mobile learning inspiration.

Reading books, journal articles and blog posts is great but for getting real inspiration I think there is nothing to beat attending a conference and experiencing live what the experts have to say. Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the 4th mobile learning day at the Fernuniversität Hagen, about an hours drive from my own institution. The mobile learning day takes place every November and consists of a range of guest speakers, a podium discusssion and a choice of workshops on various mlearning-related topics. Previously the conference was soley German but last year it became international with Agnes Kukulska-Hulme from the Open University making a presentation  on "Learning from learners". This year there were two international guest speakers, Mohamed Ally from Athabasca University in Canada and Diana Laurillard from the Institute of Education in London.

Mohamed Ally's presentation "Reaching out to students by implementing mobile learning" on the state of mobile learning in general, and in Canada in particular, was particularly thought-provoking.  I had been especially looking forward to this talk anyway, as Ally is the editor of one of the books I have previously relied on in my studies, "Mobile learning: Transforming the delivery of education and training". Athabasca University Press, who published this book, also receive extra kudos in my eyes for being brave enough to make the entire book available for free as a pdf - you can download a copy here. 

In his lively presentation, Ally tried to answer one of the big questions in mobile learning: why? Why should we use mobile learning and how is it going to benefit us? Prof. Ally's conclusion was partly that the way the education system works has to change, from being teacher centred to learner centred. In addition he argued that mobile learning matches well the preferred study methods of modern students.The technological push should also not be forgotten. In my institution it seems that nearly everyone has a mobile phone, if not a smartphone, and I fully expect this tendency to continue.

After his presentation I was lucky enough to be able to spend five minutes talking to Prof. Ally and his enthusiasm and excitement about mobile learning inspired me and make me even surer that this topic is an ideal choice for my Masters thesis.

Sources.

Ally, M., (2012) Reaching out to students by implementing mobile learning. Powerpoint presentation from Mobile Learning Day 2012, Fernuniversität Hagen. Source: http://mlearning.fernuni-hagen.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Ally.pdf [accessed on 24/11/2012]