of menu items, but also has a degree of in-built artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence may include its ability to automatically detect that the user is in a wireless zone, so that it may synchronize with a remote server.

5.3 The working situation of a student
The conclusions on the change in the working situation of the student are based on responses to our third research question: How will mLearning change the work situation of a student?

mLearning provides the student with a lot of flexibility both with regards to the choice of when and where to study as well as personalization of the mobile devices to suit their individual needs.

The student may be able to study in real life situations and be able to work in the field while being mentored by a teacher at a remote location.

The students may need to be more self-disciplined in how and when they want to study. The freedom gained from mLearning may be too demanding for some students to manage.

5.4 The working situation of a teacher
The conclusions on the change in the working situation of the teacher are based on responses to our fourth research question: How will mLearning change the work situation of a teacher?

Like the mobile student, the teacher will benefit from increased flexibility.

Students will also expect them to respond to queries promptly, irrespective of time and place. In other words, there will be no clear-cut division between tutoring hours and spare time.

It is unlikely that the teachers will be overloaded, as long as adequate student support services are in place and the course content is of a pedagogically and academically high standard.

5.5 Summary
We conclude that wireless Internet is a must for mLearning to take off. To cater for huge chunks of data that is common in most educational websites, there is a need for high-speed wireless data transfer. However, this should be at affordable costs to the general public. The biggest impact mLearning will have on both student and teacher is increased flexibility. As a result, learning will be able to take place in other environments. Increased flexibility will place some demands on both teacher and student. It will require the student to have a high level of discipline in order to achieve his or her academic goals, while the teacher might have no clear-cut division between working hours and leisure time.

The key to making mLearning courses widely adapted is to target devices that have already have penetrated the market and have good usability. There is no use creating courses for a device that is not widely adapted. The user will not buy a new device for mLearning, but might use an existing device for something new, such as education. Technology might help in education by providing an easier way to communicate among peers as well as between students and teachers. The possibility of instant help from a peer or tutor creates an ideal environment for collaborative learning.

5.6 Future research
In the course of writing this report, an additional research question emerged. While the initial focus was on the impact of mobile technologies on the working situation of students and teachers, we also found it essential to develop a strategy for deploying student support services that were specifically tailored for mLearning.

We also feel that it as an important issue to ask when the student prefers to use mobile learning to other forms of education. Who are the students willing and able to use mLearning in their studies? When is mobile learning preferable to other forms of learning and teaching?

5.7 Evaluation of our study
Our report was written over a period of five months. Given that we all had full-time jobs we found this time-frame too short.

Our other challange was scheduling when we could meet at school for group discussions. Since all reside in geographically dispered locations it was not always possible to sit together and discuss issues. We depended a lot on chat sessions via Microsoft's MSN messenger software and phone calls.

Despite these shortcomings, we feel that we met most of the requirements for our study. Our research was thoroughly conducted and is well documented. We fell short of time while analysing our primary data. We partly attribute this to our underestimation of the complexity of analyzing our data in correlation to existing theories.

To the references