March 2005 — Features
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Developing a Mobile Learning Environment to Support Virtual Education Communities
In order to address these limitations, we are developing a mobile learning environment (MLE). This MLE will provide communication and collaboration tools that enable virtual interactions to take place which are independent of time and location - replacing the need for common residence halls and face-to-face meetings outside of the classroom. An MLE makes it possible to create virtual learning communities (VLCs) that incorporate all of the positive aspects of traditional LCs, but without their time and space limitations.
Table 1 compares the important elements of traditional LCs with the corresponding features provided by the MLE in support of a VLC. It shows that LCs stress the importance of student-to-student and student-to-faculty interactions. In the VLC, these interactions will take place through the use of collaborative online tools developed for the MLE such as interactive whiteboards, video/audio/text chat, shared notebooks, and shared documents. These interactions can take the form of one-to-one (personal communication), one-to-many (presentations), many-to-one (group tutoring and seminars), and many-to-many (study groups and seminars) communications.
In the near future, it is anticipated that students at campuses across the United States will make extensive use of mobile computing devices which they will carry with them at all times. In our own research, we have found that limited output options for mobile devices prevent students from easily printing assignments or submitting them electronically. This is because both involve multistep processes that require the use of additional applications and an understanding of how these applications work together. Electronic submissions also create issues for instructors such as how to store, access, grade and return files to students. Moreover, this form of electronic submission is not easily scalable to multiple instructors and class sections. Other limitations of mobile computing devices include minimal input and output options, small screen size, as well as potential file and system disasters with the loss of battery power. While these problems are not insurmountable, they do require time, effort and creative thinking to resolve.
Attempts to remedy this situation have primarily involved piecemeal approaches. For example, the University of Louisville’s Health Sciences Center requires all incoming medical and dental students to own a PDA. However, its solution for providing students with content and new applications is through HotSync stations distributed around campus (Greenberg 2003). By contrast, an MLE provides direct drag-and-drop methods for downloading content and applications over the wireless network without the need for special devices or software. Thus, it is critical that the overarching problems facing mobile computing be addressed by creating an environment that is flexible, easy to use, and conducive to campuswide collaborative communication anytime, anywhere.
Table 2 depicts a hierarchical view of computing services. Individual software services such as FTP and e-mail are ranked under the “Disaggregated Services” category. Multiple service protocols, typically requiring a common login, are included in the “Aggregated Services” stratification. What is required is a layer of “Integrated Services” for which no solution currently exists.
