Mobile learning is being directed at young adults between 16 to 24 years of age. Studies in the UK found that around 7 million young adults did not have basic skills in literacy and numeracy, as they were unable to look up the word “plumber�? in the yellow pages. (www.m-learning.org) In the 21 Century over 1 billion people world wide use a mobile phone as they can be used daily for an array of purposes. (Goggin, 2003) Therefore, the possibility to become educated via m-learning, has become a viable option, as the mobile phone is the one device that people of this era have in common.
There are a variety of mobile games that are being implemented to help educate young adults and help them to improve their literacy skills. Firstly, the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition[1] allows learners to use the Java programming, language to develop applications for wireless information devices such as mobile phones and PDA’s. This quiz game provides the user with a new mobile way of learning on how to drive a car, by testing theory based question. They offer numeracy type questions, such as, what measurement of distance should be left between cars when stationary. These educational mobile phone games fit under the category of multiplayer games, as they “could provide mobile access to established online game communities or, they could create completely different social structures taking advantage of mobile-specific features such as the multimedia messaging and location-based services.�?
Secondly, there is mobile phone, text messaging quiz’s. This approach consists of a circulating leaflet which has reference information on one side and a five question quiz on the other. When finished, learners SMS their answer to an online editing tool and are then sent a reply. Therefore, this approach allows a learner with any standard mobile phone to take part.
The other type of SMS learning is the mini language course. Through the collaboration of this form of quizzing and The South Italian company Albatros, basic Italian language courses can be delivered to learners mobile phones. The course is structured by including “100 concepts and for each concept test dialogues have been created.�? (Attewell, 2005) The learning process occurs as there is a system in place that tracks the answers received from learners. The system then verifies the results and suggestions for improvement.�? (Attewell, 2005) However, this process of mobile learning is least popular because the cost of gaming increases with each SMS sent to the game server. (Schwabe and Goth, 2005)
Anna Massie 09:18, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)
