Next steps

e-Learning has been shown to have particular value in engaging and motivating learners. Add to that the medium of a mobile device and the cultural barriers that can divide practitioners from younger learners, and learners from non-learners, can be more effectively challenged.

Another powerful benefit of mobile learning is that learners do not have to be separated from their day-to-day commitments. As learning becomes situated in a wider variety of locations, the potential for cross-fertilisation of ideas and values increases, as does the potential for learning to become an attractive pastime for a greater number of people.

From the pedagogical point of view, connectivity on location enables more emphasis on discovery-based, problem-solving and collaborative learning. In this respect, e-learning plus mobile and wireless learning could foster more innovative pedagogies combining the use of a mobile device with new developments in software and web-based technologies to develop participatory, dynamic and immersive forms of learning. More immediately available applications can be found in the use of PDAs or 'smartphones' to collect or access information for activities across a range of disciplines.

Despite extending the reach of e-learning, the potential of handhelds as tools for delivering learning in their own right (as opposed to an element in a longer sequence of more dominant practices) is limited by small screen size, by the bite-sized nature of content and by the limited amount and variety of pre-configured resources. The ubiquity of mobile devices does not necessarily mean that they can support a full range of learning activities, nor that all learners will find them accessible.

Use of e-learning content with the mobile device as the dominant or sole medium may well remain small scale and niche in nature for some time, yet still of great value. An example would be the use of reinforcement exercises in the learning of basic skills.