Learners on the move: mobile modalities in development studies

Abstract

Many careers involve mobile lifestyles, yet require specialised postgraduate qualifications for career progression. Mobile technologies offer new opportunities by providing more choice in when, where, and how students learn. Experiences in an Australian postgraduate development studies program illustrate the choices. Three key issues are explored: the implications of variable Internet access and quality; how students use their mobile devices; and how mobile learning allows consistent engagement with peers, despite geographical, cultural, or socio‐political isolation. The outcomes demonstrate that mobile technologies offer opportunities for ongoing access to distance education that can be pursued off‐campus and transnationally with the same peer‐centred approaches available on‐campus, enhancing authenticity of both content and context. Offline, laptop computers and digital audio players provide portable lecture theatres, libraries, and study areas, while online they offer discussion spaces, research portals, and simulation environments. Mobile learners stand to benefit from the expanding access offered by new technologies, but the spotlight must remain firmly on pedagogical intentions rather than on delivery modes.

Keywords:

• mobile learning
• development studies
• transnational education
• flexible learning

Notes

1. Most nations in Southeast and Central Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Central America, and the Middle East can be designated as developing countries as they have a low ranking (medium to low human development) in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Index (UNDP, 2009).

2. From the Australian National University's School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research.