20101006 - Niazi's Dissertation - part 2

I have been reading this part of Niazi's Dissertation at hotel in Bintulu....evening of Wed 6 Oct 2010. 1.3.2 Opportunities in Mobile Learning In recent years, there has been an explosion in the growth of mobile learning in all education sectors. Using mobile learning, however, can make many positive contributions, including the following: a) Mobile learning can provide the facility to access and review course materials, labs, assignments and lectures from every where at every time while learners are waiting for a bus, "on the go", at a coffee time or in the recess time. This method of learning can be an extension of e-learning. b) Mobile learning can help learners to get the "right content", at the right time in the right place. In other words, learners can have intelligent context-aware learning. c) Mobile devices can be employed for collaborative learning. Technically, mobile learning can provide tools for group discussions, group interactions, and sharing experiences and knowledge using the evolved technologies in mobile devices like SMS messaging, phone calls, discussion panels, forums and other features. d) Mobile learning can provide tools for interactive learning. The examples of these kinds of tools are quizzes and games. e) Mobile learning also promotes lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is defined as "all learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective" [4]. Job training is an example of this kind of learning. f) Because mobile devices are defined as a private space and provide a sense of freedom, owners focus on the content materials and available resources in the devices for a longer period of time in their spare time. g) Mobile learning can have a tremendous impact on coursework activities and make learning more comprehensive. Perhaps, one potential scenario can be of a student in Botany. Every week, s/he has to go to Nature, identify and gather the sample of some particular plants. For this purpose, s/he uses her/his cell phone to surf the Web, identify samples, and take photos of them. When s/he comes back to the lab, s/he has lots of information and the vastly relevant pictures stored on her/his phone. h) Mobile learning can provide tools for informal learning. Informal learning is an important aspect of our learning experience that occurs in a variety of ways such as completion of work-related tasks [2]. Informal learning is defined as"learning that takes place outside a dedicated learning environment and whicharises from the activities and interests of individuals or groups, but which may not be recognized as learning" [5]. 1.4 Problems Facing Mobile Learning Although mobile learning can offer many opportunities to facilitate and enhance learning experiences, there are several challenges and obstacles. In order to identify these problems, we have broken up a mobile learning system into 4 objects including wireless networks, mobile devices, users and educational material (See Figure 1.2). 1.4.1 Issues in Wireless Networks In the last decade, we have seen significant advancements in wireless networks and wireless technologies. However, there are still many challenges in wireless network environments. One of these major problems is limited bandwidth. For instance, GPRS(General Packet Radio Service) enables users to use high speed transmission from 56 up to 114 kbps and continuous connection to the Internet via their cell phones. However, in current network implementations, GPRS data transfer speeds are between 30 and 40 kbps. This transmission rate of data will not be enough for mobile applications while a number of people using mobile phones as a device for learning will be increasing. Hence, there is a need for 3G technologies which enable service providers to offer users a wide range of high quality services in a greater network capacity. Another issue in wireless networks is the cost, including the cost of online connections, MMS and SMS messages. This issue should be considered carefully from this aspect: people who are using mobile learning technology are mostly students with limited budget. They can not afford using expensive systems. Hence, a mobile learning system should be cost effective. Disconnectivity of wireless networks is another problem. In mobile learning, learners are defined as objects which are on the move constantly, as suggested in [16] mobile learning is about "a society on the move". Technically, it is possible to lose the mobile wireless signals due to congestion, node mobility or signal disruption. Thus, we need some strategies to make reliable systems that make learning experience available any time any where. Lack of location-aware services is another issue in developing an intelligent mobile learning system. As we will discuss later in Chapter 3, in order to make the "right content" available for learners, we need contextual information including location-aware data. 1.4.2 Issues with Mobile Phones Problems in mobile phones can be considered from two aspects. One is the diversity of mobile phones. The other is mobile phone constraints. Today, there are thousands of different brands of mobile phones with different capabilities and constraints not only in hardware such as memory, screen size, processing power, battery consumption, resolution, display color and bandwidth limitation; also in software such as operating system and Web browser. Even though, some new generations of mobile phones like smart phones have been improved in processing power, memory and bandwidth, they are still restricted in some other aspects such as screen size, display color and user interface. Hence, from a developer perspective, if we want to develop mobile applications and specifically mobile learning applications for mobile devices, they should support all kinds of mobile devices with various capabilities and constrains. Of course, writing applications for each brand of mobile device is tedious and requires a lot of effort. In addition, maintenance of these applications itself, is a big challenge. We need a strategy to overcome these issues, a strategy to create content once and then reuse it for various target devices. Battery consumption in mobile phones is another issue. The mobile applications require more processing power which demands more of the battery on mobile devices. In order to save battery life on mobile devices we have to make a balance among the processing power, usability, and performance of the mobile application. Small screen size is another obstacle. Perhaps, the key question in mobile learning is .how can we fit learning material onto these small screens without any impact on learning performance? 1.4.3 Issues in Content Creation As mentioned earlier, there are various brands of mobile devices with different capabilities and constraints. The term "mobile device" here refers to any portable device including smart phones, PDAs, mobile phones, tablet PCs and laptops. Technically, creating educational materials which can be rendered in all of these devices is a big challenge. It needs methods and strategies to fit content into an appropriate format for each device. In addition, it is hard and time consuming for educators to create materials several times customized for each device. We again emphasize on this idea that creating educational materials should be done once and then generated for various target devices automatically. 1.4.4 No Standards for Mobile Learning Systems An addition to the issue in developing mobile learning systems is the lack of specifications and standards [18]. There is even no framework which can help developers to develop mobile learning systems and educators to create their educational materials appropriate for mobile as well as PC platforms. Thus, there is a need to provide a roadmap for educators, a framework for -developers and identify systems requirements and specifications. 1.4.5 Security Generally, one of the major problems in mobile phones has always been the security issue. Today, mobile phones are used for a mass storage of pictures, documents, messages and digital records. In fact, mobile phones are defined as a private and personal space needed to be kept secret. Due to the limited resources in mobile devices and limitation in processing power and memory, security in mobile devices is a big challenge. Processing, encrypting and decrypting security data on mobile devices demand more processing power which can impact the mobile devices performance and battery life. Technically, more processing power requires more battery on mobile devices. source: Design and implementation of a deviceindependent platform for mobile learning by Niazi, Razieh, M.Sc., University of Guelph (Canada), 2008