“mLearning”
An (un)Intended Neglect
For almost three decades, online learning has been a topic of recurring interest and persistent skepticism. Regardless of our attitudes on its role and contribution (or compromising ramifications) to formal education,
a Black Swan in the form of COVID-19 has jolted the practice of distance learning to the forefront of education practices — globally and across all tiers of education systems.
Have you noticed that I used the terms “distance learning” and “online learning” interchangeably? Are they indeed synonymous? Another term that has been resurfacing in discussions fueled by COVID (and occasionally used as a substitute for “online” and “distance” learning) is “remote learning.” There is yet one more concept that should have appeared in the mix but seems to have been almost dormant — at least based on data revealed by google search trends: “Mobile learning.”
Image 1 demonstrates worldwide searches for terms “online learning,” “distance leanring,” “remote learning,” and “mobile learning” for the past 12 months (September 2019 to September 2020).
- Online Learning. We are seeing a rather expected trend that our interest in the practice of online learning (represented by a blue line in image 1) started spiking at the end of February 2020 and reached the highest mark in the week of March 22–28, 2020. Even though there has been a decline in our frantic search to understand and reintroduce or improve online educational practices, the search indicators are still holding above the mark of 50.
- Distance Learning and Remote Learning. Searches for terms “distance learning” (red line) and “remote learning” (yellow line) show an almost mirror image of trends for “online learning,” except for their much lower search interest indicators.
- Mobile Learning. Searches for “mobile learning” (green line), however, have been consistently low and surprisingly unaffected by COVID-evoked global changes in educational queries. An interesting side note, that if we look at “mobile learning” searches by country, China has the highest indicator of search hits.
The purpose of this article is to challenge the unaffected and inconspicuous status of mobile learning, especially now, under conditions of heavy reliance on mobile technology.
To substantiate this challenge, we can not avoid a treacherous attempt to offer distinctions between the four terms. Why treacherous? There is no such miracle as a universal agreement on the definition of any complex and multifaceted practice — in our case, modalities of teaching and learning. Here we go!
Distance Learning
Not to stretch the boundaries of the intended scope of this article, let’s agree (to disagree, if needed) that distance learning can be regarded as an umbrella term for online learning, remote learning, and mobile learning. This is the reason we tend to use the terms interchangeably.
Where it gets tricky is delineating distinctions between online, remote, and mobile learning.
Online Learning
There are two critical aspects of online learning that should be highlighted:
- Online learning as a tool
Online learning supports educational practices with “computer”-mediated activities. The word “computer” is used to denote access to the World Wide Web of learning resources, programs, and systems. Students and educators can be involved in online learning regardless of their physical location — be it within the walls of a traditional campus environment or at any other geographical location (home, work, beach, parallel universe — as long as wifi is not out looking for other networks).
2. Online learning as a discipline
Online learning is defined by pedagogical practices and epistemological queries into how we can interact with knowledge online in ways that enhance teaching and learning experiences. (Not merely how do we carry over face-to-face lectures and assessments into computer-mediated modality.) Since first bold (and frequently ridiculed) attempts in the 1990’s to introduce online learning into brick and mortar walls of academia, scholars, practitioners, academics and non-academics alike have been developing methodologies, practices, tools, and systems to build online learning as a discipline it its own right.
Remote Learning
As manifested in the name of the term itself, remote learning does not take place as a face-to-face instruction within the same location — it has to be conducted remotely. The difference between online and remote learning can be tricky (and, once again, not always agreed on). Whereas online learning can be carried out either synchronously (in real time) or asynchronously (any time), remote learning is generally conducted as a synchronous meeting joined by (some or all) participants at the same time from different locations. Some practitioners point out that
many COVID-driven transitions to online learning, instead took a form of remote learning: traditional face-to-face instruction was delivered remotely via zoom. This observation appears to be expressed more as a point of criticism or our lack of ability to incorporate the wealth of methodologies developed by the field of online learning.
Unlike online learning, remote learning does not have a specific pedagogical practice to enhance the modality of delivery.
Mobile Learning
Mobile learning refers to the use of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, for the purpose of teaching and learning. However, like online learning, and differing from remote learning, mobile learning has developed a unique pedagogy and a set of practices associated with it — it is not merely a matter of the device.
One critical caveat here: the category of mobile phones encompasses both smart phones and feature phones. Whereas smart phones can be used as an online learning tool, feature phones are not able to support tools needed for learning purposes.
Why even talk about mobile learning if this topic hasn’t been on the interest radar of global search trends according to Google Trends (image 1) neither prior nor during COVID-imposed disruption?
- Increasing interest by young adults to use smart phones for learning purposes
Ninety-four percent of young adults in US (ages 18–29) own smart phones. Increased access to mobile devices has inadvertently been resulting in students’ growing use of smart phones for educational purposes. A number of pre-COVID articles and reports from 2018 and 2019 demonstrate students’ interest and preference for using mobile devices to access learning activities.
To tie back to the mention above that China shows the highest hits for “mobile phone” searches, the table below (see column smartphone users), sheds some light on the reason why China is expressing higher interest in mobile learning applications.
2. COVID-driven necessity to use smart phones for learning purposes
Whereas many students appear to demonstrate preference for using smart phones, COVID exposed yet another socio-economic divide: the digital divide. Many students have had no alternative but to turn to mobile devices due to either limited access or entire lack of access to computers and/or wifi services. As cell coverage is more ubiquitous for users than wifi, it makes more sense for an individual of limited means to use the already paid for cell phone and signal and not add a wifi with its connectivity costs, device costs, and limited reach.
The Disconnect
The disconnect here is not in the function — students can still watch zoom sessions on their phones — the core of the disconnect is in the form (in the next paragraph we will refer to it as quality). Schools are taking their traditional methods and putting a camera in front of them (which is remote learning) and then calling these practices online learning (while not embedding online learning as a discipline). The students are trying to learn from mobile devices, which, in turn have their own pedagogical underpinnings that are not being used.
Function and quality are not synonymous. Quality depends on all of the non-functional variables that we call “ilities.” There are many ilities that become issues in the mobile learning scenario: the quality of the students experience, the adaptability of schools to meet students on their digital territory, versatility of practice, the list goes on. The success of every product and service always hinges on the “ilities.”
ILITIES
ILITIES are quality attributes and should not be confused with functions, or even abilities. An ability to log into zoom and share a screen is a function but not an ility of educational practices in general, or online learning in particular.
When such ilities as agility and adaptability are imbedded in a system and its processes, Black Swans are managed not as survival threats but as evolutionary opportunities.
