Mobile Learning Technologies

There are many emerging mobile devices and technologies that are now utilized by adult learners.  The device I utilize myself is a tablet.  A tablet allows access to online information at anytime whether the student is sitting in a classroom or home taking a mobile course.  Additionally, utilizing a tablet in the physical classroom is less cumbersome than a laptop and just as easy to take notes with (Rossing, Miller, Cecil & Stamper, 2012).  There are some Colleges and Universities that require tablets, as of Fall 2012 the University of Louisville is one such University (University of Louisville, 2012).  A tablet would easily be incorporated into my professional practice by offering a course on how to utilize the tablets and also by offering tablet use in the computer lab once the University has handed them down to the Center I am employed by.

Another mobile learning technology of interest to me the use of smartphones in classrooms.  I selected this technology because it is quite a controversial subject not just in adult education but in regular education as well.  There are both pros and cons.  In adult education I can incorporate the technology into my classroom both as instruction and as a resource for the students to utilize at a time permitted to them. 

University of Louisville, (2012).  Tablet PC.  Retrieved from   http://louisville.edu/speed/academics/tablet-pc

Rossing, J. P., Miller, W. M., Cecil, A. K., & Stamper, S. E. (2012). iLearning: The future of higher education? Student perceptions on learning with mobile tablets. Journal Of The Scholarship Of Teaching & Learning, 12(2), 1-26.