A key benefit and disadvantage of m-Learning
Learning is a social process that requires the interaction between the teacher and the learner. Although some scholars argue that m-learning affects the way of learning, others point out that it has some benefits to both the learner and teacher as well. This author comments that the gadgets form- learning are ubiquity and flexible as well as gives the learners several learning opportunities. These features of the learning tools are of great benefit to the learner. Other scholars like Chieu and Herbst (2008) argue that the benefits of m-leaning are many depending on the gadgets used. The scholars point out that since learners are of different levels and abilities, m- learning provides an environment where every learner is free to communicate with the teacher. This is because even the average student can freely express themselves to the teachers as the room to feel weaker and intimidated by others is eliminated. Fenner (2006) says that students are different, meaning the pedagogies for learning are also different. M-learning, therefore, personalizes the learning where the teacher can identify the weak areas of the learner. By so doing, it becomes easy for the teacher to monitor the performance and progress of the learners throughout the learning process.
Digital resources
One of the digital resources explored is the Cambridge University Library. According to Chieu and Herbst (2008), this digital resource is very good and admirable to both people in the educational sector. This is because of several reasons that include the following. The digital resource is rich in the collection of digital materials that include journals, various rare books, official publications, periodicals, and many language resources Germanic, Chinese, French Italian, Japanese collections, and many others. This digital resource can be very resourceful to a lesson planner or a teacher while drawing the daily lesson plans. A teacher can use the resource to acquire various information and approaches to the effective delivery of knowledge to the learners. The resource would help the teacher to identify the expectations of the learners at the end of every lesson and use this knowledge in drawing a lesson plan that is very effective for the learners.
Web-based environments and the promotion of cognitive flexibility
According to Fenner (2006), cognitive flexibility in the learning process refers to the ability of the learner to restructure own knowledge spontaneously in various forms and ways to respond to continually changing and demanding situations. Cognitive flexibility idea has been borrowed from the cognitive theory. Cognitive theory is one of the theories that are largely applied by the teachers in their teaching processes. This concept aims at enabling the learners to explore much more than what is taught in class. It makes them desire to know more and generate their knowledge to make them cope with the daily changing demands’ of life. Scholars like Chieu and Herbst (2008), argue out that cognitive flexibility is a very fruitful concept when applied in the learning process. The researches show that web-based environments are the most fertile avenues that promote the concept of cognitive flexibility. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smartphones, much has changed in the learning environments. The web-based environment has diversified the approach to various concepts that help in stimulating and improving the thinking capacity of the learner. For example, for teachers it offers alternative teaching ways, provides a room to debate and exchange ideas, and diversifies different points of view to a given issue all of which when applied promotes cognitive flexibility to the learners.
References
Chieu, M. & Herbst, P. (2008). Learning to Teach: Web-based Interactive Rich-Media Technologies Supporting Cognitive Flexibility in Teacher Education. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 610(5), 1-8.
Fenner, A. (2006). Integrating print and digital resources in library collections. New York: Haworth Information Press.