Mobilizing learning in higher education: Developments in teaching and learning practice

Distance education or learning has been around for a long time and with the advent of mobile devices like the smart phone it is inevitable that mobility impact the distance education arena. The intersection of distance learning with mobility gives rise to mobile learning (mlearning). Mobile learning in this paper is defined as the “mobile” state of the learner. In theory, this amplifies the flexibility of distance and online learning, reducing the significance of geographic location while increasing that of contextuality. The affordances of mobile learning empowers students to participate in social networks, access the Internet, retrieve and work on course materials as part of context-aware ubiquitous learning. There are a diversity of contexts, methods, and technologies used. There is a need to have a stronger connection between mobile technology integration and a learning-theoretical framework to guide research, practice, and policy. It is important to integrate mobile and emerging technologies with education through an appropriate evidence-based learning design framework.