|Contents | Abstract | Preface | 1 Introduction | 2 Theoretical foundation for mobile education | 3 Methodology and data collection | 4 Data analysis | 5 Conclusion | References| Print out from the forum |
Bekkestua - Norway, January 15th, 2003

Preface

"Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence."
- Abigail Adams, First Lady of U. S.

This report marks the end of our undergraduate studies for the award of a Bachelor degree in information systems at the Norwegian School of Information Technology.

Preparation for the report began in autumn 2001 when one of the group members working with distance education expressed his fascination for the subject mLearning. Given the current trend towards wireless networks, the notion of learning using a mobile device quickly drew the interest of the remaining group members.

It is through our continuous interaction with many people that we have managed to produce this report. Our primary indebtedness is to our supervisor, Ms. Eva Schwencke. Eva has been our guiding light throughout the entire writing process, and has relentlessly provided us with moral support. We also wish to thank Dr. Morten Flate Paulsen of NKI Internet College (Norway) and Mr. Torstein Rekkedal of NKI Distance Education (Norway), for feedback, active participation in our study and giving us new perspectives.

Some who have made invaluable contributions in the course of our work include:

Dr. Clark Quinn of OtterSurf Labs (USA), Dr. Desmond Keegan of International Distance and Online Education (Ireland), Dr. Georg Ströhlein of FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany), Dr. Heikki Kynäslahti of University of Helsinki (Finland), Dr. Helmut Fritsch of FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany), Dr. Paul G. Shotsberger of University of North Carolina at Wilmington (USA), Ms. Sandi Barber of The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Canada), Mr. Johan Lundin of University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Rune Haugen of Mobilelearning Ltd. (Norway), Mr. Tommy Strandvall of Åbo Akademi Univerity (Finland), Ms. Tove Kristiansen of Intermedia (Norway) and Mr. Kristian Folkman of Research and Educational Network (USA).

This report is divided into five main chapters and a separate appendix section.

Chapter 1: “Introduction” provides you with a background to this report. We also present the problem, pose research questions and discuss our assumptions.

Chapter 2: “Theoretical foundation for mobile education” looks at relevant theories, technologies and previous work that can be applied to mLearning.

Chapter 3: “Methodology and data collection” looks at the choice of research design, research approach, population and sample selection. The research strategy has been outlined as well as discussions on the validity and reliability of our report. This chapter also illustrates how we went about collecting our primary data and the manner in which we used secondary data. Empirical data from our study is also presented here.

Chapter 4: “Data Analysis” contains an analysis and discussion of empirical data in light of mLearning theory, our assumptions, primary and secondary data.

Chapter 5: “Conclusion” concludes our report and suggests areas for future research. We have also given an appraisal of our work.

Appendix: (separate section this is a 1,2MB pdf file) Shows all tables used when collecting data for our research, including all answers from those who participated in our study. A separate table of contents is provided for this section.

All members of the group have acquired new insights while working on this report.

To the Introduction