WorkLearnMobile - The Mobile Learning Innovation Network

In this month’s digest, we look a bit more deeply at what m-learning is exactly – according to industry expert Marc Rosenberg. He talks about microlearning and its benefits, and how m-learning is penetrating into educational, banking, and financial space and more.

If it’s not just about mobile devices, what exactly is m-learning?

According to Marc “Mobile learning is exciting and full of potential. But if we are not careful, how we see mobile learning can inhibit what we do with it”.

In a short, elegant piece in Learning Solutions magazine Marc warns: “A common misperception of m-learning is that it must be delivered on a mobile device. Why? Are we really concerned that the device is mobile, or that we are? Sure, most mobile learning is made possible by the increasing mobility of our devices, but the growing ubiquity of cloud computing is beginning to make specific devices less important than anytime, anywhere access.

“So the first part of our definition of mobile learning is learning that is available anytime and anywhere, and is platform agnostic” (our italics).

He goes on to show that m-learning is not simply “a course on a tablet” or “training on a mobile phone”. He comes up with lots of examples to demonstrate that plus two new definitions.:

The long …

“Mobile learning is the capability to seamlessly deliver a wide array of knowledge and performance improvement resources to users—anyplace, on any platform, on demand, and at the moment of need”.

… and the short

Mobile learning is learning in all forms and formats—that follows you.

This certainly resonates with our thinking. Read it yourself and let us know if you agree.

Eye Catchers 

THE MEANING OF MICROLEARNING

Microlearning is in the news this month. Connie Malamad has a neat piece on microlearning  – what is it, how does it work and what are its strengths and weaknesses and how can you make use of it?

And over on the Learnnovators blog, Sahana Chattopadhyay goes into more detail about its many benefits.

Thought-Food 

In his EMBERIFY blog Nivedit Majumdar  demonstrates how m-learning is penetrating education on an ever growing scale, with implications for many stakeholders – teachers and learners of course, but also participants in this fast-developing segment.

M-learning in Banking and Finance  

Another piece that caught our eye this month – evidence that BFI has recognized the power of m-learning and is using it very effectively. Arunima Majumdar in e-learning Industry has lots of examples and not just for men wearing ties!

Qualcomm News

Our own Geoff Stead proposes a light hearted BuzzWord Bingo game to help you master the basic buzzwords in the industry today.

mLearning Gurus

The MLEARNING guru list is getting longer. Check out Scott Newcombe’s list of must-follow mobile learning experts (the mobilisitas) on Twitter, in The Mobile Native. We’re pleased to see members of our team featured alongside other great industry thinkings!

We want to hear how you see things, what you are learning, your successes and challenges, your fears and hopes.

Comment now, or contribute to the next m-learning digest!