Requirements for Mobile Learning

M-Learning is the follow up of E-Learning which for its part originates from D-Learning (distance education). M-Learning is the delivery of learning to students who are not keeping a fixed location or through the use of mobile or portable technology. The rapid growth of information and communication technologies (ICT)makes it possible to develop new forms of this education. Learning – A New Stage of E-Learning. M-Learning or mobile learning describes an array of ways that people learn, test or stay connected with knowledge needed for school, work or task accomplishment. Devices utilized include: Mobile Phones, PDAs(such as a Palm or Pocket PC)—or the combination of the two in a Smart Phone—and digital audio players such as an mp3 player. This can redefine "on the job" training for someone who accesses a lesson literally "just in time" while faced with new challenge and they have to turn to their mobile device for instant answers. Field research can take a wealth of knowledge and data into the field with these devices and also send back new data instantly for others to use elsewhere. This is a form of e-Learning where mobility matters and the connectedness while wandering away from a desktop or laptop plugged into a wired connection extends the usefulness and timeliness of the lesson and learning experience—perhaps shared with other mobile learners (Trifonova , Ronchetti , 2004) . M-Learning has now emerged as a new wave of development based on the use of mobile devices combined with wireless infrastructure. Mobile learning has a strong foundational base when it comes to how the students will learn when there is an interaction of the learning material , technological platform , and the wireless network. Just like wireless technology which was built on numerous technological advances M learning also is a combination or a hybrid of more than one system. Therefore M learning relies on pedagogical theories and strategies of the behaviorist , the cognitivist , and the constructivist learning group. The acceptance of E learning or web based learning is due to growing availability of commercially available learning management systems such as webct , blackboard , learning space, learn linc (Upadhyay,2006). This paper sheds some lights on requirements for mobile learning, benefits of m-learning , mobile learning and distance education and m-Learning and E-Learning