Editorial: Portable Learning - Experiences with Mobile Devices

Abstract: This special issue of JIME brings together several papers that were produced following a symposium on Portable Learning - Learner and Teacher Experiences with Mobile Devices held in June 2005 at the UK Open University. There is considerable interest in how mobile devices of various kinds can support learning in different contexts ranging from their use in formal settings such as schools and universities through to more informal settings. However, as with all technologies in their early days, there is a real need to distinguish the hype and rhetoric from the empirical evidence and reality of use. The symposium papers were grounded in the developing literature and in empirical work. They focused on user experiences and often explored the potential in terms of scenarios of use.

The purpose of the symposium on Portable Learning was two-fold: to bring together research on mobile devices from different areas of the Open University, and to share experiences with researchers from elsewhere.