Pedagogical Requirements for Mobile Learning: A Review on MOBIlearn Task Model
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paper_title: Learners on the Move: Mobile Modalities in Development Studies

paper_content:

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portal...
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paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
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paper_title: A Learning Design Studio in Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Mobile learning is a young and vibrant field of research and practice. Teaching a university course on mobile learning is a challenge: how do you connect the theories and case studies to students’ experience, and make them relevant for their educational practice? This paper reports on one such course which was conducted using a Learning Design Studio format: working in groups, students identified an educational challenge, conducted independent search and analysis of the relevant literature, devised an innovative solution and evaluated it. The studio approach has been used successfully by several researchers in the past. The course described here was conducted at the University of Haifa in spring 2012. During the course, students engaged with core literature, reviewed case studies, and designed, implemented and evaluated six mobile learning projects. We argue that the Learning Design Studio format is particularly suitable for teaching about mobile learning, as it situates students learning in a genuine context and allows them to learn through conducting meaningful research.
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paper_title: End user's perspective of usability in mobile learning system

paper_content:

Nowadays, mobile information technologies are spreading fast and wide across countries. Mobile devices have potential to be integrated into the classroom nowadays. The traditional lecture and tutorial in class is still continuing but with the fast increasing of smartphones, it requires an increasing portion of long life learning (LLE) elements. Many higher educational providers (HEP) are having difficulty in coming up with an effective method in producing pervasive learning. This issue is rising to the higher level on mobile platform due to the increasing popularity of the smartphones and touchscreen phones today such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Symbian based phone. Statistics collected in 2010 reported that more than 300 million smartphones are produced and sold which takes off 19 percent of the total mobile communications device sales. It recorded a 72 percent of increase compared to year 2009. The aim of the paper is to discuss a process for developing a usability mobile e-learning system framework that can reduce or overcome the existing usability issues concerning end-users. This is a preliminary study whereby the data collection has not been carried out yet.
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paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
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paper_title: Challenges in Human-Computer Interaction Design for Mobile Devices

paper_content:

Designs in human-computer interaction (HCI) aim to create interactive products that are easy and enjoyable to use. However, owing to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI and the different value systems of interface users from various backgrounds and experiences, it is highly challenging for designers to create applications which are usable and affordable to such a heterogeneous set of users. Nowadays, more and more people are heard complaining about the bad interaction design of mobile devices. Is this problem caused by the bad design of products or by the users' ignorance of the logics of human- machine interaction design? This paper aims to explore the human-computer interaction challenges in designing applications in both hardware and software for mobile devices. It also makes an attempt to investigate the principles for designing mobile interfaces that result in greater user acceptance and figure out possible solutions to the problems with interaction designs for mobile devices.
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paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
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paper_title: Mobile Learning: Small Devices, Big Issues

paper_content:

Full text of this item is not currently available on the LRA. ::: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com, Doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9827-7.
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paper_title: Harnessing the Potential of Mobile Technologies for Children and Learning

paper_content:

This chapter considers ways to harness the potential of mobile technologies for learning in children. Mobile technologies, combined with high-quality teaching, authentic assessment approaches, and extended learning beyond the school day, have unique potential to help children develop important new skills they need to succeed in the 21st century. Based on their ubiquity, low cost, and familiarity, the anytime, anywhere availability of mobile devices can support deeper learning opportunities and promote a more integrated 360-degree learning experience for children. Mobile technologies can help practitioners assess and monitor student progress while building new tools for effective instruction, and create personalized experiences that can help integrate informal and formal learning Mobile technologies also have the potential to reach and inspire populations of children from economically disadvantaged communities and those who are geographically isolated. However, there are substantial design and market challenges to the effective use of these technologies. Multisector leadership is needed to connect disparate efforts by research, industry, and policy professionals. Through industry innovation and policy incentives, mobile technologies may support learning in new and profound ways.
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paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
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paper_title: Environmental Detectives – The Development of an Augmented Reality Platform for Environmental Simulations.

paper_content:

The form factors of handheld computers make them increasingly popular among K-12 educators. Although some compelling examples of educational software for handhelds exist, we believe that the potential of this platform are just being discovered. This paper reviews innovative applications for mobile computing for both education and entertainment purposes, and then proposes a framework for approaching handheld applications we call “augmented reality educational gaming.” We then describe our development process in creating a development platform for augmented reality games that draws from rapid prototyping, learner-centered software, and contemporary game design methodologies. We provide a narrative case study of our development activities spread across five case studies with classrooms, and provide a design narrative explaining this development process and articulate an approach to designing educational software on emerging technology platforms. Pedagogical, design, and technical conclusions and implications are discussed.
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paper_title: Evaluation of mobile learning: Students' experiences in a new rural-based medical school

paper_content:

BackgroundMobile learning (ML) is an emerging educational method with success dependent on many factors including the ML device, physical infrastructure and user characteristics. At Gippsland Medical School (GMS), students are given a laptop at the commencement of their four-year degree. We evaluated the educational impact of the ML program from students' perspectives.MethodsQuestionnaires and individual interviews explored students' experiences of ML. All students were invited to complete questionnaires. Convenience sampling was used for interviews. Quantitative data was entered to SPSS 17.0 and descriptive statistics computed. Free text comments from questionnaires and transcriptions of interviews were thematically analysed.ResultsFifty students completed the questionnaire (response rate 88%). Six students participated in interviews. More than half the students owned a laptop prior to commencing studies, would recommend the laptop and took the laptop to GMS daily. Modal daily use of laptops was four hours. Most frequent use was for access to the internet and email while the most frequently used applications were Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Students appreciated the laptops for several reasons. The reduced financial burden was valued. Students were largely satisfied with the laptop specifications. Design elements of teaching spaces limited functionality. Although students valued aspects of the virtual learning environment (VLE), they also made many suggestions for improvement.ConclusionsStudents reported many educational benefits from school provision of laptops. In particular, the quick and easy access to electronic educational resources as and when they were needed. Improved design of physical facilities would enhance laptop use together with a more logical layout of the VLE, new computer-based resources and activities promoting interaction.
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paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning: Small Devices, Big Issues

paper_content:

Full text of this item is not currently available on the LRA. ::: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com, Doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9827-7.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: Five Steps to Conducting a Systematic Review

paper_content:

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are a key element of evidence-based healthcare, yet they remain in some ways mysterious. Why did the authors select certain studies and reject others? What did they do to pool results? How did a bunch of insignificant findings suddenly become significant? This paper, along with a book1 that goes into more detail, demystifies these and other related intrigues. ::: ::: A review earns the adjective systematic if it is based on a clearly formulated question, identifies relevant studies, appraises their quality and summarizes the evidence by use of explicit methodology. It is the explicit and systematic approach that distinguishes systematic reviews from traditional reviews and commentaries. Whenever we use the term review in this paper it will mean a systematic review. Reviews should never be done in any other way. ::: ::: In this paper we provide a step-by-step explanation—there are just five steps—of the methods behind reviewing, and the quality elements inherent in each step (Box 1). For purposes of illustration we use a published review concerning the safety of public water fluoridation, but we must emphasize that our subject is review methodology, not fluoridation.
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paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
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paper_title: Student Perceptions of Mobile Learning: A Review of Current Research

paper_content:

As mobile devices become ubiquitous, it is necessary to analyze how these devices can be used for learning. This review provides a summary of 18 key studies published from 2005-2010. The review specifically focuses on student perceptions of mobile learning and offers an analysis and summary of the current research in order to better understand the direction of mobile learning in mainstream education. This paper also highlights recommendations for future research and practice.
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paper_title: Learners on the Move: Mobile Modalities in Development Studies

paper_content:

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portal...
---
paper_title: Mobile Multimedia Recommendation in Smart Communities: A Survey

paper_content:

Due to the rapid growth of Internet broadband access and proliferation of modern mobile devices, various types of multimedia (e.g., text, images, audios, and videos) have become ubiquitously available anytime. Mobile device users usually store and use multimedia contents based on their personal interests and preferences. Mobile device challenges such as storage limitation have, however, introduced the problem of mobile multimedia overload to users. To tackle this problem, researchers have developed various techniques that recommend multimedia for mobile users. In this paper, we examine the importance of mobile multimedia recommendation systems from the perspective of three smart communities, namely mobile social learning, mobile event guide, and context-aware services. A cautious analysis of existing research reveals that the implementation of proactive, sensor-based and hybrid recommender systems can improve mobile multimedia recommendations. Nevertheless, there are still challenges and open issues such as the incorporation of context and social properties, which need to be tackled to generate accurate and trustworthy mobile multimedia recommendations.
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paper_title: Podcasting for Learning in Universities

paper_content:

Podcasting for Learning in Universities details several examples of research to practice for the successful use of podcasts in Higher Education, drawing from studies in the UK, Australia and South Africa. The book offers a practical transferable model and guidelines for integrating podcasts in higher education contexts. There is a dedicated website at www.podcastingforlearning.com with further links and examples. ::: "The sheer range of ideas for using podcasts shown by the case studies, will hopefully spark off a number of ideas for ways in which practice in one subject can be re-used in another. Case studies covering reflective learning, active learning, students voices, fieldwork, distance learning and learning transferable skills, show that podcasts are flexible enough as a medium to deliver effective learning outcomes regardless of the subject." ::: ESCalate, 2nd October 2008. To read more of the ESCalate review click here. ::: "This book is exactly what is required for a wide range of potential readers - it is practical, yet derived from research; it is focused on student learning, yet has a technical component; it is leading-edge, yet it draws on many case studies." ::: Professor Robin Mason, The Open University, UK ::: "I recommend this book to all academics in higher education." ::: Peter Bullen, Ford Professor of Automotive Engineering, University of Hertfordshire, UK ::: "This book shows how podcasts can help transform the teaching and learning experience in Higher Education...a blueprint for podcast use." ::: Professor David Nicol, University of Strathclyde, Scotland ::: "The students' views are represented strongly throughout the book, which helps to make it a compelling and extremely worthwhile read." ::: Dr Linda Creanor, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland ::: "Finally, a Podcasting Bible for education!" ::: Mazlan Hasan, Senior Instructional Designer, National Institute of Education, Singapore ::: "The 10-step pedagogic model for developing podcasting provides an essential step-by-step guide for anyone venturing into this area for the first time." ::: Richard Wallis, TwoFour Learning ::: "After reading this book, I am attracted to offering another flexible learning choice. Podcasting affords active learning whether individual, cooperative or collaborative contributions, either formal or informal." ::: Denise Nelson, Course Designer, SIAST Virtual Campus, Canada ::: Contributors: Marialuisa Aliotta, Simon Bates, David Bell, Keith Brunton, Chris Cane, Annette Cashmore, Claire Chambers, Brian Cox, Chris Dennett, Stuart Downward, Palitha Edirisingha, John Fothergill, Derek France, Martin Jenkins, Mark J. W. Lee, David Livingstone, Jo Lonsdale, Kenny Lynch, Raymond Macharia, Matthew Mobbs, Richard Mobbs, Nick Mount, Dick Ng'ambi, Ming Nie, Chris Ribchester, Libby Rothwell, Gilly Salmon, Nick Short, Adam Stevens, John Traxler, Belinda Tynan and Kim Whittlestone. ::: Table of contents ::: Doubling the life of iPods ::: Podcasting in context ::: Podcasting technology ::: Podcasts and lectures ::: Podcasts and practicals ::: Podcasts and locations ::: Podcasts and feedback ::: Podcasts and online learning ::: Podcasts and distance learning ::: Podcasts and resources ::: Podcasts and students' storytelling ::: Podcasts and collaborative learning ::: Podcasts for reflective learning ::: Students' podcasts as learning tools ::: Developing pedagogical podcast ::: The future for podcasting ::: The university in your pocket: iPod therefore I am ::: Appendix: How to do podcasting - An author's guide ::: References ::: Index
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paper_title: A constructivist mobile learning environment supported by a wireless handheld network

paper_content:

There is a need to incorporate constructivist environments in the pedagogical practice. A constructivist learning environment allows students to build up their own knowledge (based on previous one) while working jointly among them in a reflexive process directed by the teacher. Wireless interconnected handhelds can introduce a space that favours constructivism and collaboration in order to achieve creation of new knowledge. We have developed a constructivist learning environment supported by handhelds, for the teaching of reading for first graders. This environment was compared to an equivalent constructivist environment without technological support, obtaining significant different learning results.
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paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: The Design and Implementation of a Mobile Learning Resource

paper_content:

The convergence of mobile communications and handheld computers offers the opportunity to develop technology that will assist individuals and groups to learn anytime, anywhere. We describe the theory-informed design, implementation and evaluation of a handheld learning device. It is intended to support children to capture everyday events such as images, notes and sounds, to relate them to web-based learning resources, to organise these into a visual knowledge map, and to share them with other learners and teachers. A working prototype system, for children aged 9–11, is discussed and evaluated, as an exemplar of personal mobile systems for life-long learning.
---
paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
---
paper_title: Environmental Detectives – The Development of an Augmented Reality Platform for Environmental Simulations.

paper_content:

The form factors of handheld computers make them increasingly popular among K-12 educators. Although some compelling examples of educational software for handhelds exist, we believe that the potential of this platform are just being discovered. This paper reviews innovative applications for mobile computing for both education and entertainment purposes, and then proposes a framework for approaching handheld applications we call “augmented reality educational gaming.” We then describe our development process in creating a development platform for augmented reality games that draws from rapid prototyping, learner-centered software, and contemporary game design methodologies. We provide a narrative case study of our development activities spread across five case studies with classrooms, and provide a design narrative explaining this development process and articulate an approach to designing educational software on emerging technology platforms. Pedagogical, design, and technical conclusions and implications are discussed.
---
paper_title: Learners on the Move: Mobile Modalities in Development Studies

paper_content:

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portal...
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: Mobile Multimedia Recommendation in Smart Communities: A Survey

paper_content:

Due to the rapid growth of Internet broadband access and proliferation of modern mobile devices, various types of multimedia (e.g., text, images, audios, and videos) have become ubiquitously available anytime. Mobile device users usually store and use multimedia contents based on their personal interests and preferences. Mobile device challenges such as storage limitation have, however, introduced the problem of mobile multimedia overload to users. To tackle this problem, researchers have developed various techniques that recommend multimedia for mobile users. In this paper, we examine the importance of mobile multimedia recommendation systems from the perspective of three smart communities, namely mobile social learning, mobile event guide, and context-aware services. A cautious analysis of existing research reveals that the implementation of proactive, sensor-based and hybrid recommender systems can improve mobile multimedia recommendations. Nevertheless, there are still challenges and open issues such as the incorporation of context and social properties, which need to be tackled to generate accurate and trustworthy mobile multimedia recommendations.
---
paper_title: End user's perspective of usability in mobile learning system

paper_content:

Nowadays, mobile information technologies are spreading fast and wide across countries. Mobile devices have potential to be integrated into the classroom nowadays. The traditional lecture and tutorial in class is still continuing but with the fast increasing of smartphones, it requires an increasing portion of long life learning (LLE) elements. Many higher educational providers (HEP) are having difficulty in coming up with an effective method in producing pervasive learning. This issue is rising to the higher level on mobile platform due to the increasing popularity of the smartphones and touchscreen phones today such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Symbian based phone. Statistics collected in 2010 reported that more than 300 million smartphones are produced and sold which takes off 19 percent of the total mobile communications device sales. It recorded a 72 percent of increase compared to year 2009. The aim of the paper is to discuss a process for developing a usability mobile e-learning system framework that can reduce or overcome the existing usability issues concerning end-users. This is a preliminary study whereby the data collection has not been carried out yet.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
---
paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
---
paper_title: Pedagogical models for podcasts in higher education

paper_content:

This is a draft of a paper prepared for presentation at the EDEN Conference, 13-16 June 2007
---
paper_title: Using student generated audio to enhance learning

paper_content:

This paper explores the issues surrounding the use of audio in learning and offers an alternative to podcasting. It considers the practicalities of enabling students to generate their own audio recordings and the potential to enhance and personalise learning in a self directed way that suits their individual learning styles. There is some discussion of hardware and its accessibility, cost and ease of use as well as protocols on what audio can/cannot be recorded or shared amongst students. The paper explores different types of scenario where recording can be used beneficially and uses real student case studies to demonstrate its efficacy, as perceived by the students. There is also particular emphasis on the benefits to specific student groups, including those with English as an additional language or students with learning difficulties. In summary the paper gives evidence of how student generated audio can be embedded into the curriculum and the benefits it can bring.
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective

paper_content:

Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. The paper presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation, embedded in the unique timespace contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: Mobagogy, a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and The Bird in the Hand Project, which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective. Keywords: mobile learning; pedagogy; socio-cultural theory; framework; pedagogical features (Published: 3 February 2012) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20 : 14406 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14406
---
paper_title: Considering the Smartphone Learner: an investigation into student interest in the use of personal technology to enhance their learning

paper_content:

Ownership of mobile smartphones amongst the general consumer, professionals and students is growing exponentially. The potential for smartphones in education builds upon experience described in the extensive literature on mobile learning from the previous decade which suggests that the ubiquity, multi-functionality and connectivity of mobile devices offers a new and potentially powerful networked learning environment. This paper reports on a collaborative study conducted by an undergraduate student with the support of two members of academic staff. The research sought to establish the extent to which students are autonomously harnessing smartphone technology to support their learning and the nature of this use. Initial findings were explored through student interviews. The study found that students who own smartphones are largely unaware of their potential to support learning and, in general, do not install smartphone applications for that purpose. They are, however, interested in and open to the potential as they become familiar with the possibilities for a range of purposes. The paper proposes that more consideration needs to be given to smartphones as platforms to support formal, informal and autonomous learner engagement. The study also reflects on its collaborative methodology and the challenges associated with academic innovation.
---
paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: Mobile Multimedia Recommendation in Smart Communities: A Survey

paper_content:

Due to the rapid growth of Internet broadband access and proliferation of modern mobile devices, various types of multimedia (e.g., text, images, audios, and videos) have become ubiquitously available anytime. Mobile device users usually store and use multimedia contents based on their personal interests and preferences. Mobile device challenges such as storage limitation have, however, introduced the problem of mobile multimedia overload to users. To tackle this problem, researchers have developed various techniques that recommend multimedia for mobile users. In this paper, we examine the importance of mobile multimedia recommendation systems from the perspective of three smart communities, namely mobile social learning, mobile event guide, and context-aware services. A cautious analysis of existing research reveals that the implementation of proactive, sensor-based and hybrid recommender systems can improve mobile multimedia recommendations. Nevertheless, there are still challenges and open issues such as the incorporation of context and social properties, which need to be tackled to generate accurate and trustworthy mobile multimedia recommendations.
---
paper_title: Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies

paper_content:

Part I What Students Need From Learning Technologies 1. Teaching as Mediated Learning 2. What Students Bring to Learning 3. The Complexity of Coming to Know 4. Generating a Teaching Strategy Part II Analysing the Media for Learning and Teaching 5. Narrative Media 6. Interactive Media 7. Adaptive Media 8. Communicative Media 9. Productive Media Part III The Design Methodology 10. Designing Teaching Materials 11. Setting up the Learning Context 12. Designing an Effective Organisational Infrastructure
---
paper_title: End user's perspective of usability in mobile learning system

paper_content:

Nowadays, mobile information technologies are spreading fast and wide across countries. Mobile devices have potential to be integrated into the classroom nowadays. The traditional lecture and tutorial in class is still continuing but with the fast increasing of smartphones, it requires an increasing portion of long life learning (LLE) elements. Many higher educational providers (HEP) are having difficulty in coming up with an effective method in producing pervasive learning. This issue is rising to the higher level on mobile platform due to the increasing popularity of the smartphones and touchscreen phones today such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Symbian based phone. Statistics collected in 2010 reported that more than 300 million smartphones are produced and sold which takes off 19 percent of the total mobile communications device sales. It recorded a 72 percent of increase compared to year 2009. The aim of the paper is to discuss a process for developing a usability mobile e-learning system framework that can reduce or overcome the existing usability issues concerning end-users. This is a preliminary study whereby the data collection has not been carried out yet.
---
paper_title: Mobile HCI and the learning context : an exploration

paper_content:

Recent advances in context-awareness provide the facility to track people and objects in the real world and to use these as a trigger for digital events to occur. We are interested in how context-aware mobile technologies can be designed to facilitate learning, and in so doing, to support the cycle between situated action in the real world and subsequent objective reflection. However, what it is to contextualize learning remains unclear. Therefore, we delineate emerging constructs of context and explore the issues surrounding the complexity of each for the learning process. We then draw out some implications for research into the design of contextualized learning applications for mobile devices.
---
paper_title: Activity theory for designing mobile learning

paper_content:

Mobile computing offers potential opportunities for students' learning. It is important to have an operational understanding of the context in developing a user interface that is both useful and flexible. The author believes that the complexity of the relationships involved can be analysed using activity theory. Activity theory, as a social and cultural psychological theory, can be used to design a mobile learning environment. This paper presents the use of activity theory as a framework for describing the components of an activity system for the design of a context-aware mobile learning application.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: The Focus Problem in Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Mobile learning has a lot of potential for supporting learning in situations such as in a museum, at a tourist sight or when exploring biological phenomena at a riverside. There learners can interact with their environment and still make use of the advantages of computational power. However, we have found many of such projects hindered by placing the technology too much in the focus of the learner. Instead of interacting with the environment, we found the learners interacting with the device, heads down and ignoring the environment. We found the issue of focus to be a massive problem, one which needs a completely new metaphor for the design of an educational and technical setting. Until now, the mobile devices have been interpreted as small desktops, always in the foreground of the learners? focus. Instead, we propose a different approach, deduced from the usage of mobile phones. Mobile applications need to be designed explicitly to free the learners? focus and push the application to the background. The good news is that the actual changes to be made in existing systems are not as fundamental as one may think.
---
paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
---
paper_title: Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective

paper_content:

Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. The paper presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation, embedded in the unique timespace contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: Mobagogy, a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and The Bird in the Hand Project, which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective. Keywords: mobile learning; pedagogy; socio-cultural theory; framework; pedagogical features (Published: 3 February 2012) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20 : 14406 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14406
---
paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
---
paper_title: Environmental Detectives – The Development of an Augmented Reality Platform for Environmental Simulations.

paper_content:

The form factors of handheld computers make them increasingly popular among K-12 educators. Although some compelling examples of educational software for handhelds exist, we believe that the potential of this platform are just being discovered. This paper reviews innovative applications for mobile computing for both education and entertainment purposes, and then proposes a framework for approaching handheld applications we call “augmented reality educational gaming.” We then describe our development process in creating a development platform for augmented reality games that draws from rapid prototyping, learner-centered software, and contemporary game design methodologies. We provide a narrative case study of our development activities spread across five case studies with classrooms, and provide a design narrative explaining this development process and articulate an approach to designing educational software on emerging technology platforms. Pedagogical, design, and technical conclusions and implications are discussed.
---
paper_title: Learners on the Move: Mobile Modalities in Development Studies

paper_content:

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portal...
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies

paper_content:

Part I What Students Need From Learning Technologies 1. Teaching as Mediated Learning 2. What Students Bring to Learning 3. The Complexity of Coming to Know 4. Generating a Teaching Strategy Part II Analysing the Media for Learning and Teaching 5. Narrative Media 6. Interactive Media 7. Adaptive Media 8. Communicative Media 9. Productive Media Part III The Design Methodology 10. Designing Teaching Materials 11. Setting up the Learning Context 12. Designing an Effective Organisational Infrastructure
---
paper_title: End user's perspective of usability in mobile learning system

paper_content:

Nowadays, mobile information technologies are spreading fast and wide across countries. Mobile devices have potential to be integrated into the classroom nowadays. The traditional lecture and tutorial in class is still continuing but with the fast increasing of smartphones, it requires an increasing portion of long life learning (LLE) elements. Many higher educational providers (HEP) are having difficulty in coming up with an effective method in producing pervasive learning. This issue is rising to the higher level on mobile platform due to the increasing popularity of the smartphones and touchscreen phones today such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Symbian based phone. Statistics collected in 2010 reported that more than 300 million smartphones are produced and sold which takes off 19 percent of the total mobile communications device sales. It recorded a 72 percent of increase compared to year 2009. The aim of the paper is to discuss a process for developing a usability mobile e-learning system framework that can reduce or overcome the existing usability issues concerning end-users. This is a preliminary study whereby the data collection has not been carried out yet.
---
paper_title: MOBILE APPLICATION FOR MOBILE LEARNING

paper_content:

The paper presents a pilot case study intended to examine how socio-cultural and situated learning aspects are reflected in learning experiences within a novel mobile learning environment, Math4Mobile, a cellular application for mathematics learning. The case study focused on four students in a mathematics methods course who were engaged in a mathematics project based on the cellular applications. We found that use of the cellular environment enhanced the participants’ engagement in the modeling of real life scenarios and contributed to collaboration between participants. These effects can be attributed to the mobility, flexibility, and availability of cellular tools, and they point to a possible contribution of mobile tools to mathematics education.
---
paper_title: Further Development of the Context Categories of a Mobile Learning Framework

paper_content:

Building on the literature theorizing mobile learning, Frohberg, Goth and Schwabe (2009) provide a framework that has been developed to review and categorize mobile learning projects published before the end of 2007. Analyzing projects according to six factors, one of which is context, they consider the use of four categories (independent, formalized, physical, and socializing) to be a robust means of classification. This short paper examines the contexts they identify and considers whether any of them can adequately categorize our own mobile learning project, an SMS text messaging based simulation. We then suggest the need for a fifth context, that of the virtual, to develop the scope of the framework and adequately categorize our project.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
---
paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
---
paper_title: Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective

paper_content:

Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. The paper presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation, embedded in the unique timespace contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: Mobagogy, a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and The Bird in the Hand Project, which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective. Keywords: mobile learning; pedagogy; socio-cultural theory; framework; pedagogical features (Published: 3 February 2012) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20 : 14406 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14406
---
paper_title: Appropriation of Mobile Cultural Resources for Learning

paper_content:

This article proposes appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices-as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them-as cultural resources across different cultural practices of use, in everyday life and formal education. The article analyses the interrelationship of users of mobile devices with the structures, agency and practices of, and in relation to what the authors call the "mobile complex". Two examples are presented and some curricular options for the assimilation of mobile devices into settings of formal learning are discussed. Also, a typology of appropriation is presented that serves as an explanatory, analytical frame and starting point for a discussion about attendant issues.
---
paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
---
paper_title: Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation

paper_content:

Wireless data communications in form of Short Message Service (SMS) and Wireless Access Protocols (WAP) browsers have gained global popularity, yet, not much has been done to extend the usage of these devices in electronic learning (e-learning). This project explores the extension of e-learning into wireless/handheld (W/H) computing devices with the help of a mobile learning (m-learning) framework. This framework provides the requirements to develop m-learning applications that can be used to complement classroom or distance learning. A prototype application was developed to link W/H devices to three course websites. The m-learning applications were pilot-tested for two semesters with a total of 63 students from undergraduate and graduate courses at our university. The students used the m-learning environment with a variety of W/H devices and reported their experiences through a survey and interviews at the end of the semester. The results from this exploratory study provide a better understanding on the role of mobile technology in higher education.
---
paper_title: Learners on the Move: Mobile Modalities in Development Studies

paper_content:

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portal...
---
paper_title: Mobile Learning Projects--A Critical Analysis of the State of the Art

paper_content:

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.
---
paper_title: A constructivist mobile learning environment supported by a wireless handheld network

paper_content:

There is a need to incorporate constructivist environments in the pedagogical practice. A constructivist learning environment allows students to build up their own knowledge (based on previous one) while working jointly among them in a reflexive process directed by the teacher. Wireless interconnected handhelds can introduce a space that favours constructivism and collaboration in order to achieve creation of new knowledge. We have developed a constructivist learning environment supported by handhelds, for the teaching of reading for first graders. This environment was compared to an equivalent constructivist environment without technological support, obtaining significant different learning results.
---
paper_title: Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

paper_content:

Contact address to September 2005: Mike Sharples, Centre for Educational Technology and Distance Learning, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT. Tel: +44 121 414 3966. Contact address from September 2005: Mike Sharples, Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Email: mike.sharples@nottingham.ac.uk There is a need to re-conceptualise learning for the mobile age, to recognise the essential role of mobility and communication in the process of learning, and also to indicate the importance of context in establishing meaning, and the transformative effect of digital networks in supporting virtual communities that transcend barriers of age and culture. In this paper we offer a framework for theorising about mobile learning, to complement theories of infant, classroom, workplace and informal learning. A related aim is to inform the design of new environments and technologies to support mobile learning, since the work described here has been developed through a series of projects to design mobile learning technology. In the tradition of Activity Theory we analyse learning as a cultural-historical activity system, mediated by tools that both constrain and support the learners in their goals of transforming their knowledge and skills. We separate two perspectives, or layers, of tool-mediated activity. The semiotic layer describes learning as a semiotic system in which the learner’s object-oriented actions are mediated by cultural tools and signs. The technological layer represents learning as an engagement with technology, in which tools such as computers and mobile phones function as interactive agents in the process of coming to know. These layers can be prised apart, to provide either a semiotic framework to promote discussion with educational theorists to analyse learning in the mobile age, or a technological framework for software developers and engineers to propose requirements for the design and evaluation of new mobile learning systems. Or the layers can be superimposed to examine the dynamics and co-evolution of learning and technology.
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paper_title: The Design and Implementation of a Mobile Learning Resource

paper_content:

The convergence of mobile communications and handheld computers offers the opportunity to develop technology that will assist individuals and groups to learn anytime, anywhere. We describe the theory-informed design, implementation and evaluation of a handheld learning device. It is intended to support children to capture everyday events such as images, notes and sounds, to relate them to web-based learning resources, to organise these into a visual knowledge map, and to share them with other learners and teachers. A working prototype system, for children aged 9–11, is discussed and evaluated, as an exemplar of personal mobile systems for life-long learning.
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paper_title: A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

paper_content:

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).
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paper_title: Considering the Smartphone Learner: an investigation into student interest in the use of personal technology to enhance their learning

paper_content:

Ownership of mobile smartphones amongst the general consumer, professionals and students is growing exponentially. The potential for smartphones in education builds upon experience described in the extensive literature on mobile learning from the previous decade which suggests that the ubiquity, multi-functionality and connectivity of mobile devices offers a new and potentially powerful networked learning environment. This paper reports on a collaborative study conducted by an undergraduate student with the support of two members of academic staff. The research sought to establish the extent to which students are autonomously harnessing smartphone technology to support their learning and the nature of this use. Initial findings were explored through student interviews. The study found that students who own smartphones are largely unaware of their potential to support learning and, in general, do not install smartphone applications for that purpose. They are, however, interested in and open to the potential as they become familiar with the possibilities for a range of purposes. The paper proposes that more consideration needs to be given to smartphones as platforms to support formal, informal and autonomous learner engagement. The study also reflects on its collaborative methodology and the challenges associated with academic innovation.
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paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
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paper_title: Using student generated audio to enhance learning

paper_content:

This paper explores the issues surrounding the use of audio in learning and offers an alternative to podcasting. It considers the practicalities of enabling students to generate their own audio recordings and the potential to enhance and personalise learning in a self directed way that suits their individual learning styles. There is some discussion of hardware and its accessibility, cost and ease of use as well as protocols on what audio can/cannot be recorded or shared amongst students. The paper explores different types of scenario where recording can be used beneficially and uses real student case studies to demonstrate its efficacy, as perceived by the students. There is also particular emphasis on the benefits to specific student groups, including those with English as an additional language or students with learning difficulties. In summary the paper gives evidence of how student generated audio can be embedded into the curriculum and the benefits it can bring.
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paper_title: End user's perspective of usability in mobile learning system

paper_content:

Nowadays, mobile information technologies are spreading fast and wide across countries. Mobile devices have potential to be integrated into the classroom nowadays. The traditional lecture and tutorial in class is still continuing but with the fast increasing of smartphones, it requires an increasing portion of long life learning (LLE) elements. Many higher educational providers (HEP) are having difficulty in coming up with an effective method in producing pervasive learning. This issue is rising to the higher level on mobile platform due to the increasing popularity of the smartphones and touchscreen phones today such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Symbian based phone. Statistics collected in 2010 reported that more than 300 million smartphones are produced and sold which takes off 19 percent of the total mobile communications device sales. It recorded a 72 percent of increase compared to year 2009. The aim of the paper is to discuss a process for developing a usability mobile e-learning system framework that can reduce or overcome the existing usability issues concerning end-users. This is a preliminary study whereby the data collection has not been carried out yet.
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paper_title: MOBILE APPLICATION FOR MOBILE LEARNING

paper_content:

The paper presents a pilot case study intended to examine how socio-cultural and situated learning aspects are reflected in learning experiences within a novel mobile learning environment, Math4Mobile, a cellular application for mathematics learning. The case study focused on four students in a mathematics methods course who were engaged in a mathematics project based on the cellular applications. We found that use of the cellular environment enhanced the participants’ engagement in the modeling of real life scenarios and contributed to collaboration between participants. These effects can be attributed to the mobility, flexibility, and availability of cellular tools, and they point to a possible contribution of mobile tools to mathematics education.
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paper_title: Further Development of the Context Categories of a Mobile Learning Framework

paper_content:

Building on the literature theorizing mobile learning, Frohberg, Goth and Schwabe (2009) provide a framework that has been developed to review and categorize mobile learning projects published before the end of 2007. Analyzing projects according to six factors, one of which is context, they consider the use of four categories (independent, formalized, physical, and socializing) to be a robust means of classification. This short paper examines the contexts they identify and considers whether any of them can adequately categorize our own mobile learning project, an SMS text messaging based simulation. We then suggest the need for a fifth context, that of the virtual, to develop the scope of the framework and adequately categorize our project.
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paper_title: Appropriation of Mobile Cultural Resources for Learning

paper_content:

This article proposes appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices-as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them-as cultural resources across different cultural practices of use, in everyday life and formal education. The article analyses the interrelationship of users of mobile devices with the structures, agency and practices of, and in relation to what the authors call the "mobile complex". Two examples are presented and some curricular options for the assimilation of mobile devices into settings of formal learning are discussed. Also, a typology of appropriation is presented that serves as an explanatory, analytical frame and starting point for a discussion about attendant issues.
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paper_title: Investigating acceptance toward mobile learning to assist individual knowledge management: Based on activity theory approach

paper_content:

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning systems. In the research, we developed an m-learning system for learners' knowledge management and invited 152 participants who knew how to use the m-learning system then report on their experience. The results show that enhancing learners' satisfaction, encouraging learners' autonomy, empowering system functions, and enriching interaction and communication activities have a significant positive influence on the acceptance of m-learning systems.
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paper_title: Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation

paper_content:

Wireless data communications in form of Short Message Service (SMS) and Wireless Access Protocols (WAP) browsers have gained global popularity, yet, not much has been done to extend the usage of these devices in electronic learning (e-learning). This project explores the extension of e-learning into wireless/handheld (W/H) computing devices with the help of a mobile learning (m-learning) framework. This framework provides the requirements to develop m-learning applications that can be used to complement classroom or distance learning. A prototype application was developed to link W/H devices to three course websites. The m-learning applications were pilot-tested for two semesters with a total of 63 students from undergraduate and graduate courses at our university. The students used the m-learning environment with a variety of W/H devices and reported their experiences through a survey and interviews at the end of the semester. The results from this exploratory study provide a better understanding on the role of mobile technology in higher education.
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Title: Pedagogical Requirements for Mobile Learning: A Review on MOBIlearn Task Model

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Introduce the increasing popularity of mobile learning, its advantages, and the pedagogical challenges associated with designing effective mobile learning applications.

Section 2: Task model framework for mobile learners
Description 2: Present the task model framework generated from the MOBIlearn research project, detailing its components and the role it plays in the analysis stage of mobile learning design.

Section 3: The role of the task model
Description 3: Discuss the sociocognitive engineering approach of the task model, and how it informs the design of socio-technical systems for mobile learning.

Section 4: Methodology
Description 4: Introduce the systematic review methodology used to investigate the contributing factors of the task model and capture pedagogical requirements for mobile learning design.

Section 5: Framing questions for a review
Description 5: Outline the research questions derived from the task model layers to guide the systematic review.

Section 6: Identifying relevant work
Description 6: Show how relevant work is identified based on individual factors of the task model and inclusion criteria.

Section 7: Assessing the study quality
Description 7: Explain the criteria and process used to assess the quality of studies included in the review.

Section 8: Summarizing the evidence
Description 8: Describe the process of reading and extracting relevant requirements from selected papers, and summarizing them in a table format.

Section 9: Interpreting the evidence
Description 9: Discuss how the evidence from key studies is grouped and interpreted to answer the research questions.

Section 10: Contributing factors in the task model
Description 10: Provide detailed discussion on each contributing factor in the task model (Subject, Object, Control, Context, Communication) and their relevance to mobile learning.

Section 11: Discussion
Description 11: Summarize the review findings, interpret the synthesized information, and conclude how the task model helps to understand pedagogical needs in mobile learning environments.

Section 12: Conclusion and future works
Description 12: Conclude the study, highlight the significance of the task model for mobile learning design, discuss the challenges, and propose future work direction to validate and refine the design.