How mobile learning is used by students as part of their learning Essay

How mobile learning is used by students as part of their learning practice And to what extend does it provide new opportunities for teaching and learning in terms of access and flexibility - Essay Example In other words, m-learning reduces the restriction of the location of learning with the general portable devices’ mobility. The use of the mobile technologies elicits interesting queries as scholars examine the effectiveness of learning and teaching in this digital age. In real sense, mobile technologies enhance and extend learning across diverse groups of people. Currently, almost all people use and own at least one form of mobile devices. Such people not only own and use the devices but also invest some considerable amount of time, resources, and efforts in choosing, purchasing, customizing, as well as exploiting them. Most of these handled devices are an expression of part of even much of the values, identity, individuality, and affiliations of their owners via their choice as well as use. The devices are ubiquitous and pervasive, unobtrusive and conspicuous, taken to granted and noteworthy in lives of majority of the people. This explains why m-learning is more than e-learning using mobile devices as it also hints the possibility of leveraging the devices of learners and this can take education to new spaces, places, and modes (Traxler 2011, p. 4-5). For clarification, mobile learning is the use of handheld and mobile information technology devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet PC technologies, as well as laptops in learning and teaching activities (Prensky 2001a, p. 1). As the internet and computers become vital tools of education, the technologies become increasingly portable, effective, easy to use, as well as affordable. This offers numerous opportunities for broadening the access and participation to information and communication technologies, and specifically to the internet (Campbell 2005, p. 32). The mobile devices like PDAs and mobile phones are more reasonably priced in comparison to desktop computers, thus