Mobile Learning - Science topic

Thank you.

I agree with Ingrid Del Valle García Carreño

Teachers being made responsible for more than they should

Most of the time, teachers don’t feel that the responsibility is equally shared between them, parents, and students. Unfortunately, they will have to bear a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders.

The Internet of things (IoT) has a great effect in the defeloping of mobile learning. Please have a look at this article:

In my opinion, the key factors in the cybersecurity of mobile education, i.e. M-Learning, include updating the operating system and firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware software supplied by manufacturers of applications, operating systems and other programs installed on a smartphone or other mobile device. In addition, it is important to update the online messaging and videoconferencing platforms used in e-learning. It is also important not to open emails from unknown senders. As young people and children often use social networking sites on their smartphones and teachers use online educational portals, high safety standards should be maintained when using these online portals. It is important not to provide important, sensitive personal information on these portals.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Must not

Hello,

In fact, sustainability is not a single research topic, but a multi-disciplinary integration topic and the general research is to study sustainability in a certain field. The specific categories include energy, technology, environment, management, policy, agriculture, and so on. Please check the following journals:

Nature Sustainability:

Hope it may help you.

Best Regards,

Ning Zhang

The following paper " A framework for systematically transforming and re-engineering syntactic legacy system process elements into semantic web services is required" might help you: https://www.academia.edu/24556422/SMISOS_ADDED_VALUE-A_SET_OF_STANDARD_TOOLS_FOR_WEB_3.0_AUTOMATED_PROCESS .

Nice Dear Felix Ivan Romero Rodríguez

Good Answer Ronald A. Yaros

Many students are not provided with the high bandwidth or the strong internet connection that online courses require, and thus fail to catch up with their virtual classmates: Their weak monitors make it hard to follow the Course Management System and their learning experience becomes problematic. Moreover, most of them live off campus and find it difficult to keep in tune with the technical requirements of the chosen course. Some of them don’t even own computers and seek help in Learning Resource Centers for technical assistance. The only solution to this problem is knowing exactly what kind of technological support they will need for a certain course before enrolling in it, as well as properly equipping themselves for the course’s successful completion

All: check Screencast-O-Matic (Screen Recorder & Video Editor)...

I consider ScratchJr as a developmentally appropriate mobile application (but run also in PC as an open source initiative) for preschoolers to teach and learn CT, maths but literach as well through projects.

Thank you, you've made a lot of things clear.

Nice study,Congratulations!

Thanks for the answer. But I need a method to prove or test the Applicability and Sustainability of a Mobile learning framework. These papers can be used as based papers to develop new mobile learning framework.

Faisal Khalil I think generation Z is comparatively more tech savvy then generation Y. With increased smartphone usage, now people of my age or younger people do not mind using mobile while talking to others, comparatively, I think baby boomers, mind if someone uses the mobile phone while talking to them.

Also, the usage of Mobile for learning is increasing among the new generation, and older people feel that mobile has a smaller screen.

Usage of mobile is also increasing, and i think wearable phone devise in the future can change the whole game.

Amina Bouraoui

Arranging conference is the business with the intellectual people without risk and harms. So, try to never attend in the seminar , conferences without sponsor. Few days back a conference committee from Sri Lanka sent me a mail for my permission to join there as the keynote speaker. I agreed and the following week , they mailed me for a donation of $1500 ! I didn't reply at all. So, be careful !!!

Mobile methods of learning are best used as access to references. At the point information is needed, the student can look it up and use it. However, the retention of information provide in this manner appears to be low. I saw an example recently as I watched my son use Goggle apps to provide driving directions, even for places he had driven to multiple times. He used mobile learning, but did not retain it.

Our company currently uses short microlearning videos, one of the types of learning used frequently for mobilbe learning. However, I find myself repeating these also due to low retention of short episodes of learning. I am interested in any studies on retention period of mobile learnign and micro learning.

Are you asking as someone who wants to learn or some one who wants to develop such a framework?

You could check out Coursera

The paradigm must depart from traditional & insular assessment approaches to evaluate the effects of learning. It must account for learning that occurs in multiple contexts and for application purposes that go beyond the limited purpose of learning within a controlled context.. The tools are already embedded for extracting geographical and context data for commercially produced apps. It is possible to pair that data with learning/performance outcome data. Data from traditionaĪ LMSs will provide limited usable data that facilitates planning for mobile learning in multiple contexts. Ubiquitous mobile alters both the delivery & evaluation of learning.

Yes it is very much possible as mobile technologies are playing a vital role in higher education and with devices such as smartphones and tablets access among students, for required knowledge sharing and interactions are heightened nowadays.

Check following if it could be of any help:

Hi again Alain Lamadrid Vallina !

Just happened to se a fresh paper on MOOC wrapping in my RG stream, perhaps you have seen it as well:

There are many studies about the mobile and its effects and importance in life and are relevant to the subject of your studies but I think this type of studies is important because it fits the current era

I am sending some work I had done on mobile learning as part of a presentation on flexing learning:

Best regards,

Debra

Personalized learning systems are self-managed/autonomic agent based systems which gain cognition via conscious/deep sense rather than collaborative/social firms of learning. Learning recommender systems are controllable picky/choosy social engines which demand vivid data and build evolving patterns of preferences that can be reused in other arenas, all recommender systems learning methods are abstracted from game theory/gamefication models. Adaptive learning systems are based on blended "evolving"/"self-configuring" systems that change their innate behavior automatically from realtime data or new design requirements at runtime, its worth to mention that adaptive learning systems do not consume plans, patterns of behavior to favor the learnt objectives as perceived/ignited by receptor, rather they tend to enhance mechanics and strategies of the learning process.

You can check archive of world journal on educational technology. You can use rubrics in pbl according to your topics. 

Michael:

I do not think the Hawthorne Effect is measured in research as we do not always have the time to do so. But, it is really important especially with using technology in a new way as students' engagement initially can be mistaken for increases in performance, which can lead to misleading conclusions in research. Great question!

Many thanks,

Debra

Thanks John you have been very helpful.

There are many ways to extract apk file from your mobile, but the easiest way is the following:

Step 1: Install ES File Explorer App

Step 2: Open ES File Explorer App and goto Library -> Apps

Step 3: Select the app for which you want the apk and click on Backup (you will see many options after selecting an app) option.

Step 4: Get your apk file from sdcard/backup/apps folder.

I used the NASA TLX with some degree of success. Pre and post testing is an indirect measure of CL too, provided all other variables are controlled.

This is a good paper 

Brünken, R. & Plass, J.L., 2003. Direct Measurement of Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. , 38(1), pp.53–61.

MALL is usually defined as language learning that is supported through mobile devices or where the learner is mobile. It is not defined by the type of language-learning activity that learners perform through the mobile device/application. It's worth keeping in mind that anything that can be called MALL could also be called CALL since mobile devices are a type of computing device.

Here are some references which should give you a sense of the types of things that fall into the MALL category.

Kukulska-Hulme, A., & Shield, L. (2008). An Overview of Mobile Assisted Language Learning: from Content Delivery to Supported Collaboration and Interaction. ReCALL, 20(3), 271–289. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0958344008000335

Cui, Y., & Bull, S. (2005). Context and learner modelling for the mobile foreign language learner. System, 33(2), 353–367. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2004.12.008

Hockly, N. (2013). Designer Learning: The Teacher as Designer of Mobile-based Classroom Learning Experiences (pp. 1–12). Monterey, CA, USA: The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF). Retrieved from http://www.tirfonline.org/english-in-the-workforce/mobile-assisted-language-learning/designer-learning-the-teacher-as-designer-of-mobile-based-classroom-learning-experiences/

Godwin-Jones, R. (2011). Emerging Technologies Mobile Apps for Language Learning. Language Learning & Technology (LLT), 15(2), 2–11.

Chinnery, G. M. (2006). Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning. Language Learning & Technology, 10(1), 9–16.

Palalas, A. (2011). Mobile-Assisted Language Learning: Designing for Your Students. In S. Thouësny & L. Bradley (Eds.), Second language teaching and learning with technology: views of emergent researchers (pp. 71–94). Dublin: Research-publishing.net.

Burston, J. (2014). The Reality of MALL: Still on the Fringes. CALICO Journal, 31(1), 103–125. http://doi.org/10.11139/cj.31.1.

Demmans Epp, C. (2015). Mobile adaptive communication support for vocabulary acquisition. Journal of Learning Analytics, 1(3), 173–175.

Demmans Epp, C. (2016). Supporting English Language Learners with an Adaptive Mobile Application (Doctoral). University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1807/71720

The questionnaire has 29 items and I think it serves the purpose.  Have a look at this paper.  If you need a co-author, do get in touch with me.  RG is good at connecting us all.   http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Oct_10/article02.htm

Hi Mahani, the following research paper is relevant to your question

Thanks this is helpful to know about the Phillippines experience - thank you for sharing with us.

Thank you both very much! Unfortunately, I am not working right now, so I do not have students to monitor their attitudes

As I said..here the artcile on mHealth in Malaysia. Also published in JMIR. The source I know. http://www.jmir.org/2016/1/e5/

Hi.Inayat.

in order to complete the list our colleagues have given here I would like to share with you what I also do to assess students in e-learning / m-learning.

I use case study analysis.

This is a fragment of one of my projects based on immersive escenarios and immersive learning.

 Case study approach

One of the main goals of education is to integrate theory and practice through the application of learning and teaching strategies to link the real world and knowledge in an effective way .One of those strategies is the Case Study. It provides learner with meaningful learning since the participants can be involved in the discussion of a case and the group process as well. This strategy supports the development of several cognitive processes such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information. Besides critical thinking, collaborative work, and decision making, creativity and innovation are also developed by learners.

The case study is a learning strategy in which the learner faces the description of a specific situation   that proposes a problem. This problem must be understood, evaluated and solved by a group of students through a discussion process. Fry et al (1999) describe case studies as complex examples which give an insight into the context of a problem as well as illustrating the main point. For this project, case studies are defined as student centered activities based on topics that demonstrate theoretical concepts in an applied setting. This definition of a case study covers the variety of different learning structures EAN University uses in its distance and e-learning programs ranging from short individual case studies to longer group-based activities.

You can read more in my profile.

Thanks,

MARTHA MENDEZ

Some students require explicit exposure, exposition and explanation, and do not learn through casual observation.  They do not recognize what is seen/heard unless someone or something (computer) calls attention to specific content.  Such students can learn and retain content, but do not have background knowledge or interest that leads to contemplation and connection.  Therefore, considering informal schooling for basic skills and knowledge produces haphazard and inconsistent mastery.  When 1:1 pupil-teacher contact is available (or small groups) an alternation be tween explicit formal instruction and interest-explorative can provide variety.  Any system used as the only way misses the need for individualizing.  Excellent teachers generally attend to interests and abilities for both individuals and groups.  Having an overall context of relevance and interest puts leads students through internal motivation. The teacher can call attention to the relevance of content by using the four aspect quadrants of Crary interests in any lesson content: Scientific-Quatitative, Creative-Aesthetic, Humanistic-Ethical, Vocational-Technical. Devoting one minute of examples for each of these aspects during a lesson connects to the personal agenda of each student in both formal and informal deliveries. 

"The use of computers and other digital technologies continues to rise in early childhood programs, and technology is being used as a tool for improving program quality in many interesting ways. In this Exchange Trend Report the focus is on innovative and effective uses of computers and technology for program management, classroom teaching, and professional development. The results of an online “Readers Survey” at ChildCareExchange.com are highlighted, and innovations for classroom teaching and eLearning are identified and described, to provide a snapshot of the most frequent and promising uses of technology in early childhood education"

Unesco published a list of working papers available here which includes information by region: 

Check this out:

The Relationship Between Text Message Volume and Formal Writing Performance

Among Upper Level High School Students and College Freshmen

Hi Nikos, I am currently undertaking research on the use of mobile devices to increase student engagement in lectures. The research is complete and I am in the process of write up. I would be happy to share experiences.

Thanks,

Claire

Dear Sokratis, I enclose a link to a publication on 'Mobile pedagogy for English language teaching'. It is a bit far removed from medical education, but maybe you find  some parts useful.

I did a systematic review of mobile learning studies from 2003-2012 on maths and most of the published papers (around 28%  were in the 10 weeks mark), followed by 4 weeks (22%) and not really surprising are 1 week sessions or even one-offs (18%) A few studies did explore an academic year implementation (13%) but some studies did not even bother saying how long the intervention was. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is mobile learning studies are so variable in terms of implementation but I guess a term (10-12 weeks) would be alright as most studies have taken that route. 

The ubiquity of mobile devices and mobile apps were instrumental in helping medical support teams reach out to the victims and family members of those recently affected by the Ebola virus in Central Africa (indirectly assisting to contain the outbreak), as well as the disaster relief teams accurately identifying flood victims and their locations in rural parts of Kelantan in Malaysia late last year (when electricity was off, government agencies distributed power banks to communities affected to allow cellular communication to continue). If these underprivileged communities benefited from such simple technology, I'm convinced that the same can benefit any other community development projects, including education and training.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought that is what you meant, but I wanted to make sure. Have you seen the following papers?

Motiwalla, L. F. (2007). Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation. Computers & Education, 49(3), 581-596.

Frohberg, D., Göth, C., & Schwabe, G. (2009). Mobile learning projects–a critical analysis of the state of the art. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(4), 307-331.

Huang, J. H., Lin, Y. R., & Chuang, S. T. (2007). Elucidating user behavior of mobile learning: A perspective of the extended technology acceptance model. The Electronic Library, 25(5), 585-598.

Kukulska-Hulme, A., & Traxler, J. (Eds.). (2005). Mobile learning: A handbook for educators and trainers. Psychology Press.

Dear, Crux of the activity theory lays the need to enlist a set of knowing that create activities to unlock workplace complexities. Knowing is all about interaction between individual and its workplace environment. It remains within the natural, physical and material scope of research. This can provide logical basis to generate genuine knowledge and make verifiable claims

Using activity theory lens, workplace activities can be ascertained. The T&D needs of the contemporary organizations can be identified by considering employee ability, motivation level, participation level, opportunity to participate; the human and social capital held by the organization, contextual factors from the external environment such as business strategies can be enlisted to know about training & development needs of employees. This will advance your thought I hope.

Dear Allen. I suggest you use pre and post test to evaluate your respondents's development before and after the mobile learning takes place. 

Have you tried contacting representatives of the ALM Task Force?  They are located at Headquarters, Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), G3/5/7 at Fort Eustis, VA.

We made some research at Institute of Social work at University of Hradec Králové (Czech Republic). The results are in attached article.

Dear Christothea,

At this moment, one of the most popular mobile "games" for learning is Duolingo, a free iPhone and Android app that can be used to learn foreign languages. It has a large, growing community which helps to implement new languages. I say "game", because it's actually more a form of gamification than an actual game. There have been studies on the effects of Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/effectiveness-study), but these have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

As you probably know, learning effects of commercial video games have been demonstrated in various fields. However, there are few studies that focus specifically on mobile games. You might find this article interesting: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21529831

Yours,

Maarten Jalink

Dear Hung, the following post provides an idea of the benefits of mobile learning in a number of countries. It indeed may open up teaching and learning opportunities that were not possible previously.

Good questions, Galina.

Would you like to share your experience with M- games for students at university level?

It is already happening. But will require some time to evolve. There are certain limitations on what can be and what cannot be. A good part of it is already in place and students are regularly using it.

This 2014 article might provide some insight; it refers to the iPad in particular because, as the author explains, that is used most often for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Hope it helps!

Interesting question! I've found at my institution that mobile learning happens in spite of institutional policy and lack of support.

It supposed to add alternatif teaching and learning method.Example collaborative learning and conceptual understanding of a lesson. By using google cloud doc you can ask students collaborate in solving a story problem in different places and time, by using google drive adds on like mindup and mindmaster teacher can give an idea and students developed the idea by making sub idea inserting video,link by their own understanding. It can apply for lower level gr 3 primary until university for linguistiv to science from my experience.

For changing face to face it goes to the culture and infrastructure in every country.There are country with dominance on face to culture and bad infrastructure especially internet connection.

I think the main issue has got to be how that application displays on ALL mobile devices. For example, an application can be very useable on a smart phone yet be difficult to use on a tablet devices. Also, the number of 'clicks' becomes very important.

My Pleasure.

The GPS Sensor gives an accuracy of about 3 meters (I believe) and only works outdoors. 3 meters could place the robot in the next room..

Wifi + Bluetooth localization might work very well for your use case.

There are a number of Robotics education programs in the works these days.

Thanks for the interest Antonella, would love to hear what you create. I have run several teacher training workshops around designing for seamless learning (e.g. http://prezi.com/vavrzadbpvfu/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share & http://goo.gl/iT2tOI ) and I am now doing some seamless learning design projects with language learners. Will share designs here...

Answer: Taking advantage of these new mediums and exploiting them to their full potential. The challenge is getting people to think outside of the education box. The development and deployment of MOOCs today is similar to when movies were first made. If you look at films from the 1920s and 30s, you'll notice that films were presented as stage productions. Example, the Marx Brother's film "Duck Soup."

Eventually, in the 1940s, filmmakers started to see movies as its own medium that wasn't confined to the limitations of stage productions. That's when we start to see Film Noir, then "Citizen Cain" with its revolutionary camera angles, and after that, Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic formulas of filming 2-person scenes.

In the same respect, on-line courses are still treating the medium like a typical classroom; Teacher lectures, go home and read textbook. But we don't need to do that anymore. MOOCs can be designed for multiple educational delivery methods. They can be developed to be adjustable to multiple learning styles and to add assistive devices to neutralize the disadvantages of the learning disabled. We have the technology to create and deliver multimedia entertainment to promote passive learning and reinforce society as a whole to become life-long learners.

Unfortunately, the people who have the companies, the political power and/or access to the money needed to develop education in this manner don't see the big picture yet. They don't see the full potential of MOOCs. It's very difficult to convince people who have been doing the same things in the same way for decades, that they need to change. What's more, before you can show the potential of alternative educational delivery methods, you first have to get past the HR department of the companies that have the infrastructure and resources to develop MOOCs. The typical HR department is limited by the specific requests of the departments in their company. The problem is, they don't know what they don't know, and can't tell their HR people to hire someone with the specific qualifications to create a delivery method they don't know they need.

Hope this answer helps.

Here is an interesting example of the recent changes in emphasis

Have fun!

I am currently using NVIVO 10 for data analysis and can identify with your observations.

The coding can be inductive and deductive. In the case of inductive coding (e.g. Grounded Theory), it is good to find the appropriate word or phrase which (in your opinion) best represents a key point in your data (Node in NVIVO). NVIVO allows you to change that when come up with a better word/phrase later.

Conversely, in deductive coding, you could start with a pre-existing code from the literature and proceed by finding instances in the data that match that pre-existing code.

You could start with Ian's Kennedy's suggestion: 'Do not overload the student with superfluous topics.' You may decide to change that when you find a more appropriate word/phrase to represent the content of the node.

Good luck!

This question stimulates a better awareness of some taken for granted teaching conceptions and practices in digital learning environments. I would suggest that the discussion may start with a few questions about the educational purpose of tutor’s intervention in digital learning environments. Should he/she undertake his/her role just as a facilitator of the use of ICT in the learning process? If so, the underlying assumption would be that learners are supposed to learn by reading, writing essays, and answering tests and exam questions? What kind of content should be learned and for what purpose?

I would suggest adding a few ICT skills to Ian’s list on the basis of three concepts: teaching presence, learning mediator in digital environments, and learning as a process of construction of meaning which takes place through the guided participation in learning activities with others (see Rogoff, 1995; Rogoff, Matusov, & White, 1996).

By working as a learning mediator, the online tutor is able to select the ICT tools, according to the formative purposes, and to make different uses of the same tools. For example, the tutor may take pedagogic decisions on whether the test available in a Moodle platform will be used as a tool for formative self-assessment by learners, or as a tool for summative assessment. As a learning mediator, the online tutor is able to decide which tools and when should they be used according to learners’ characteristics. He/she is able to guide learners so that they learn how to use the tools for specific purposes.

Interacting with participants is rather beneficial in the sense that providing them with the opportunity to share their previous knowledge, providing regular feedback, as well as encouraging grounded reflection keep participants focused on the core content and allows them to meaningfully accomplish the online tasks.

However, if the online tutor has to deal with a massive number of participants the personal and regular feedback would not be possible. In this case, specific skills are necessary to go on providing regular feedback by adapting the techno-pedagogic design, making use of specific tools and adopting specific modalities of organising participation in online tasks.

Just a few references hat may be helpful:

Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5(2), 1-17. http://actxelearning.pbworks.com/f/10.1.1.95.9117.pdf

Coll, C. Bustos, A., Engel, A. de Gispert, I., & Rochera, M. J. (2013). Distributed Educational Influence and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning. Digital Education Review, 24, 23-42. (http://greav.ub.edu/der/index.php/der/article/view/252)

Narciss, S. (2013). Designing and Evaluating Tutoring Feedback Strategies for digital learning environments on the basis of the Interactive Tutoring Feedback Model. Digital Education Review, 23, 7-26. http://greav.ub.edu/der/index.php/der/article/view/232

Rogoff, B. (1995). Observing sociocultural activity on three planes: Participatory appropriation, guided participation, and apprenticeship. In J. V. Wertsch, P. Del Rio & A. Alvarez (Eds.), Sociocultural studies of mind (pp. 139-164). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Rogoff, B., Matusov, E. & White, C. (1996). Models of Teaching and Learning: Participation in a Community of Learners. In R. D. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), Education and Human Development (pp. 388-414). Great Britain: Blackwell.

The main difference between the two is context and the environment. Which means that you need to take these information into consideration when forming the groups. In m-learning you can suppose that learning will occur in a environment where mobility is encouraged while in tradicional e-learning learners do not have such a freedom to move in space. The learning environment is also different, in tradicional e-learning you can use computers while in m-learning people usually use tablets, celphones, and small laptops. This completely chance the type of activity and learning objects you can use and therefore it also affect how the group should be formed. There are many other parameters that need to be considered as some people have already pointed out such as roles, learning goals, instructional preferences, students' preferences, available materials, types of activities, etc ... My research group is also working on similiar topics (group formation in a different contexts and environments), so If you are thinking of supporting group formation on m-learning I would recommed to do a systematic mapping to check which characteristics have been used by the community to form groups as a starting point. If you need help just let me know. I will be glad to help you.

Best,

Seiji

At a very simple, nuts-and-bolts level mobile learning has made it possible to conduct group projects involving fieldwork elements, analysis etc even when it has not been possible to timetable a common meeting time for the group (most of my third year students are in paid employment as well as being fulltime students). Subgroups have visited sites, photographed, shared photos, asked questions and discussed issues via texting while still at location and in a position to modify method/ data collected etc. They have subdivided analysis and write-up sections of the project (often working in in-the-flesh smaller subgroups), then shared the outcomes, perhaps only ever all meeting together for a final assembly and review of the submission. They consult me when needed vis email or emessage board. Such approaches have actually reduced the incidence of complaints about uneven contributions to the project which used to arise from people failig to turn up to scheduled group meetings. The quality of the project submissions has shown no sign of deterioration.

The answer depends on context, students, content to be learned, etc. By default, for begginners, Moodle could be a good start. And student led approach should best ensure learning; at least currenly it is the leading trend...

On the other hand, mobile learning is more than often unhealthy glorified and portrayed as the ultimate cure for educational systems. I am afraid that without a balanced view on mobile learning, developing countries might invest to much time, money, and energy into less fruitful trajectories.

IntelliJ IDEA is a good alternative to Eclipse. It is faster, and a little more intuitive in my opinion.

If you were out in the field, you could practice a procedure virtually at the site before tackling it in the real world. I'm thinking about a procedure on a production animal or something of that nature. Or you could manoeuvre a model before tackling a task. Would that be useful?

While Learning Management Systems have undergone a number of transformations since they were first introduced in the mid 1990s, & at times have been poised to disappear, they still seem to occupy an important role within our formal educational institutions. Moreover, t those who hold positions of power still think they are important! Whether this position will diminish or not only time will tell. It's possible that a new generation of LMS might have more sophisticated capabilities. But it's also likely that there will be a range of factors contributing to their demise. So, I'm not so sure that touchscreen technologies per se will be the root cause of any demise -- even though your questions are very relevant..

Key drivers of change in digital learning (from a technology perspective) are mobile / handheld technologies that are providing users with a much more intimate & accessible interface (NUI - the Natural User Interface) as opposed to the desktop & laptop interface (WIMP - Windows, Icon, Mouse, Pointer).

But there are other drivers of change that challenge the "walled garden" approach to teaching that puts a premium on selected content. A big driver of chage is the "open agenda" (open access, open scholarship, open educational resources, etc). So, there is a tension between digital technology systems that promote openness & those that promote contained or privileged entry. Actually, there's room for both in an evolving ecosystem of technologies in which we routinely might access many different devices while learning (mobile, desktop, big screen, etc).

Michael, there's quite a useful forthcoming publication:

Zane Berg & Lin Muilenburg (Eds) (2013). Handbook of Mobile Learning. Routledge

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415503693/

In another publication that will also be published in May I have written a chapter on Mobile Education:

Peter Bruck & Madanmohan Rao (Eds) (2013). Global Mobile: Applications and Innovations for the Worldwide Mobile Ecosystem

http://www.amazon.com/Global-Mobile-Applications-Innovations-Worldwide/dp/1573874620

Within the standards development world, SC36 have produced a couple of Technical Reports in recent years on Nomadicity & Mobile Learning:

ISO/IEC TS 29140-1:2011

Information technology for learning, education and training -- Nomadicity and mobile technologies -- Part 1: Nomadicity reference model

ISO/IEC TS 29140-2:2011

Information technology for learning, education and training -- Nomadicity and mobile technologies -- Part 2: Learner information model for mobile learning

The one thing that's often left out of the conversation on MOOCs is the range of skills necessary to actually make any kind of progress through them. I'm concerned that effective participation in a MOOC requires such a high level of digital and information literacy that many people will struggle to even engage with the process. Participants need to find, filter, aggregate, summarise, synthesise and share sometimes quite technical information on a subject that they're unfamiliar with.

The argument is often made that MOOCs will be useful for people who don't have access to formal higher education. However, I would suggest that the people who don't have access to formal higher education are also the people most likely to lack the necessary technological skills to engage effectively in the course. Are we setting up a learning environment that further disadvantages the people who are most often touted as being able to benefit from the approach? Note that I have no data to support this idea, it's just a thought.

I'm not suggesting that MOOCs have no place in teaching and learning. On the contrary, I believe that they represent a major step towards exploring the potential for technology to assist in scaling up teaching and learning relationships. If we want to seriously consider the concept of "education for all", I think that MOOCs (or something very much like them) will have a central role to play. However, I do think we need to be cautious about advocating for MOOCs without taking a critical view.