Mobile Seamless Learning from the Perspective of Self-Regulated Learning

Introduction

In today’s information age, a key challenge for educational researchers and practitioners is how to harness state-of-art technologies to design effective learning environments that boost students’ knowledge and abilities for the purpose of lifelong learning (Woolf, 2010). It is increasingly realized that personal, portable, and wirelessly networked technologies are becoming prevalent in the lives of learners. This leads us into a new phase in the evolution of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), forging mobile learning spaces, and the continuity of the learning experiences across different scenarios or contexts (Looi et al., 2010; Frohberg, Göth, & Schwabe, 2009). According to Wong and Looi’s review work (2011), the notion of seamless learning by Kuh (1996) was initially intended to integrate the learning activities and experiences occurring in various settings that were ever viewed to be essentially separated such as formal and informal learning, in class and out of class, in school and outside of school, curricular and extra-curricular. The rapid development and widespread applications of mobile technologies have extended it to the notion of mobile seamless learning (MSL), defined as a learning model where personal mobile device as a mediator easily, quickly, and seamlessly switch learning and cognitive activities from one scenario or context to another (Chan et al., 2006).

In the past decade, research in mobile seamless learning (MSL) is proceeding along two lines. One as a mainstream in this field is focused on issues regarding effectiveness and design of mobile seamless learning systems (Wu et al, 2012). The other line is on characterizing seamless learning, and revealing challenges facing MSL from a variety of theoretical perspectives (Sharples, Taylor, & Vavoula, 2005, 2007; Wong & Looi, 2011; Sha, Looi, Chen, & Zhang, 2012; Sha, Looi, Chen, Seow, & Wong, 2012; Terras & Ramsay, 2012). For example, Sharples, et al’s (2005, 2007) efforts have initiated an uncompleted course towards theorization of seamless learning. Wong and Looi’s (2011) comprehensive review of the literature recognizes ten dimensions that characterize the notion of MSL, which can be further grouped into three higher-level categories reflecting its key elements: technology focus, pedagogy focus, and learner focus. Placing emphasis on learners rather than technology or pedagogy, Terras and Ramsay’s study (2012) identified significant challenges facing effective mobile learning from the psychological perspective. The aforementioned studies indicate that more theoretical and empirical studies are stilled needed to further enrich and deepen our knowledge about the nature of mobile from various perspectives, and to apply that knowledge to help educational researchers and practitioners to design more effective mobile-assisted seamless learning. This chapter is intended to demonstrate how mobile seamless learning can be studied and understood in the paradigm of a contemporary theory of learning – self-regulated learning aimed to shed light on future research in characterizing MSL.