TiER1 Blog

I’m sure most of you have heard the term e-learning, but how many of you have heard about m-learning? M-learning, or mobile-learning, is essentially the facilitation of the learning process on a mobile device. Mobile devices include but are certainly not limited to smart phones, tablet PCs, and in some cases, mp3 players.

What are the advantages to learning on a mobile device? Although there are still some large gaps in functionality between devices, the main advantage of m-learning is the combination of mobility and functionality. Your Droids, Blackberrys, iPhones, and iPads are essentially portable computers that can play audio and access the Internet while shooting videos or taking photos. Hooray!

This means your sales people can take a course while flying to a meeting in San Diego. Your merchandise planners can take a guided audio/video tour through an actual store. Employees can access relevant training content on-the-fly and when needed for on-the-job tasks. All of this made possible through your device of choice.

So what are people doing? Apple has launched iTunes University, allowing universities to publish content like audio lectures, videos, and books. TiER1 has created flash-enabled mobile sites for Android and iPod optimized video to complement traditional learning.

The possibilities still remain. With custom development, new learning patterns are right around the corner. By combining the camera with location based training, we could create a course that walks the learner through an environment while providing contextual information about their surroundings. GPS functionality could be used to trigger audio or video when the learner reaches a certain destination. RSS feeds could be used to alert users of new content like a live training stream.

There’s no doubt that mobile is changing the world, and learning will move right along with it.

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