The mobile devices such as cellular phones and PDA have been chiefly used up to now for the information receiving transmission.
Mobile learning / M-learning is the exciting art of using mobile technologies to enhance the learning experience.
Recently, it is paid to attention as method for utilization with a high additional value with the technical advantages.
Mobile phones, PDAs, Pocket PCs and the Internet can be blended to engage and motivate learners, any time and anywhere.
At present, mobile learning is not defined clearly. However, E-learning centre of Britain defined the word as follows.
"Mobile learning is the use of learning solutions on mobile or wireless devices - and this covers a number of aspects -
laptops using wireless connections; PDAs and the mobile phones.""
In addition, for reference, Japan E-Learning Consortium defined the word as follows.
"for the office workers who have their outsidework, or for the students to use their time in the train, the technology is expected to be used any place and any time to study."
PDA, in Japan, has mainly three types such as Sharp Zaurus, Palm OS, and Pocket PC. As its characteristics, each interoperability is low,
though its operations are easier than personal computers and uptime is earlier.
However, the diffusion ratio of PDA in the current state has bias which is overwhelmingly low compared with the mobile phone, centering around the businesspeople. Therefore, the mobile learning by PDA thought about by the current state depends on spreading conditions of PDA terminal. It is expected lower in social influences in a wide generation.
Podcast is able to download it from iTunes Store free of charge such as radio programs and the television program.
It can enjoy Podcast of all genres all over the world from the page of Podcast of iTunes Store. All podcasts which you are interested in will automatically downloaded all newly arrived episodes clicking the registration button. It is possible to reproduce in wherever you like if it packs in iPod and it carries. Furthermore, it is also possible to turn original Podcast to the world and to send it.
Podcast is all free. Even if you download many episodes, it costs neither the rental nor the teaching material expense. Moreover, the entire sounds and the animations of teaching materials are high quality. It is more comprehensible and enjoyable than the print based materials. It is able to experience the famous university lectures. Moreover, it is possible to practice many times because of the replayable performance (Apple Store, 2008).
The students obtain the required knowledge of the experiment from the Web lesson(Podcast) in the exclusive HP . In order to obtain this required knowledge, the students check the experimental procedure through the Web lesson to understand the experiment's dangers and careful operations for safety purposes.
(2) Experiment
The students perform the experiment while checking the experimental procedure shown on their laptop PC, if necessary in accessing the exclusive HP.
(3)Program's Effect and Future Development
1. Students was able to perform the operation without confusion.
2. The teacher who instructs the students about the experiment can concentrate on their safety and grasp the entire situation. (they can confirm their operation anytime if necessary.)
3. The questions they ask the teacher regarding the experimental operations decreases, compared to not using a PC, and they ask only the bare minimum.
The biggest feature of Nintendo DS, as a mobile device for the learning tool, is that people use actual game for study.
For example, when the Podcast is used as mobile learning tool, people download the study program from the radio or the TV. But for Nintendo DS, we do not download the program from outside, there are many games published and these games are not what they had in the past. These games' aims are to study not by class or program, but to study through the game. All the games in the world have "rules" with them. For example, RPG has to be solved the story and cleared it, and Action, we have to win the battle match. This "rule" makes the learning possible by using Nintendo DS. While the player plays the game, they have to follow the "rule" to clear the stage to go to next step, and through this process, the player learn the knowledge. This process is hard to be given by studying with the text books.
The Learning Game Softwares published for Nintendo DS in Japan
For the mobile learning using the mobile phone, there are the purveyor who hold out the mobile learning and the learner who receive the mobile learning.
As a result, there are advantages and disadvantages, from the both angle of it.
For the purveyor, the maximum advantage of using mobile phone for mobile learning is that the adoption rate of mobile phone is high. Without the situation of using the device, there are no selling expectation, although the study method is good. The high adoption rate of mobile phone, it is also becoming the reason of the purveyor's entry to the mobile learning market.
Another advantage is the simplicity of collecting the charge. Cooperating with the mobile phone company, they can collect the charge with the phone rate.
The disadvantages for the purveyors are that the mobile phones have the limit for learning because of its smallness of the screen and the inferiors of the communication. These points make the limit to the quality of the learning that is given. Also, the inferiors of the communication make the stop to the learning and it chooses the place, which becomes a reason of the insufficiency of donating the learning.
Another point of disadvantage is that the systems are different by each telecommunications providers and phone models, so the contents output cost become expensive.
The maximum advantage of a mobile learning is height of the degree of freedom that can be studied anytime and anywhere for the learner. A lot of people can carry mobile phone when they go out and can learn at free time. As for this, the mobile phone is small size in the portable terminal, so it is convenient to carry.
Also it is possible to use it anytime and anywhere even in the point that 24 hour power supply need not consider uptime by turning on. As a result, the width of user's mobile learning extends, it uses as a supplementation with study and training that uses the free time, and the lifelong learning etc. that exist are thought variously. Moreover, it can be said easy because payment is possible without spending troublesome time along with the phone rate about the charge as well as the purveyor.
It is able to consider variously to think about the weak point on the learner side from a detailed point. First of all, because the dependency to the mobile phone has risen by making the mobile phone in recent years multifunctional, it is not able to use other functions when being studying. And the tiredness of eyes by concentrating on a small screen for a long time while studying can be said as a body influence. The attention power to surroundings becomes loose according to the degree of the concentration and the possibility that the risk of the accident and the breach of manners increase is high.
Services for person in charge of business. The business plan is supported based on psychology. Mobile use as supplementation with group training.
PDA
The mobile application is especially appropriate for the salesman support and training, and it is said that its introduction examples are increasing at major beverage manufacturer in the United States. On the other hand, the use of m-learning at universities and special schools will be expected by high potential in the future. In the United States, the study support and the teaching material offer by PDA are being tried at Department of Medicine of the Harvard University and the school of business of university of Pennsylvania (Oshima, 2002). Thus, m-learning in the main sector of e-learning which is the education in the enterprise and the higher education field will accelerate. However, at the present moment, the effect that can be expected in m-learning is not necessarily high. Therefore, cooperation on both sides of the improvement of the development of a m-learning and the e-learning technique will be needed in the future.
In the present stage, the Mobile Learning is still the time of the proof experiment. There are some business enterprises that are donating the learning services, but they still have some difficulties to develop the market. But recently, the hike call rate which was the biggest problem for the people, becomes to the constant rate system, the Mobile Learning is getting to the new stage to spread out.
There is one more difficulty to the Mobile Learning. Which is the choosing the information that they input the service. The information and the subject are should carefully chosen, and thought as those informations are teaching material. Otherwise, those informations and the mobile devices have the danger of degenerating into just the service and the mobile game player.
A mobile learning takes the market that was not able to be covered by an existing E learning, and hides potential of achieving the studying pattern that was not able to be achieved. In addition, the room for the improvement on hard aspect and the software side is large and the market newly challenging the development of the teaching material contents that can be the most effectively used with the terminal has extended.
