As with television and computers before it, todays mobile technology challenges educators to respond and ensure their work is relevant to students. Whats changed is that this portable, cross-contextual way of engaging with the world is driving a more proactive approach to learning on the part of young people.

The first full-length authored treatment of the relationship between the centrality of technological development in daily life and its potential as a means of education,Mobile Learning charts the rapid emergence of new forms of mass communication and their potential for gathering, shaping, and analyzing information, studying their transformative capability and learning potential in the contexts of school and socio-cultural change. The focus is on mobile/cell phones, PDAs, and to a lesser extent gaming devices and music players, not as "the next new thing" but meaningfully integrated into education, without objectifying the devices or technology itself. And the book fully grounds readers by offering theoretical and conceptual models, an analytical framework for understanding the issues, recommendations for specialized resources, and practical examples of mobile learning in formal as well as informal educational settings, particularly with at-risk students. Among the topics covered:

Core issues in mobile learning

Mobile devices as educational resources

Socioeconomic approaches to mobile learning

Creating situations that promote mobile learning

Ubiquitous mobility and its implications for pedagogy

Bridging the digital divide at the policy level

Mobile Learning is a groundbreaking volume, sure to stimulate both discussion and innovation among educational professionals interested in technology in the context of teaching and learning.

Part 1. Big picture and examplesChapter 1. Charting the conceptual spaceThe mobile complexMobile learningEducation in the context of societal and cultural transformationsAn overview of the socio-cultural ecology: agency, cultural practices and structuresOverview of the structure of the bookReferencesChapter 2. Mobile learning: a topographyIntroductionA brief history of mobile learningSpecialist conferences and eventsProfessional associationsOrganisation with a particular interest in mobile learningSpecialist journalsSpecialist issues on mobile learningKey issues in mobile learningChapter 3. Mobile devices as resources for learning: adoption trends, characteristics, constraints and challengesIntroductionAdoption trends of mobile devices and servicesCharacteristics and functions of mobile devices Constraints and challengesConclusionsChapter 4. Cases of mobile learningMethodology of the project analysisCasesSynoptic analysisChapter 5. Whither a socio-cultural ecology of learning with mobile devicesIntroductionActivity TheoryConversation and discursive appropriation as contextual and reflexive activityContinuity of learning activities between and across contextsActivity Theory: a critical perspectiveLearning and meaning-making as subject-centred and context-related cultural practiceEcological approaches to (mobile) learningParticipative, interactive, situated and contextual learningPart 2. An ecological approach to mobile learning in the context of global transformationChapter 6. Analysing the mobile complex for education: key conceptsChapter 7. A social semiotic analysis of mobile devices: interrelations of technology and socialhabitusA social-semiotic take on technologyThe affordances of smartphones: a social semiotic analysisImplications for socialization and learningOpen questions: gains and lossesChapter 8. The mobile complex, socialization and learning resourcesIntroductionEveryday life with mobile devices, socialization and critical mobile literacyThe mobile complex within socio-cultural developmentsChapter 9. Appropriation and learningIntroductionAppropriation: personal development and the internalization of cultural productsMobile devices, media and mass communicationLearning in contexts and supported by situationsChapter 10. At-risk learners: their contextual and conversational optionsIntroductionCase analysis of a provocative mobile videoHabitus, socio-cultural milieu and learningChapter 11. User-generated content and contexts: an educational perspectiveIntroductionThe situated character of mobile media and learning contextsFlexibility of contexts, specificity of mobile learningUser-generated content and individualized knowledge buildingIndividualized knowledge of native expertsAssimilation of mobile/cell phones and user-generated contextsAn analysis of reflext context awarenessMobile/Cell phones: from everyday life to school learningChapter 12. Four didactic parameters for analyzing and planningThe four parameters: an introductionUsing the four parameters as a tool for analysisFrom analysis to planningImplications for teacher support and developmentPart 3. Perspectives for mobile learningChapter 13. Setting the sceneChapter 14. Emerging technologies and attendant practicesAdoption horizons for key emerging technologiesComputing off the desktop: going small, larg