Technical Evaluation of Wireless Communications in a Mobile Learning Architecture

Due to the high growth of mobile networks and portable devices, learning process is evolving from desktop computer to mobile devices. In this sense, technologies and services that support this change are also evolving. The appearance of portable devices has made users to take part in this process from anywhere. On the other hand, architectures used in a mobile learning environment are designed to offer users the ability of participate in learning activities from its embedded devices. Campus Ubicuo is a mobile architecture over which learning services can be developed. The successful of any mobile learning platform fundamentally depends on the quality in learning services and also in the good operation of wireless technologies. In this chapter, we focus on this second aspect. We have evaluated the behaviour of wireless technologies in a mobile learning architecture when different services are offered through diverse networks.

Using Technology to Support Quality Learning for School Activities Involving Field Studies

The term mobile learning provides an image of active learning, of moving out into the world beyond the confines of the desk, beyond the classroom, beyond the school. The affordances of mobile, networked digital computers can provide learners with seamless access to and between information systems including data capture facilities and global positioning systems in real world settings. Mobile learning has come to represent a fruitful partnership between innovation in pedagogy and innovation in information and communication technologies. This chapter explores this nexus as it appears in emerging practices of a range of classroom teachers who are working to combine their aspirations for high quality student learning with the affordances of mobile technologies.

‘Intelligent Context' for Personalized Mobile Learning

There have been significant developments in higher education resulting in interest in personalised educational provision. Concomitant with these changes is the evolving capability and ubiquity of mobile technologies. To facilitate personalisation and leverage the power of mobile technologies in mobile pedagogic systems identification of individuals is a prerequisite; this can be achieved using an individual’s profile (termed context). This chapter considers the background to context with related research. Context modelling, the processing of contextual information, context matching and the context matching algorithm, ontology, and the Semantic Web technologies are introduced. Context reasoning and inference in rule-based systems is considered and the context reasoning ontology is presented with scenario-based evaluation. The chapter concludes with a discussion, consideration of future research, and open research questions.

Schools in Action

This chapter looks at the implementation and evaluation of mobile learning scenarios with locationbased features, done under the project COLLAGE (Collaborative Learning Platform Using Game-like Enhancements). Five scenarios are examined. Evaluating different implementations within the same project gives an appraisal of the technical and pedagogical value of the mobile learning scenarios, but also informs the research community of appropriate evaluation models and evaluation parameters, which are lacking in the game-based mobile learning with location-based components. The project responds to questions about designing mobile learning scenarios that are pedagogically sound and attractive to secondary school students, and presents the pedagogical evaluation of the effectiveness of mobile gamebased learning scenarios in the COLLAGE platform. The project makes a case for a close collaboration with teachers and students in elaborating and validating complex mobile learning scenarios.

Supporting Mobile Access to VLE Resources through MobiGlam

MobiGlam is a generic framework of interoperability with existing virtual learning environments (VLEs) that provides a compact and easy to use implementation of learning activity on Java enabled mobile devices. A case study was conducted at the University of Glamorgan, UK where MobiGlam was seamlessly integrated with the university’s VLE to support the delivery of computer courses at the foundation level. Such integration showed an added value to the participants and in many cases, it improved their use of the VLE. This chapter reports on the deployment, the evaluation, and the results of this case study. The results are analysed from two views: the impact on the participants’ use of the VLE and the framework’s overall usability.

Context-Awareness and Distributed Events in Mobile Learning

This chapter presents a system called MILE (Mobile and Interactive Learning Environment) which is used to support a blended approach to learning and teaching with mobile devices. The system has a modular and extensible system architecture which aims at supporting different platforms and devices both for students and for teachers. To better adapt to its users the system uses so called contextual widgets-components which gather, process, and store contextual data. To disseminate education–related events, specifically designed distributed events protocol (DEP) is used. Various applicative modules for mobile connected devices can be implemented upon the described architecture. They are, together with the experience gained in the project, described towards the end of the chapter.

Mobile Web 2.0

Blogs, wikis, podcasting, and a host of free, easy to use Web 2.0 social software provide opportunities for creating social constructivist learning environments focusing upon student-centred learning and end-user content creation and sharing. Building on this foundation, mobile Web 2.0 has emerged as a viable teaching and learning environment, particularly with the advent of the iPhone (nicknamed “the Jesus phone”) and iPod Touch. Today’s wifi enabled smartphones provide a ubiquitous connection to mobile Web 2.0 social software and the ability to view, create, edit, and upload user generated Web 2.0 content. This chapter explores the potential of wireless mobile devices and Web 2.0 (social software) to create social constructivist learning environments that bridge multiple learning contexts. The chapter provides an overview of current literature in the field, and discusses the pedagogical design of six example mobile Web 2.0 trials undertaken during 2007 and 2008 as part of research into the potential of mobile Web 2.0 to enhance tertiary education. The trials were based in three different courses and illustrate the application and integration of mobile Web 2.0 to bridge a range of learning contexts. The chapter argues that wireless mobile devices can be used to intentionally create disruptive learning environments that facilitate a social constructivist approach to teaching and learning.