Dr. Saiid Ganjalizadeh, Assistant Director for Instructional Technology at The Catholic University of America discussed mobile learning (”mLearning“) as an emerging technology in “Imagining Tomorrow’s Future Today: The EDUCAUSE Evolving Technology Committee” today at EDUCAUSE 2007 in Seattle.

Dr. Ganjalizadeh noted that mLearning is nothing new, citing the growth of this medium in its electronic form from the Walkman in 1979 to the iPhone today. He specifically praised the anytime/anywhere aspect of devices such as the iPhone/iPod Touch, noting that these devices share many of the key features desirable in mLearning, including:
• Tangiblility
• Low cost
• Attractiveness to young learners
• Photo capabilities
• Instantaneity of communication
• Readiness for voting, point-to-point messaging, and assessment (via SMS) [and Bluetooth?; ed]
• Web based integration with Class Management Systems and Learning Management Systems.

Dr. Ganjalizadeh noted that content delivery in mLearning devices are both just-in-time and just-enough — concepts of content delivery that seek to provide enough material to be useful but not too much to interact with when in a classroom environment.

He concluded by observing that mLearning projects have received a lot of attention in Europe, with a few US universities having thoroughly adopted elements of mLearning technologies.

Like many others (including us!), Dr. Ganjalizadeh anticipates that mLearning will face a major and steady growth during the next few years. Frankly, we can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.