Abstract:

The evolution in education and training at a distance can be characterised as a move from dLearning (distance learning) to eLearning (electronic learning) to mLearning (mobile learning). These three stages of development correspond to the influence on society of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th to 19th centuries, the Electronics Revolution of the 1980s and the Wireless Revolution of the last years of the 20th century. In distance education one can follow the development of a series of developments of the use of technology for teaching. The first generation uses the technology of printing and was basically the provision of print based materials for learning. A second generation added multimedia including audio, video and CD Roms to replace or supplement the print-based materials. The third generation of the 1990s was the impact of eLearning and the arrival of the WWW.

Mobile technology is developing nowadays. In this case it will be useful to develop different learning environmets using these innovations in internet based distance education. M-learning makes the most of being on location, providing immediate access, being connected, and acknowledges learning that occurs beyond formal learning settings, in places such as the workplace, home, and outdoors.Central to m-learning is the principle that it is the learner who is mobile rather than the device used to deliver m learning.The integration of mobile technologies into training has made learning more accessible and portable. Mobile technologies make it possible for a learner to have access to a computer and subsequently learning material and activities; at any time and in any place. Mobile devices can include: mobile phone, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal digital media players (eg iPods, MP3 players), portable digital media players, portable digital multimedia players, Ultra-mobile Personal Computers (light and small portable computers that run Windows Operating Software as well as standard packages such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access), tablet PCs (like laptop computers except they come with a special pen to select, drag, and open files as well as enter handwritten notes), smart phones. Mobile technologies can: provide anytime, anywhere access to content (depending on the mobile device), provide just-in-time training or review of content, enhance learner-centred approaches , facilitate collaboration through synchonous and asynchronous communication. Mobile technologies can be used to deliver a range of formats for different learning strageties: audio resources (podcasts, sound files) ,video and photographic/graphic resources , communication (SMS and MMS messaging) ,web content and portable documents. (e books, word, excel, pdf etc). In this study, distance education through the review stages by the education through the transformation of understanding that will be analyzed. In the second role and advantages of mobile learning in internet based distance education and problems to be solved are discussed.

Keywords:

mobile learning, distance learning, electronic learning, internet based education.