According to United Nations, more people have mobile telephones around the world than have access to a flush toilet. In fact, in Australia, an astounding 70% of Australians own either a smartphone or tablet device, and 32% own both. In this Australian mobile device ownership and home usage report 2014, the usage statistics indicate that the majority of Australians are highly dependent on their mobile devices. They rarely leave these devices out of their hands even in the home (they don’t even go to the bathroom without it!).

Indeed, technology continues to move at lightning speed, offering opportunities for providing the latest and greatest information to our workforce – but it’s not always easy to implement. Mobile devices sales, especially smart phone sales may be higher than PC sales and this may be a good opportunity to get into mobile learning, however, to jump on the mobile learning bandwagon just because it is an emerging area does not necessary ensure that it will be effective. An understanding of the technologies as well as learning will be necessary to ensure learning strategies and solutions are aligned with business needs.

Mobile learning, also known as m-learning, is becoming an increasingly popular way to convey information and enhance the learning process in numerous fields. This is different from e-learning as rather than being restricted to a specific location at a desktop computer or fixed module, the learner is able to access information from an array of mobile devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones and phones. Mobile devices can be utilized in several ways to deliver informal and formal learning, social tools as well as used as performance support tool.

M-learning is great if you need:

• To capture expert knowledge or give access to experts who can provide support to learners
• To use it on-the-job, resulting in a more learning-by-doing and less out of context learning
• To access to information on the go
• To encourage social learning

M-learning is also dependent upon the type of content and information required. It is suitable where:

• Content is hard to nail down and is more problem solving in nature
• Content is hard to retain or does not have to be retained
• You and/or your people want to access it anywhere, anytime
• Content are designed into small bite-sizes of 3-5 minutes or short videos that are easy to view on mobile devices

Overall, mobile devices are an opportunity within a suite of options and might prove an effective element within a broader learning strategy. Nevertheless, mobile learning may not be for everyone. For instance, those organizations that do not have a mobile workforce – it makes sense that they are not incorporating mobile delivery into their learning strategy. On the other hand, mobile delivery may be an ideal solution for those employees who cannot free up a few days to take a course. Moreover, you not only need to consider whether your employees are ready for technological advances in learning, but rather what kind of technological advances are they ready for.

So, what’s your stance in m-learning? Are you ready for it?

Article also found here: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140623014810-5398941-are-you-ready-for-mobile-learning?trk=mp-reader-card

If you’ve enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!