Louise Mifsud:

This paper explores the challenges that handheld technologies pose to the formal learning arena – the classroom as well as some of the strategies and changes that have to be in place for the school to access and utilize learning arenas that are alternative to the formal learning arena. The role of mobile technologies in education is discussed - it is proposed that mobile technology can be used as a bridge between the formal and informal learning arenas, or even as springboards between learning experiences. The question is whether there exists a barrier between the formal learning arena  and the alternative learning arenas? 

Mobile telephony studies show that the personalised, mobile, accessible and social technology is widespread among children^[1]. Figures for 1999, for example, show that 68% of fifteen-year olds owned a mobile telephone, while almost 40% of thirteen year olds and 82% of twenty-year olds possessed a mobile telephone in Norway ^[2]. In Norway one can say that mobile telephony is approaching near ubiquity. During the last few years mobile technology has become integrated in day-to-day activities. Hand held computers appear to be part of a general movement towards mobile technology. 

Dillemans ^[3] points out that as new technologies become more and more embedded in our society, the educational system also will be affected. When referring to desktop computers, as Soloway ^[4] points out that as long as computers are not ready-at-hand, they will not be used in a routine, day-in, day-out fashion and that there will be little or no impact on basic education. Is it thus logical to see the potential in mobile technology for education in education? As personal experience as a schoolteacher has shown, mobile telephones have for example proved to be popular in what is often described as the social arena at school. It is proposed that the boundaries between the social arena and the formal learning arena ^[5], the classroom, diminish as students also take mobile telephones into use in classrooms. The teacher is put in a position where the information that exists within the four walls of the classroom competes with information from ‘outside’, and as such beyond the teacher’s control. Thus, drawing from personal experience, the classroom culture is bound to change, as there arises a conflict between the traditional classroom culture and the restraints it puts on social interaction and the technological ‘intruder’. Following this reasoning, the implementation of handheld technologies such as PDAs ^[6] presents challenges both to the school as an institution and to the classroom culture. PDAs in education appear to have a twofold use – that which pertains to the formal, classroom learning arena and the rest – the informal, alternative learning arena. Yet the question is then what needs to be in place for the educational system to move away from the desktop arena and towards accessing, utilizing and tapping into mobile, alternative learning arenas and a "learning '2go'". 

Koschmann ^[7] asks a question which he views as fundamental, namely: 

"...if we had the power to change instructional practice through the introduction of new technologies, what sorts of changes would we really like to see?"

Building further on Koschmann’s question - what kind of changes in education would we like to see, if we had the power to make these changes? Mobile computers offer new possibilities, possibilities and potential of tapping into alternative learning arenas, but whether these are realised as an enhancement of that which is already there, such as administrative roll taking programs, or to the exclusion of other routines is still a question. Mobile learning technologies present a challenge to the school – a challenge to access and utilise alternative learning arenas. 

Studies into handheld technologies might eventually show results similar to those in mobile telephony, and applied to education. Can mobile computers have a role in bridging different learning arenas together? Or will the intruder role dominate?  Can the “outside” be taken in and the “inside” taken out? There also appears to be the need for studies into strategies needed in order to see these changes through, and how the institutions approach the changes, whether, for example, these changes are realised through the already existing structure. Strategies for implementation – that teachers need to be familiar with the technology itself, and to be able to experiment with it before using it in a learning situation. Research in mobility needs to focus on these questions How can anytime, anywhere learning be achieved? Is there room for an “anytime, anywhere learning” in the educational structure? There is the need for more research into the contribution of different learning arenas to the school and classroom arena and vice versa.
 

 References and Notes

[1]Ling R. og Thrane K. (ed.) Sosiale konsekvenser av mobiltelefoni: proceedings fra et seminar om samfunn, barn og mobiltelefoni  FoU N 38/2000
http://www.telenor.no/fou/prosjekter/Fremtidens_Brukere/seminarer/mobilpresentasjoner/Proceedings%20_FoU%20notat_.pdf    Last visited 21 September 2001
[2] Ling, R & Helmersen, P (2000) "It must be necessary, it has to cover a need: The adoption of mobile telephony among pre-adolescents and adolescents." in Ling R. & Thrane K. (ed.) Sosiale konsekvenser av mobiltelefoni: proceedings fra et seminar om samfunn, barn og mobiltelefoni  FoU N 38/2000
http://www.telenor.no/fou/prosjekter/Fremtidens_Brukere/seminarer/mobilpresentasjoner/Proceedings%20_FoU%20notat_.pdf    Last visited 21 September 2001
[3] Dillemans, R. et al (eds.) (1998) New Technologies for Learning: contribution of ICT to innovation in education. Belgium Leuven University Press 
[4] Soloway, E et al. (April 2001) Learning in the Palm of your Hand 
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/readyAtHand.htm
Last visited 22 September 2001
[5] For the purpose of this paper, I define arena as a sphere of activity and environment as surroundings in which a person operates, and as such I take as my starting point an environment as that which can stimulate an arena (Oxford Concise English Dictionary 1999 edition). The informal learning arena is defined as an alternative to the formal learning arena, which refers to the classroom. However, as I argue later in this paper, the classroom arena is only one of several learning arenas, and the social arena is thus also defined as a learning arena.
[6] Mobile computers are  one of mobile digital media. They are often referred to as handhelds, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or  Pocket PCs (PPCs). For the purpose of this paper I will not differentiate between these three or the terms mobile computer or mobile digital media. 
[7] Koschmann, T (in press) “Tools of Termlessness: Technology, Educational Reform and Deweyan Inquiry”. To appear in O’Shea T (ed.) Virtual Learning Environments. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
http://edaff.siumed.edu/tk/articles/UNESCO.pdf
Last visited 21 September 2001