Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning

A first step in postulating a theory of mobile learning is to distinguish what is special about mobile learning compared to other types of learning activity. An obvious, yet essential, difference is that it starts from the assumption that learners are continually on the move. We learn across space as we take ideas and learning resources gained in one location and apply or develop them in another. We learn across time, by revisiting knowledge that was gained earlier in a different context, and more broadly, through ideas and strategies gained in early years providing a framework for a lifetime of learning. We move from topic to topic, managing a range of personal learning projects, rather than following a single curriculum. We also move in and out of engagement with technology, for example as we enter and leave cellphone coverage. To portray learning as a labile activity is not to separate it from other forms of educational activity, since some aspects of informal and workplace learning are fundamentally mobile in the ways outlined above. Even learners within a school will move from room to room and shift from topic to topic. Rather, it illuminates existing practices of learning from a new angle. By placing mobility of learning as the object of analysis we may understand better how knowledge and skills can be transferred across contexts such as home and school, how learning can be managed across life transitions, and how new technologies can be designed to support a society in which people on the move increasingly try to cram learning into the interstices of daily life. Second, a theory of mobile learning must therefore embrace the considerable learning that occurs outside classrooms and lecture halls as people initiate and structure their activities to enable educational processes and outcomes. A study by Vavoula (Vavoula, 2005) of everyday adult learning found that 51% of the reported learning episodes took place at home or in the learner's own office at the workplace, i.e. at the learner's usual environment. The rest occurred in the workplace outside the office (21%), outdoors (5%), in a friend's house (2%), or at places of leisure (6%). Other locations reported (14%) included places of worship, the doctor's