For someone who once predicted that the Internet will not stay, Bill Gates predicts that in five years time, you will find the best lectures online for free and that e-books will dominate over traditional printed books. With the increasing popularity of online distance learning programmes and new universities such as University of the People , a tuition-free online university, Gates' predictions are likely to come true. And, now with the proliferation of tablet computing devices and smart phones, it will only be natural that learners will adopt learning on the go, aka mobile learning. View part of his talk at a recent technology conference.
Mobile learning at OUM started with the formation of an research team on m-learning in August 2008. Its first task was to determine how ready OUM learners would be for mobile learning. We surveyed almost 3,000 learners throughout Malaysia and found that more than 80 percent of the learners said they would be ready for learning through their mobile phones. We first experimented with podcasts and moved on to using sms to support the blended mode of learning at OUM and found that the latter worked extremely well. For more information on the m-learning project at OUM, three papers have been uploaded at: http://www.scribd.com/collections/3238724/MOOC-on-mobile-learning-at-OUM for your reading. More than 21,000 learners have benefited from m-learning at OUM and the SMS for selected courses continue to be sent for free (burned by the university) to the targeted group of learners.
It might appear that I've not been around long enough to sit at my desk to blog, or to have been busy with other priorities or distracted by other activities. Well, yes and no. If you've been around on the Internet and are keeping track of the various learning technologies available, you would know how it feels to be overwhelmed by the choices, resources and information available online. Since I started using Facebook (FB), prompted by a colleague from Japan, way back in 2009 (I think), I realize that as I spent more time on FB I spent less time on my blog. What this means is that either I have to create a framework for myself on how to make my presence felt in the online education community or I get "pulled" by the tools that attract my attention at that time. FB is not the only tool I focused on the last couple of years. The FB groups I created for my students, courses and those that arose out of felt needs to support post-workshop events , have cons...
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