==M-Learning – Higher Education==
===Introduction===
Teenagers of the current generation are immersed in cyber culture, and are mobile and wirelessly connected (Alexander, 2004). For many years now, teachers have been trying to eradicate Mobile Phones from the classroom environment, fearing that they were interrupting and distracting students from learning. However, more recently we have seen the mobile devices such as Mobile Phones; become integrated educational tools for both teachers and learners, and they are quickly invading many classrooms. Stephan Heppel suggests that their effectiveness to be an educational tool is greatly due to their ability for two-way interaction, which is what learning should be about. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with wireless capabilities are also fast becoming a common tool in the classroom environment.
===In the Classroom===
Ubiquity of mobile devices in the classroom has allowed for m-learning to take place within the classroom environment. Whereas these devices were considered as tools for cheating, “In the classroom�? activities are now encouraging students to participate in face-to-face lessons with their mobile devices (Csete, Wong & Vogel). There are many ways in which this is being explored and incorporated through lessons. Students may use their mobile devices as keypad voting devices to respond to the instructor’s questions, informal grouping and sharing among students, and to look-up terms which they may not understand. This type of use of mobile devices in lessons in the classroom can also be collaborated simultaneously with learning “out of the classroom�?. This may be that one group of children go outdoors and take images with their Mobile Phones, which they send back to a group in the class who can look up and research around the subject of the images.
===Out of the Classroom===
“Out of the classroom activities enable students to learn in their own time and place. The most common function of mobile wireless networks in this environment, is the ability to access class resources. This may mean access to notes on the lesson, or streaming video and audio of it. It allows for interactive forums and discussions in a relaxed environment, and a wide variety of tests. It extends the classroom and its activities beyond the border’s of its walls, and enables the student to make the world a learning place.
The large scale of mobile devices in this generation of students' daily life, enables foundations for M-Learning that will later be useful to them in Tertiary Education.
===Further Information===
====See Also====
M-Learning - Tertiary Education
E-Learning - The virtual Classroom
====References====
The Guardian. 2003. Ring tone revolution. 7 January 2003. http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,10577,869659,00.html. (Accessed 3 October 2005)
Alexander, B. 2004. Going Nomadic: Mobile Learning in Higher Education. 'Educause review'. http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0451.asp?bhcp=1. (Accessed 3 October 2005).
Csete, J, Wong, Y & Vogel, D. Mobile devices in and out of the classroom. http://www.aace.org/dl/files/EDMEDIA2004/paper_3016_9542.pdf . (Accessed 3 October 2005).
====Contributors to this entry====
User: Nadine chambers
Nadine chambers 10:17, 4 Oct 2005 (EST)
