Lecture Notes in Computer Science- P108 pdf

524 Y. Yang et al.
organizations of m-Learning are also welling up [6], for example: some educational
institutions and companies of Britain, USA, Ireland, Canada, Norway, Germany,
France, Italy and so on carry out and research m-Learning, by wishing first to find the
best way of technology respectively, in order to realize applying m-Learning broadly
to satisfy people around the whole world in the near future [7].
Divided from the goal and organizations of m-Learning these years, overseas re-
searches on m-Learning projects are mainly divided into two kinds [8]: developed by
E-learning providers of commerce or educational institutions.
3.1 E-Learning Providers
E-Learning providers are making every effort to use the original e-Learning system, by
profiting from the experience of e-Learning; they want to push e-Learning to the
market in enterprise training, IT curriculum and e-commerce curriculum [9], which to
develop mobile e-Learning. The supporting technology is WAP and WML (Wireless
Makeup Language), for example:

ISOPIA Inc. (which has been acquired by Sun Microsystems, Http:
//www.sun.com/training/) is now applying WAP technology in e-Learning
system, in order to train staff; meanwhile, learners could use mobile telephones
or PDA to visit their e-Learning system, querying learning activity, curriculum
information and so on, while the system is based on WAP programming model
and compiled by WML.
Global Knowledge (a company specialized in IT and business training,
Http://www.globalknowledge.com), choose the most three popular IT courses:
networking, programming, and Cisco Authenticate: CCNA. It develops mobile
learning by transforming these curriculums suited in PDA equipment.
3.2 The Cooperation between Educational Institutions and Companies
M-Learning initiated by educational institutions is based on school education; they
attempt to cooperate with enterprise and companies, on the purpose of improving
management, teaching and learning with the technology of WAP, 3G and Bluetooth
synthetically [10]. The scope of research involved is very comprehensive and multi-

form, which manifests some new technologies including: WAP Push, new 3G wireless
services and security of Bluetooth [11]. The experiments have been carried out in some
universities and middle schools, and discussions on feasibility applied in education of
mobile technology and equipment are also under exploring.
Ninestiles School (Http://www.ninestiles.bham.sch.uk/) in British cooperates with
Enterasys and Microsoft. The school adopts an infrastructure (Http://www.ninestiles.
bham.sch.uk/) of local area network (LAN) from Enterasys's solution, and provides
notebook computers to 1400 students and 95 teachers respectively which to support
wireless information resources by project named AAL (anytime anywhere learning).
With applying information technologies in the daily curriculum teaching, the motiva-
tion, study efficiency and skill of students are highly strengthened.
The University of Mississippi (Http://www.olemiss.edu/) has cooperation with Mi-
crosoft and Proxim Wireless Corporation; they developed a project named Mobile
An Overview on Mobile E-Learning Research of Domestic and Foreign 525
Classroom, which focuses on the future education and development of teaching, with
configuring Bluetooth in hand-held PCs (HPCs) which are provided by Microsoft,
wireless Modem by Proxim. Each student of Mississippi have a HPC to visit curricu-
lum through wireless network which transmitted documents by infrared port, the virtual
mobile classroom saves a lot funds and spaces for The University of Mississippi.
3.3 Mobile E-Learning Research
In Asia, NSEAD (The National Society for Education in Art and Design is a profes-
sional association and an independent trade union, Http://www.nsead.org/home/
index.aspx), NOKIA and ICUS (International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences)
have formed an organization on mobile learning research [12], performing its own duty
respectively. NSEAD provides curriculum, ICUS is engaged in on-line teaching design
and educational model compiled by WML, while NOKIA provides the technology on
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and is responsible for market business. They will
develop e-Business and e-Course together which is customized by WAP Push message,
and suitable for WAP handsets produced by NOKIA. The related digital devices are:
Palm Pilot IIIc and Nokia6210 WAP mobile phone, meeting with the need of wireless

and wired, users could gain curriculum conveniently and efficiently not only through
WAP handset, but also through PC machine, which highly integrated with WEB and
WAP.
In 1998, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, and Nokia, formed a consortium and adopted
the code name Bluetooth for their proposed open specification. In December 1999,
3Com, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, and Motorola joined the initial founders as the
promoter of Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). It is a privately held, not-for-profit
trade association with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. As of January 2008, the
SIG is composed of over 10,000 member companies that are leaders in the telecom-
munications, computing, automotive, music, apparel, industrial automation, and net-
work industries, and a small group of dedicated staff in Hong Kong, Sweden, and the
USA. SIG members drive the development of Bluetooth wireless technology, and
implement and market the technology in their products varying from mobile phones to
printers [13].
4 Mobile E-Learning in China
At present research on m-Learning in China involves several main directions: com-
munication, wireless network, mobile library, WAP Push message (in Chinese and
English) and Bluetooth in campus. On the whole, m-Learning is on the stage of re-
search, it has not launched to business activities in large-scale, but from the end of
2005, especially in 2006, m-Learning entered into a stage of commerce application
[14], because National university committee on educational technique in China ad-
dressed “Mobile Education Project”, meanwhile, “Theory and Application of Mobile
Education” was also initiated into experiment by National Ministry of Education [15],
which indicates significance of m-Learning and mobile education, the concrete mani-
festation is following below

526 Y. Yang et al.
4.1 Mobile E-Learning Research
The High Education Department in China has released a notice which was about the
theory and application of “Mobile Education” which has two thesis: First, establish-

ment of network by using short message platform of China Mobile, and GPRS to afford
students and teachers with WAP push services, including: information on education
and scientific research, teaching resource, management message and so on. Second,
service station is being established to provide all kinds of services for learners, which is
getting more perfectly in application.
In 2002, Mobile Education Laboratory of Modern Education Technology Center in
Beijing University undertook the experimental project [16]: “Theory and Application
of Mobile Education”, which has been last for 4 years. At present, directions of re-
search include that: education platform based on WAP push, communication, mobile
computing, database as well as website in WML and so on, the education platform
developed by them has been put into practice.
4.2 The Cooperation between Educational Institutions and Companies
New Oriental Education & Technology Group has already reached an agreement with
Nokia in May 2007; they would promote a mobile learning program [17], which per-
mitted students visiting New Oriental curriculum content specifically by their own
handset. New Oriental would provide learning materials designed in specialty: English
in short sound byte which is advantageous for learners to listen to. Users could visit it
through the new style of Nokia handset which equipped by preassemble teaching pro-
gram which can also downloaded from website: and
.
4.3 E-Learning Providers
At the same time, Sina, 163, Sohu, TOM and so on well-known websites in China,
promoted coach service of foreign language study successively in WAP or its own
handset short message [18], several million as high as daily message reach, which
becomes a dark horse on foreign language learning in China.
Beijing Dig-idea Software Technology Development Co., Ltd., Unbounded Learn-
ing Inc. and so on companies are concentrating on developing software resources on
learning which could run on the handset. There are many other domestic companies are
making effort on the development of learning platforms based on handset, for example,
WangTi Company provides products and services including: mobile teaching assistant

platform, m-Learning platform integrated by service, WAP push message platform,
handset courseware manufacture system and so on (Http://www.chinaonlineedu.com/
info/news_special.asp?id=10487). Except for this, there are also many other learning
resources on handset developed by m-Learning fans, learning resources based on Java,
Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm OS platforms, which has formed a new group of
platform exploiters, supporters and users respectively. There will be massive kinds of
mobile learning platforms and m-Learning resources in the near future.
Early in 2006, TD-SCDMA technology finally became 3G standard in China; it is
the first intellectual property rights on international standard of Chinese, with about
14,000 base depots constructed, eight Olympic Game cities in china opened TD
An Overview on Mobile E-Learning Research of Domestic and Foreign 527
numbers for 3G service On April 1, 2008, and was successfully introduced to users. At
present, CDMA of China Unicom and GPRS of China Mobile have already provided
data transporting speed as high as 114kB/s, in future, it could be 2MB/s provided by
CDMA or more faster by 3G technology [19], which could be highly satisfied with the
transmission of multimedia learning materials.
5 Conclusion and Prospecting Mobile Learning
Research and applications on mobile e-Learning of overseas in depth and breadth is far
better than that of China, mobile learning is a new field appears in our country [20]. Not
only research on m-Learning is rarely few but also applications, both concrete and
perfect application of m-Learning has not realized yet [21], but through the action of
comprehension, summary and analysis of m-Learning research overseas dynamically,
we should strengthen m-Learning construction in the following several aspects:
Architecture of mobile learning systems;
New emerging wireless technologies, such as GPRS, CDMA, 3G and so on;
Ubiquitous computing and integrated learning environments;
Innovative use of wireless and mobile technologies for learning;
Mobile agents for learning;
Practical uses of wireless and mobile technologies;
Group ware solutions for collaborative learning [22];

Learner-supportive interfaces for mobile applications;
Evaluation of mobile learning systems [23].
Mobile technologies are having a profound global impact on business, education,
and culture. As an e-Learning professional should consider the learning possibilities
made available by mobile devices [24]. E-Learning strategy may not require it now, or
even soon, but m-Learning is quickly becoming a reality in business, government, and
education (Http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm). To some
extent, China is lag behind with other advanced countries, we can expect developing in
terms of connectivity, bandwidth, services, and availability in the near future.
Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Zhejiang provincial Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. Y106039), the Key Research Foundation of Zhejiang Education
Department of China (Grant No. 20060491), and the Innovation Foundation of Zheji-
ang Normal University Graduate School.
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