proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING

Selecting Educational Content in m-Learning
Santiago Pérez de la Cámara, Jesús Cáceres Tello, Juan José Sánchez Peña, University of Alcalá de
Henares. Madrid. Spain
santiago.perez , jesus.caceres, juanjo.sanchez@uah.es
Abstract. The new paradigms of learning on mobile devices raise new questions in
business, technologically and educationally levels. These devices allow to overcome the
spatial and temporary barriers associated with other types of learning: the learner is able
to study where and when he/she wants. But there are challenges that must be solved, like
the delivering process of learning objects adapted for the user’s de-vices. This paper
exposes a possible solution using educational and W3C’s standards to select the most
appropriate learning object for a user taking into account the devices that he/she is using.
Keywords. m-learning, standards, mobile learning objects, context profile, mobile device.
The m-learning’s challenges
In the e-learning area, the use of mobile devices has allowed the appearance of a new paradigm of
learning called "any-time-anywhere" and usually identified as m-learning or mobile-learning.
The m-learning, though using the same pedagogic principles that any other method of e-learning,
raises an important number of challenges that should be solved in the near future to be able to consolidate
its expansion:
• Of contents: Adapting the educational materials to the final device used by the user.
• Technological: Adapting the educational materials to the “physical way” for which they
spread.
• Social and cultural: It is possible to mention in this point the problems originated by the
existing rates in the mobile company, the price of the mobile devices, how these devices are
used, or the training for the use of this technology of all the involved actors.
• Of business: It is necessary to ask for what business models will be arising around the mlearning,
which will be the role of the organizations in the generation, diffusion and sale of
contents, or how the relationship between all the implied agents will be articulated.
There are too many questions to answer: how will browsers, user interfaces and standards be
affected?, how will it change the paradigm of learning?, where will it be the best place and when will it be
the best moment to learn?, and so on.
Nowadays the authors are involved in a research project focused on the selection of educational
content appropriated for the student in base of his needs and preferences, and the device that he is using in a
particular moment.
Learning Objects (LO) vs. mobile Learning Objects (mLO)
The mobile learning objects have important differences in relation to the traditional learning
objects of the e-learning. These differences are divided in two aspects:
• Of format: referenced to the physical way in which the information comes to the user. It is
necessary to know the characteristics of hardware and software of every mobile device in
order to determine if the edicational content can be reproduced in that device.
• Of presentation: referenced to how the information should be showed in order to increase the
satisfaction of the learning experience for the user. For instance, nobody would like to read a
300 pages document on the screen of a mobile telephone.
Taking into account the great variety of existing devices, in an ideal world the contents for mlearning
should be developed device-independent. To achieve this, content and presentation should be
separated.
Conference proceedings of Student Mobility and ICT: Can E-LEARNING overcome barriers of Life-Long learning?” 61