Learning Bridges: a role for mobile learning in education

In 1963 the science fiction writer Brian Aldiss wrote a short story for a children’s science annual about a world, thirty years in the future, where children learn through guided project work rather than formal schooling. Although the story is fanciful, its basic premise is sound. Children learn more effectively when they are in a more challenging environment than a school classroom, when they are investigating an open question of real interest, when they are accompanied by an adult guide, where mobile technology gives them rich and relevant information in context, and where they can make connections between formal knowledge and personal experience. A project called MyArtSpace (www.myartspace.org.uk), funded by the UK Department for Culture Media and Sport, is today exploring how children can engage in similar enquiry-led learning supported by mobile technology and how this can link to school and home learning. Using MyArtSpace as an example, we discuss the possibilities for mobile technology to form bridges between formal and informal learning. We also offer guidelines, drawn from our experience with MyArtSpace, for designing such bridges. [Taken from the article introduction]