The Future of Learning: From eLearning to mLearning

The future of electronic learning was explored in an analysis that viewed the provision of learning at a distance as a continuum and traced the evolution from distance learning to electronic learning to mobile learning in Europe and elsewhere. Special attention was paid to the following topics: (1) the impact of the industrial revolution, the electronics revolution of the 1980s, and the mobile revolution of the late 20th century on education and training; (2) the distance education strategies and techniques that constitute the foundation for the success of mobile learning; (3) the worldwide spread of electronic learning and arrival of mobile learning; (4) mobile learning initiatives and attempts to provide theoretical constructs for mobile learning; (5) mobile learning on screenphones, on personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, and wireless application protocol (WAP) telephones; and (6) student use of mobile learning. The differences between individual students' acceptance of the new electronic technologies were generally related to their different learning styles and study preferences. Mobile learning, especially mobile learning involving mobile telephony, was seen as becoming a new sector of education and training provision whose future depends on solving the problems inherent in presenting training scenarios on mobile telephones. (Thirty-nine tables/figures are included. The bibliography lists 28 references.) (MN) by Keegan, Desmond