A forum on mobile and eLearning has brought together world-class experts who made thought-provoking presentations and conducted sessions focusing on the role of mobile technology in educational systems.

The Mobile Learning Forum 2009 was held today (May 28) under the patronage of Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan at the Centre of Excellence for ICT, Abu Dhabi Men’s College.

This event brought together educational experts, university and college leaders, academics, business executives, and eLearning enthusiasts from around the world to exchange ideas and experiences on the latest in anytime – anywhere learning.

The conference concentrated on exploring the best practice case studies from some of the world’s leading institutions: Mukul Pandya, Carol Strohecker, Forrest Glick and Hum Robson.

“Higher Colleges of Technology is in the forefront in the utilization of new technologies for education and actively promotes new concepts which will benefit our students across the Emirates,” said Dr Tayeb Kamali, vice chancellor of HCT.

“Mobile learning has an exciting future and provides another way for our students to access content anytime, anywhere in the palm of their hand.”

Abu Dhabi Men’s College introduced their eLearning which can be downloaded as podcasts, videos or can be seen in a streaming format over the web. The college has created more than 100 learning nuggets that summarise the 50 minute class into a 10 minute interval; the plan is to continue producing more of these short learning intervals.

“Mobile phone usage is surging since cell phone users are growing by 5 million a month,” said Mukul Pandya,  editor-in-chief, Knowledge@Wharton.

“UAE is an excellent market to explore the potential of mobile technology as a knowledge dissemination tool that provides the student with this full service that allows them to download their classes twenty four hours, seven days a week.”

Carol Strohecker, director of the center for design innovation in the University of North Carolina, thought that this mobile learning program deliberately focus on learning, rather than on technology, as this will motivate students and encourage them to learn and have the authority over their education.

Mobile access to learning media is the latest emerging field within educational technology and the mobile learning initiative will allow our students to explore the latest technology for mobile applications.

As explained that this is a new adventure; a pioneering effort that will connect students with the learning offered by the device that all of them carry around every day, their mobile phones.

“We are trying to tackle three basic things at the college,” said Dr Simon Jones, director of Abu Dhabi Men’s College.

“First of all we want our students to engage in what they learn in a highly convenient way, secondly we want them to focus, repeat and practice key elements through the mobile learning nuggets and finally we want to connect our students with a wider world of learning with a meaning of the subject, how it’s used and the potential it has.” – TradeArabia News Service