The m-learning project investigated ways to encourage edu-phobic young people to engage with lifelong learning. It looked at how to do this by taking advantage of the one thing everyone in this group has in common - a mobile phone!

m-learning was a €4.5m 3 year pan-European research and development programme supported by the European Commission. It wound up in September having made some exciting discoveries.

Jill Attewell is the Manager of the Technology Enhanced Learning Research Centre at the Learning and Skills Development Agency. She was Program Manager for the m-learning project in which LSDA was the co-ordinating partner.

Jill talks about the outcomes of the project.

What many of these young people have in common is ownership of a mobile phone which is an important part of their image and lifestyle. Mobile phone ownership spans all socio-economic classes and the desire to own the latest phone is not confined to the wealthy.

The m-learning project has been exploring whether young peoples’ enthusiasm for mobile phones, and other handheld information, communication or entertainment devices, can be harnessed to encourage them to take part in learning. The project, supported by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies programme, involved commercial and research organisations in the UK, Italy and Sweden.

The project developed learning materials and systems accessed on, or via, handheld devices (including mobile phones and hybrid phone/PDA devices) and explored pedagogic approaches to delivering and supporting learning experiences. The learning materials were mostly short games or quizzes that allow learners to practice their reading, spelling or maths skills in the context of a subject of interest to them. Subjects included sport, fashion, health and beauty, travel and the driving theory test.

Three different devices were used during the learner research and system trials:

The Sony Ericsson “smartphones” most closely resemble the mobile phones that the target audience are likely to be familiar with but have larger screens, many PDA functions and access the Internet via a web browser. The XDAII is essentially a PDA with a built in mobile phone.

The project partners recruited collaborating organisations (COs) working with young people aged 16 to 24 with poor literacy or numeracy not in full time education. Each CO involved groups of, typically, 10 to 20 of their young adults in using m-learning materials and systems. Each group was involved for between three and seven weeks with the intensity of activity varying according to how often the groups met and whether or not learners were allowed to take the mobile devices away with them between meetings. Most of the learners were unemployed and some were homeless, travellers or ex-offenders whilst others were students, young apprentices or other part time learners in their workplaces.

Feedback from the learners indicated that most enjoyed taking part in the project, using the learning materials and systems and borrowing the top-of-the-range devices. 82% of learner respondents felt the m-learning games might help them to improve their reading or spelling and 78% their maths skills. 62% of the learners said they felt they were more likely to take part in future learning after taking part in the project.

Mentors were asked to assess learners’ abilities and attitudes to learning prior to and following their involvement in the m-learning project. The mentors reported that they felt nearly a third of the learners (29%) had developed a more positive attitude to reading and they perceived improvements in some learners’ skills in maths (17%), reading (16%) and writing (13%). The greatest improvements were noted for those learners who were initially rated as being ”less able” or having “very limited ability”. There were many reports of improved “soft skills” including communication skills, confidence, self-esteem, team working and social interaction. It may be that some of the apparent improvement in the least able learners’ abilities was due to these learners gaining self-confidence.

12 mentors commented that the most enjoyable aspect of the project was witnessing the positive response of the learners. Mentors also felt that the games could be effective because they made learning seem “fun” and “interesting” making learning less formal and therefore reducing pressure on learners.

At the beginning some mentors expressed concerns about lending the mobile devices to learners for use outside supervised sessions. They feared the devices might be damaged or stolen – probably by the learners. They were also worried about potential excessive or inappropriate use and making learners a more attractive target for muggers. However, the project team were concerned that too much control of the devices would detract from mobility and restrict the time available for learners to become confident users of the devices, learning materials and systems. Evidence from previous projects where laptop computers were lent to disadvantaged young people encouraged the project team to believe that the young people might respond well to being trusted with the equipment.

The outcome was that most COs allowed the learners to take the devices home and less than 3% of the learners lost or stole a device with less than1% damaging theirs. There were a large amount of personal and premium rate phone calls kept under control by a pre-set maximum limit and there was only one report of inappropriate use of the Internet. There were also several reports from mentors about learners responding very well to being trusted e.g. “He took really good care of it. He pointed out that because of his background no one would have ever trusted him with a mobile. This has meant more to him than the actual device itself, as he feels respected.”

The project team learned that there are still problems with coverage and signal strength particularly in rural areas and that service providers can be reluctant to admit and address these problems. Bandwidth, and therefore response times, are not yet good enough to make on-line mobile learning comparable with e-learning and learners can become very frustrated. The solution to these problems is to use a mixture of on-line and off-line learning.

We also learned that, just as the best e-learning is designed to be electronically delivered and supported, m-learning should not be e-learning squashed on to smaller screens.

We found most of our target audience enjoyed collaborative learning but some learners also appreciated the opportunity to work on their literacy skills in private whenever and wherever was most convenient to them. The learners learned from and supported each other but also required a lot of mentor support and encouragement and a formal, structured and supervised introductory session resulted in a more successful learner experience. However, mentors require training and support to ensure that they are confident and competent users of mobile technologies and therefore able to adequately support the learners.