M-Learning and “Catching up”

I thank Tony Bates once again for pointing me to what’s up-to-date in my field.

http://www.tonybates.ca/2010/09/03/distance-education-and-mobile-learning/

This time it’s the Australian-based Distance Education journal special edition on distance education and mobile learning. It’s not open source, but fortunately my university has access to it as part of the online collection. I’ve only just started reading this issue, but I know I’ll want to explore it fully.

As Bates suggests, the editorial article, Distance education and mobile learning: Catching up, taking stock,  by J. Traxler, is an overview that compares theory-based traditional distance education to the highly informal “individual unstructured learning driven by curiosity or necessity”.

When thinking about the current hum of technological change and it’s impact on education, I often wonder if theory will be able to catch up.

Traxler describes other articles in the journal — some describing specific projects, issues in developing parts of the world, etc.  Any theoretical basis to “cover” what mobile is all about will have to span a range of cultures and address the varying reasons why education exists. It’s truly huge!

Anyway, this post is a break from my series of postings (chapter by chapter) as I read through the Veletsianos book, but, as can so often happen, a parallel train of thought has overtaken me. I may find myself blogging about both the Australian Journal and the Athabasca book over the next few weeks.