Next steps

Use of handhelds such as PDAs for the capture of information in different formats, and mobile phones for games and quizzes, along with mobile laptop schemes, are currently bringing e-learning to a wider variety of locations. As a result, e-learning can - and is being - fitted into small intervals of spare time, and is occurring in otherwise inaccessible places. Particular benefits have become evident where resources have been purpose-built for the device and offer different or alternative ways by which learners can engage with the content of a curriculum away from the institution.

In higher education, it could become an established norm to provide learners with a tailored suite of applications for a mobile device, such as a tablet PC, (either owned by learners themselves or loaned by the institution), to ensure that learners enter more effectively into collaborative learning activities, even when physically dispersed. In cases such as this, the synergy between the needs of institutions (to retain students and support established approaches to learning) and the needs of individual learners ('just-in-time' information and easy access to learning resources) combine powerfully in favour of mobile access to e-learning.

However, mobile devices have often been designed for business or leisure and are not always adapted to educational purposes without some ingenuity, for example, in the reformatting of learning materials for use on the small screen of a PDA. Training and technical support for users will also be necessary until familiarity with handheld computers or 3G mobile phones is more widespread.