The changing face of knowledge delivery- mobile learning

There are many IT companies in the market today providing mobile learning applications. These applications can be downloaded onto mobile phones, net books, tablets and palmtop devices that run on Symbian, Android, iOS and Blackberry OS platforms. Such applications give an added flexibility to learning, such that individuals can acquire knowledge on the move. Learning using mobile phones can be considered as a revolutionary change to the world of knowledge management. It is an expansion of the process of e-learning, helping employees to enhance productivity and quality standards. Retail shop floor employees and managers can use mobiles for necessary updates, where computers may not be accessible. Making use of the mobile phone platform for knowledge and skill enhancement also helps to reduce administration costs. It also makes the whole process much quicker and reliable. It is necessary to have the necessary management tools, to be able to evaluate the performance of mobile learners through various metrics. This would allow one's company to measure the success of mobile learning. It should also be possible to link the courses to individual profiles, to plug gaps in learning and practical implementation. Without this, employee profiles may only remain as an endless stream of records. Monitoring the administration of learning is also necessary. This would be relatively easier if the new mobile phone applications could be merged to create a single entity that could be used in different forms. Learning does not imply only memorization, but it actually is the whole method of acquiring skills for responding appropriately as per given situations. By understanding this, IT companies were able to create game-based learning applications. Interactive games not only give an engaging environment, but also test the adaptability skills of participants. In this way, these games increase the knowledge retention power of individuals, as well as fuel competition between them. One should understand that games designed for educational purposes are quite different from entertainment games. A team comprising of subject matter experts, instructional designers, and educators should be allowed to devise each game-based course. Graphic designers and developers should be required to handle technical aspects only. Many e-learning companies are available in the market for providing e-learning solutions. However, care must be taken not to be fooled and use experienced companies to design educational software. Some of the services offered are: e learning consultancy, instructional design, web based training (WBT) development, online test and media production.