 Hello everyone, my name is Mohammed Ali and I'm a professor at Athabaske University in Canada. Today we will be talking about what is mobile learning. Discuss mobile learning policies and look at the different technologies for mobile learning. So the learning outcomes for this session is define mobile learning, describe policies for mobile learning and identify mobile learning technologies. Here is a list of definitions of mobile learning. The first one was developed by an international committee, ISO committee, and it's a very general definition. It states that mobile learning is learning using information and communication technologies in mobile contexts. The other definition, one that I came up with in 2004, mobile learning is the delivery of electronic learning materials on mobile computing devices to allow access from anywhere and at any time. My colleague Jin Son from South Korea says mobile learning can be defined as learning using mobile and wireless computing technologies in a way to promote learner magicity and mobility. He's looking at learning from a mobile point of view. Other definitions include one by O'Malley and colleagues in 2003, and they say mobile learning is any sort of learning that happens when a learner is not in a fixed predetermined location. So the learner is mobile, they move around, so learning happens when the learner take advantage of learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies. And Mike Sharples and colleagues, they define mobile learning as the process of coming to know through conversation across multiple contexts amongst people and personal interactive technologies. So according to Sharples and colleagues, people is very important and the interaction is very important for mobile learning. So what are the characteristics of mobile learning based on these definitions? First, any time. Learning is any time because the student can take the mobile device and they can learn at any time. This is very important for different time zones around the world where people are a different time zone and they can learn at any time. They can learn anywhere in remote locations, they can learn when they're traveling, so students who have a long way to travel, they can actually use their mobile devices to learn. The learner is mobile, they move from one place to the next. In some cultures we have nomads where the young people will move from one location to the next owner living. So they should be able to use their mobile devices to learn. Learning contacts, which is very important for high level learning. So when people learn in contacts they can actually apply what they learn right away. Location based learning, when people need to find information and learn about local environment, etc., they can actually use their mobile devices to access information from the local environment. Just in time learning, people who work in industry and business, they can use the mobile technology to learn to access information and learn materials right away. So for example, if someone is in an industry using a piece of equipment, he or she can actually use the mobile devices to get some information or some training on that piece of equipment right away. And students are using mobile learning for formal learning where they can get credits for courses. And people around the world are using it informally where they can actually learn information to function in everyday tasks in their countries. So there are many many characteristics of mobile learning that people can benefit from in terms of learning, upgrading themselves, professional development, etc. Very important that we set standards for mobile learning. And I was part of an international committee to set international standards for mobile learning. And we had a committee consisting of representatives from Canada, South Korea, Germany and Luxembourg. And I was part of that committee to set standards for mobile learning. UNESCO just came up with some policy guidelines for mobile learning, which can be applied globally in different countries. And some of the highlights of the UNESCO policies are listed here. We need to train teachers on mobile learning. Previous training programs did not include training on how to use mobile learning, how to implement mobile learning. So we have to make sure we train teachers on how to design and implement mobile learning. And this could take the form of original teacher training program or it could be professional development of teachers. Very important to provide support to teachers who are implementing mobile learning because teachers don't have the expertise with the technology. And so they may need some technical help in terms of implementing mobile learning. We have to make sure we design efficient content for mobile devices. So rather than have lots of textual materials, we should have multimedia for mobile learning. Because multimedia, graphics, video, etc. convey more information than textual materials. Very important to ensure gender equality in mobile learning. Make sure that females have access to mobile learning materials. So they should have the technology so that they can access the materials anywhere anytime. For development countries, we have to make sure there's good connectivity so that if the student has to access the information from the internet, they can actually connect it to the internet at a good rate so that they can actually download the materials and launch from the materials. We need to develop strategies so we can provide devices to students who cannot afford them. All students in development countries can afford mobile technologies. So we have to find ways to make it more affordable or we have to make sure that we make the devices available for free for these students. And very important, we have to promote the safe and responsible use of mobile technology. Make sure that students use the technology in a responsible way. And one way to do that is to make sure we design courses to train, educate students on the ethical use of mobile technology. So when they do use the technology for learning, they will use it for learning rather than use it for other tasks. So yes, it's very important to have policies for mobile learning so that we can implement the mobile learning properly and we can implement it to meet the needs of all students. In terms of the technology, if we look at the history of technology, the first generation of technology was used to mail or send out information to students who are at a distance. So we will use the regular posts to mail information to students. Then when the telephone came about, then we had print with telephone support and that's where the student will contact the instructor, the teacher via telephone to answer any questions and to get help. Then we had the computers that came out, the personal computers, the notebook computers. Then we moved to the third generation of education, which is e-learning, electronic learning. And that's where students will access information using PC computers and notebook computers. And now we have mobile technologies, the tablet computers and the smartphones. We have the fourth generation of learning and students are actually using the technology to access information on their mobile devices to learn anywhere, anytime. So it's very important when we design learning materials we have to make sure that we design for delivery on any technology, for e-learning, for mobile learning. And we are moving to the fifth generation, which is ubiquitous learning and that's where the technology will exist everywhere. And students will learn, for example, from the wall in their homes, the technology will embed in the wall. It will be embedded in their devices in their kitchen, for example. So yes, the technology is evolving and we have to be aware of the technology. It's very, very important for teachers. There are many, many mobile devices out there and we have to make sure that we design learning materials for delivery on the different types of mobile devices. And one way we have been doing this is we built intelligent agents to detect the mobile device the student is using and it will actually design and deliver the materials based on the device. It will actually format the material for that device. So it's very, very important we do a responsive design so that we can deliver on any mobile device. And of course, the students have multiple devices, so students may have more than one device. And we have to make sure that they can use any of the devices to access the learning materials. The devices are changing at a very fast rate. It's going virtual, so you can actually project a virtual keyboard and make it as large as you want rather than use a small keyboard on the mobile devices. And this will be the same on the screen. You can actually make the screen as large as you want. By pressing a button, you will have a virtual screen and then you can turn it off. And they're talking about wearable devices where the device will actually be embedded in your clothes or in your watch, in your wristwatch that you can actually use to access mobile learning materials. In terms of the future of technology, according to a recent report by Future Lab by 2020, the technology will be embedded and distribute in most objects, so it will be everywhere. So as you move from one environment to the next, the device will actually detect you and it will actually prescribe the learning materials. We are looking at gesture-based interaction where a student will actually look at the device, look at the screen of the device and if they want to open a file on the device, they will actually point on the device and once they point on that file, they will just open the file so they don't actually have to touch the screen. So it will be gesture-based. They will look at the eye of the person, the expression of the person and they will actually interact with the person. And then we are looking at emotional computing and that's where the device will detect the emotion of the student and based on the emotion, it will prescribe the appropriate learning materials. So for example, if a student is not in a good mood and not in a state to learn, the system will actually not prescribe the learning materials for them. So we may be seeing emotional computing in education very soon. In terms of globally, we are seeing there is a shift from E to M where E is electronic and M is mobile. And when we talk about electronic, we are talking about PC computers and notebook computers, which are the larger computers. And when we talk about mobiles, we are talking about tablet computers and the small devices, which actually fits in your hand. And some people will call it a palm-top device. So we are seeing moving from electronic commerce to mobile commerce, electronic library to mobile library. You can access library materials on your mobile devices. You can get health information on your mobile devices. And a lot of games now are available on mobile devices. And a lot of young students are actually playing games on mobile devices. So yes, because of the shift from PC, notebook computers to mobile devices, we are seeing a shift from E to M. So in terms of other sectors of society, in the banking sector, one of their devices is to do banking. And we refer to that as in-the-pocket banking. So you take out your device from your pocket and you can do your banking. A library in everyone's pocket, you can actually use your mobile technology to access library information. Health information in everyone's pocket. You can access health information just in time health information on your mobile device. And this is very, very important is where there is not enough health services so people can actually use their mobile devices to access health information just in time health information. And so the question for educators and teachers are we ready for education in the pocket where we deliver learning materials on mobile devices so students can actually access their learning materials on their smartphones, tablet computers and learn anywhere anytime. Thank you very much.