As with television and computers before it, today's mobile technology challenges educators to respond and ensure their work is relevant to students. What's changed is that this portable, cross-contextual way of engaging with the world is driving a more proactive approach to learning on the part of young people.

"As with television and computers before it, today's mobile technology challenges educators to respond and ensure their work is relevant to students. What's changed is that this portable, cross-contextual way of engaging with the world is driving a more proactive approach to learning on the part of young people.


The first full-length authored treatment of the relationship between the centrality of technological development in daily life and its potential as a means of education, Mobile Learning charts the rapid emergence of new forms of mass communication and their potential for gathering, shaping, and analyzing information, studying their transformative capability and learning potential in the contexts of school and socio-cultural change. The focus is on mobile/cell phones, PDAs, and to a lesser extent gaming devices and music players, not as "the next new thing" but meaningfully integrated into education, without objectifying the devices or technology itself. And the book fully grounds readers by offering theoretical and conceptual models, an analytical framework for understanding the issues, recommendations for specialized resources, and practical examples of mobile learning in formal as well as informal educational settings, particularly with at-risk students. Among the topics covered:




. Core issues in mobile learning

. Mobile devices as educational resources

. Socioeconomic approaches to mobile learning

. Creating situations that promote mobile learning

. Ubiquitous mobility and its implications for pedagogy

. Bridging the digital divide at the policy level



Mobile Learning is a groundbreaking volume, sure to stimulate both discussion and innovation among educational professionals interested in technology in the context of teaching and learning."

Part 1. Big picture and examples

Chapter 1. Charting the conceptual space
The 'mobile complex'
'Mobile' learning
Education in the context of societal and cultural transformations
An overview of the socio-cultural ecology: agency, cultural practices and structures
Overview of the structure of the book
References

Chapter 2. Mobile learning: a topography
Introduction
A brief history of mobile learning
Specialist conferences and events
Professional associations
Organisation with a particular interest in mobile learning
Specialist journals
Specialist issues on mobile learning
Key issues in mobile learning

Chapter 3. Mobile devices as resources for learning: adoption trends, characteristics, constraints and challenges
Introduction
Adoption trends of mobile devices and services
Characteristics and functions of mobile devices
Constraints and challenges
Conclusions

Chapter 4. Cases of mobile learning
Methodology of the project analysis
Cases
Synoptic analysis

Chapter 5. Whither a socio-cultural ecology of learning with mobile devices
Introduction
Activity Theory
Conversation and discursive appropriation as contextual and reflexive activity
Continuity of learning activities between and across contexts
Activity Theory: a critical perspective
Learning and meaning-making as subject-centred and context-related cultural practice
Ecological approaches to (mobile) learning
Participative, interactive, situated and contextual learning
Part 2. An ecological approach to mobile learning in the context of global transformation
Chapter 6. Analysing the mobile complex for education: key concepts

Chapter 7. A social semiotic analysis of mobile devices: interrelations of technology and socialhabitus
A social-semiotic take on technology
The affordances of smartphones: a social semiotic analysis
Implications for socialization and learning
Open questions: gains and losses

Chapter 8. The mobile complex, socialization and learning resources
Introduction
Everyday life with mobile devices, socialization and critical mobile literacy
The mobile complex within socio-cultural developments
Chapter 9. Appropriation and learning
Introduction
Appropriation: personal development and the internalization of cultural products
Mobile devices, media and mass communication
Learning in contexts and supported by situations
Chapter 10. At-risk learners: their contextual and conversational options
Introduction
Case analysis of a provocative mobile video
Habitus, socio-cultural milieu and learning
Chapter 11. User-generated content and contexts: an educational perspective
Introduction
The situated character of mobile media and learning contexts
Flexibility of contexts, specificity of mobile learning
User-generated content and individualized knowledge building
Individualized knowledge of native experts
Assimilation of mobile/cell phones and user-generated contexts
An analysis of reflext context awareness
Mobile/Cell phones: from everyday life to school learning
Chapter 12. Four didactic parameters for analyzing and planning
The four parameters: an introduction
Using the four parameters as a tool for analysis
From analysis to planning
Implications for teacher support and development

Part 3. Perspectives for mobile learning

Chapter 13. Setting the scene

Chapter 14. Emerging technologies and attendant practices
Adoption horizons for key emerging technologies
Computing off the desktop: going small, larg