Learning to teach with mobile technologies: Pedagogical implications in and outside the classroom

Abstract

Mobile teaching and learning (M-learning) has been a trending topic in recent years due in part to the increased proliferation of mobile devices in classrooms. Mobile technology can yield both opportunities and threats to the way an educational institution attracts and retains students and runs its business in terms of technological infrastructure, financial impacts, instructor and student training, human resource management, and course deployment. It provides avenues for flexible, personal learning for different groups in the same classroom and enables individual discovery. Real-time exchange rates, interactive management activities, synchronous communication, and global collaboration can also be brought into the classrooms anytime and anywhere. Yet the lack of Internet access in some rural and remote regions, lack of continuity of wireless data transfer between buildings, and the different qualities of mobile signals in different areas are still technical barriers to reach real anytime and anywhere mobile learning. The high costs of mobile data access and different mobile rates in different states and countries also increase the difficulties of adopting efficient mobile learning. Mobile technologies present risks and ethical dilemmas, including, but not limited to privacy, data storage and access, copyright, and equitable access. Mitigating risks and capitalizing on opportunities is possible, and when the implications for teaching and learning in and outside the classroom with mobile technologies are considered and addressed, a rich pedagogical experience can emerge.