Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation

 

Special Issue on: "Mobile Teaching/Learning and Authoring Tools: Accelerating Content Delivery"

Guest Editor: Prof. Dr. Istvan Molnar, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, USA

Rapid technology changes and developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide new opportunities to develop and use new learning environments. Mobile learning (M-learning) establishes a new learning paradigm which goes far beyond the traditional learning paradigms, i.e., face-to-face classroom and e-learning. Unfortunately, application development and content delivery show a significant backlog and several hardware products lack applications which can run on these devices.

There are a series of application fields which are promising, while others have not been exploited yet. Governments and private businesses alike have realised that global efforts and international co-operation should be initiated and supported. Recent European Union policies emphasise, among others things, digital content delivery, contribution to standards setting, and strategic international cooperation with the US and Japan (Seventh Research Framework Programme).

The advantages of M-learning environments in providing personalised content via intelligent mobile communication devices are obvious (e.g., environmental management and energy efficiency, independent living and inclusion). Highly efficient platform-independent content delivery, use and reuse of standardised and open source software are possible ways to accelerate the application development process and further increase the quality and usability of applications.

This special issue will be timely for both academics and practitioners interested in effective design and development of M-learning environments.

The issue aims to discuss the latest M-learning technologies and applications developed using these advanced technologies. Its purpose is to present and disseminate studies about how technology helps to meet the challenges, how the current development of M-learning can be applied to efficient design and implementation of M-learning environments in either academia or industry. The economic and social context of M-learning applications will be discussed along with questions related to empirical research of contemporary M-learning environment developments.

Subject Coverage
This special issue aims to present a set of selected papers addressing the topics including but not limited to those listed below.

• Technologies and standards that directly support mobile learning systems and content delivery development (hardware devices and software tools)
• Software architecture for M-learning applications, interoperability, platform independency (e.g., Open systems reference architectures, SOA)
• Tools for
• Learning content management systems (e.g., dynamic location-specific information delivery).
• Learning management systems (e.g., learning activity management system)
• Student management systems
• Development and use of frameworks for learning objects based on context, time-line or map (e.g., concept mapping tool).
• Development and use of tools for accelerating content delivery for M-learning systems.
• Agent-based technology and tools (e.g., agent-based personalised M-learning).
• Ontology-based frameworks and tools for M-learning (e.g., ontology-based tests).
• Tools of active and collaborative M-learning.
• Specialised tools for development of professional learning environments (e.g., mobile health, mobile commerce).
• Open source M-learning content development.
• Tools for QoS improvement in M-learning environments.
• Tools and solutions for privacy and security issues in M-learning.
• Tools for content delivery for disabled learners (e.g., blind users).

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

Full paper deadline: 1 March, 2008

Notification of acceptance and Review results: 1. June, 2008

Revised submission deadline: 1 July, 2008

Camera-ready version deadline: 1 August, 2008