Epic Performance Improvement Limited

Introduction
The pedagogy of mobile learning isn't new. Nearly 100 years ago, the educational reformer John Dewey advocated inquiry-based learning. In the mid 20th century Paolo Friere proposed learning through conversation and dialogue. And more recently Clark Abt introduced the notion of 'serious games' as a way to learn. All these liberating theories of pedagogy benefit from modern technology, such as smart phones, to turn them into successful practices.

Professor Mike Sharples
Inquiry learning can only be fully successful if learners have tools to probe the natural environment, to visualise and reflect on their findings. Friere's dialogues are limited to immediate face to face conversations. And serious games are more effective if they can move between virtual worlds and the real world.

The technology to turn a century of dreams about a new pedagogy into reality is the smartphone.

The smart phone not only extends dialogues across space and time, it has also become a precision instrument, with an accelerometer, compass, sound recorder, camera, and position locator. It is the ideal tool for inquiry based learning. Around the world, people are creating educational games for the smart phone - collaborative games that simulate the spread of viruses and allow users to explore epidemics; games that enable people to experience historic events where they happened.

In the developed world we have very many alternatives to traditional classroom learning, from the Workers Educational Association to Wikipedia. But in the developing world, even books are scarce commodities, yet over 50% of the populations in countries such as Tanzania and Kenya have access to mobile phones. For them, the phone is not just another technology, it is the technology. Mobile phones, and increasingly smart phones, will be the only way they read books, learn about the world, access expert knowledge, and also join the worldwide community of emailers, bloggers, tweeters and gamers.

Our own working lives are increasingly pressured and fragmented. Smart phones provide the technology to keep up to date during gaps in the day, to learn where and when we have a need, and to share knowledge with colleagues. The smart phone is the gateway to learning in the 21st century.

For John Dewey, writing 100 years ago, successful learning is about interaction and continuity. In the smart phone, at last we have a powerful tool to interact with the world, and to carry personal experience into the future.

Dr Mike Short
I agree that the motion is about 'mobile learning'. And mobile devices have offered more and better access to learning wherever you are, any time and any place.

We now have wider choice of content and online libraries; we have international reach either directly from experts or through social networks; we have email and messaging that enables learners to stay in touch with colleagues and the rest of their industry; and we have new tools emerging that add creativity to the mix with cameras, multimedia and GPS. All these together contribute to user generated content and new feedback loops - all from a single mobile device.

As coverage, capacity and network speeds increase, the possibilities for learning outside the workplace or schools are multiplying too. Services are growing in capability, with better accessories (e.g. remote keyboards/headsets). Meanwhile, input, processing power, storage and output facilities are all being enhanced, and there is growing convergence between smart phones , PDA's and eBooks or slates. All these advances in technology continue to add further mobility and inclusion to learning, and will doubtless lead to more innovative ways of learning.

A word of warning though: this 21st Century technology should not outpace the learners' needs.

And yet we must recognise that mobile has already impacted the work place, and mobility is expected to add further learning and productivity gains.

So as we go from 500 million devices in use at the end of last century (1999), we will see 5 billion in use by the end of 2010 - how many of these will be used by you, the learning and development professional or educator?

Surely, it is no longer a question of whether or why we use smart phones for learning but a question of scale - how much and how often we use them.

A final plea
Learning on smart phones is all about designing a new technology to realise an old, but still highly relevant, approach to pedagogy. This new and exciting technology is undoubtedly driving the pedagogy in new and exciting ways. Therefore, we urge you to vote with us against the motion.
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