International Journal of Mobile and Blended

The contents of the latest issue of:

International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL)
Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association
Volume 1, Issue 2, April-June 2009
Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically
ISSN: 1941-8647 EISSN: 1941-8655
Published by IGI Publishing, Hershey-New York, USA
www.igi-global.com/ijmbl

Editor-in-Chief: David Parsons, Massey University - Auckland, New Zealand

Special Issue: mLearn2008

GUEST EDITORIAL PREFACE

mLearn2008: The Text and the Context

John Traxler, Learning Lab, UK

Seven years after the first in the mLearn conference series, at that time
modestly entitled the European Workshop on Mobile and Contextual Learning,
mLearn returned to Britain in 2008, this time to the UNESCO World Heritage
site at Ironbridge. The conference themes and submissions addressed many
of the challenges currently facing the mobile learning research community.
The first theme, that of mobile learning, mobile knowledge, and mobile
societies embraced current ideas about the relationships between
discourse, identity, knowledge, and ideas about learning with pervasive,
ubiquitous, and mobile technologies and also covered the social,
individual, and cultural aspects of mobile learning. The devices, systems,
technology, and standards theme looked at technology and devices
themselves and at topics of convergence, diversity, frontiers, and trends.
The mobile learning landscape theme was the focus for innovative projects,
programs, and initiatives in work-based, informal, subject-specific, and
context-aware mobile learning that extends the mobile learning evidence
base. Finally, the ‘mobile learning for all’ theme covered inclusion,
assistivity, scalability, embedding, participation, evaluation, evidence,
assessment, and development and explored mobile learning in the context of
broader educational priorities.The articles selected for this special
edition span these themes.

To read the preface, please consult the issue of IJMBL in your library.

PAPER ONE

Wildfire Activities: New Patterns of Mobility and Learning

Yrjö Engeström, University of Helsinki, Finland

This article argues a historical perspective on mobility and learning. In
social production or peer production, mobility takes the shape of
expansive swarming, sideways transitions, and boundary-crossing. The
notion of wildfire activities is proposed to point out that activities
such as birding, skateboarding, and disaster relief of the Red Cross have
characteristics similar to those of peer production but predate internet
and take place mainly outside the sphere of digital virtuality. Wildfire
activities pop up in unexpected locations at unexpected times and expand
very rapidly. Learning in wildfire activities is learning by swarming that
crosses boundaries and ties knots between actors.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.infosci-on-demand.com/content/details.asp?ID=32115

PAPER TWO

Designing Participant-Generated Context into Guided Tours

Juliet Sprake, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

This article presents an interdisciplinary framework for designing
participant-generated context into guided tours. The framework has been
developed in parallel to practice-led research in the design of mobile
learning tours with young people based in London. This article draws on
art, architecture, and urbanism to outline productive concepts, ‘seeding’,
and ‘threading’, which support mobilized learning in tours of the built
environment. The author explores an active and dynamic idea in developing
attributes of the mobilized learner in the design of tours around
buildings and the built environment.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.infosci-on-demand.com/content/details.asp?ID=32116

PAPER THREE

Improving Cross-Cultural Awareness and Communication through Mobile
Technologies

Adele Botha, Meraka Institute, South Africa
Steve Vosloo, Stanford University, USA
John Kuner, Stanford University, USA
Madelein van den Berg, Meraka Institute, South Africa

Increasingly, technology is mediating the way in which the youth around
the world communicate, consume content, and create meaning. As mobile
communication media and the Internet become more pervasive, young people
from different cultures and communities are afforded more opportunities
for collaboration across previously unbridgeable distances. The need for
cross-cultural awareness and communication is thus more important than
ever.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.infosci-on-demand.com/content/details.asp?ID=32117

PAPER FOUR

Meeting the Challenges in Evaluating Mobile Learning: A 3-Level Evaluation
Framework

Giasemi Vavoula, University of Leicester, UK
Mike Sharples, University of Nottingham, UK

The authors offer six challenges in evaluating mobile learning and propose
a three-level framework for evaluating mobile. This article concludes with
a discussion of how the framework meets the evaluation challenges and with
suggestions for further extensions.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.infosci-on-demand.com/content/details.asp?ID=32118

PAPER FIVE

Ethical Considerations in Implementing Mobile Learning in the Workplace

Jocelyn Wishart, University of Bristol, UK

Workplace based personal and professional development is essential for
students in the health, social care, and teaching professions. In this era
of ubiquitous computing recording and reflecting upon learning and
reviewing student progress in the workplace is easily enabled via mobile
technologies, yet researchers and student users in these settings continue
to find using personal, mobile technologies a challenge. It is much less a
technical challenge more than one requiring institutional and cultural
innovation in permissions and behaviors within these settings. This
article describes the outcomes of a recent international workshop
conducted with experts in the fields of mobile learning and education on
prioritizing areas of concern and establishing best practices. In
conclusion, this paper presents a framework for consideration by the
mobile learning community that can be used to highlight and prioritize
ethical considerations before conducting research into the use of mobile
devices by students in workplaces and schools.

To obtain a copy of the entire article, click on the link below.
http://www.infosci-on-demand.com/content/details.asp?ID=32119

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For full copies of the above articles, check for this issue of the
International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL) in your
institution's library. This journal is also included in the IGI Global
aggregated "InfoSci-Journals" database: www.infosci-journals.com.
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CALL FOR PAPERS

Mission of IJMBL:

The primary mission of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended
Learning (IJMBL) is to provide comprehensive coverage and understanding of
the role of innovative learning theory and practice in an increasingly
mobile and pervasive technological environment. As technology enables a
more seamless experience of device supported learning worlds that may
integrate mobile, embedded, augmented, and immersive technologies, we may
expect to see increasing interest and activity in blended approaches to
learning. IJMBL brings together researchers at the forefront of this
field, in both technology and pedagogical practice and assists them in the
development and dissemination of new approaches to both mobile and blended
learning.

Coverage of IJMBL:

The International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL) spans
theoretical, technical, and pedagogical issues in mobile and blended
learning. These embrace comprehensive or critical reviews of the current
literature, relevant technologies and applications, and important
contextual issues such as privacy, security, adaptivity, and resource
constraints.

Among topics to be included (but not limited) are the following:

Comprehensive or critical reviews of the current literature
Evaluation of mobile or blended learning in practice
Future of mobile or blended learning
Knowledge sharing
Learner interaction/collaborative learning
Mobile games for learning
Mobile or blended learning applications
Mobile or blended learning applied at different levels of education from
pre-school to tertiary and beyond
Pedagogical and/or philosophical underpinnings of mobile or blended
learning
Privacy and security issues
Related research in learning, including e-learning and pedagogical
approaches
Resource constraints in the delivery of mobile or blended learning
Reviews of the application of mobile or blended learning in multiple
contexts
Role of Wikis, blogs, podcasts, messaging, other online tools, and Web 2.0
components in learning delivery
Roles of mobile, pervasive, and immersive technologies in education
Technologies that directly or indirectly support mobile or blended
learning systems (devices, networks, tools etc.)
Theoretical approaches to mobile or blended learning solutions
Use of mobile or blended learning in professional environments

Interested authors should consult the journal's manuscript submission
guidelines at www.igi-global.com/ijmbl.

All inquiries and submissions should be sent to:
Editor-in-Chief: David Parson at d.p.parsons@massey.ac.nz