Challenges facing Mobile Learning

Many authors have explored the challenges facing the adoption of mobile learning. The main challenge which they underscore is digital literacy. It is highlighted by Brown & Mbati (2015) that digital literacy of the educators and learners still is a challenge. Pertinent to mention is that research shows that many students are more digital literate when compared to many of the educators. Insufficient professional development is the number one reason that makes educators lack digital literacy as they lack funds to sponsor their digital studies.  Similar observations are made by Chee et al. (2017) who argue that some educators have a negative attitude towards the use of mobile devices in teaching and this too affects the success of mobile learning.

The literature further reports that mobile learning normally reduces the physical interaction between a student and a teacher, which is a reason for increased dropout cases in distance learning education. Furthermore, as pinpointed by Sung, Chang & Liu (2016)digital divides which exist in the society show that some learners, especially the marginalized ones (like economically disadvantaged and impaired ones) can be excluded from education when mobile devices are embraced in learning since they may not afford these technologies. Marginalized learners often cannot use mobile learning devices because of the failure of learning institutions to comply with technical and legal requirements for impaired learners. Use of mobile learning is still questioned by some scholars who argue that it has not improved the educational standards concerning enhancing student learning. In particular, however, mobile learning provides alternative learning ways for education providers and learners. As per Dias & Victor (2017), mobile learning has a dark side in that there are technical limitations or constraints of many mobile learning devices – inadequate memory and small screens. Also, due to wireless connectivity in some areas, the learning can be slow because of slow network speeds. There is also the problem of comparability and standardization of the learning modules. Apart from the challenges of the mobile device, there is the challenge of pedagogical and psychological limitations associated with mobile learning. In line to this different authors agree that students will often be interrupted as they learn by social media and this affects the outcome of the learning process. Alrasheedi & Capretz (2018) argues that the adoption of technology in the classroom is necessary, but he cautions us that technology can distract learners from paying attention to teaching. Laptops have been identified as possible sources of distraction and cognitive overload. The pop-ups, lighting, and movement of text, instant messages, and nature of laptops make them inherently distracting.

Another challenge linked to mobile learning is the requirement for educators to alter their previous teaching instructions and methods to suit them to the mobile learning settings. Alrasheedi & Capretz (2018) reveals another challenge which many authors do not point out – poorly designed teaching and learning materials. This challenge is connected to the instructional design (technical actions that are taken in improving access to the educational resources that entail planning as well as formulating the learning and teaching activities. Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that the above challenges are commonly witnessed in countries that are least developed or countries that have educational systems that are not adequately funded.

Irrespective some authors observe that apparently, today`s learners are highly collective, creative and connected and that the communicative and social connections can entail knowledge which is not instrumental in learning, there are some researchers (Crompton, Burke & Gregory, 2017; Dias & Victor, 2017) who question benefits linked to the use of mobile devices in learning since the effects are yet to be studied. Every day, mobile devices and applications are continuously designed, but they are competing for the attention of the man. In the recent past, we have seen very innovative notification forms in digital environments, starting in banners and pop-ups, to roll-ups, push notifications and badges. In some researches, these technological developments have been found to have a negative correlation with academic performance. Also, it is claimed that the negative impact of technological devices is not limited to learning only, but it can be noticed in the house chores. Normally, a person will spend more time in performing a given task when he or she is reading social media posts. The same case applies to learn, where some learners will be constantly checking their social media accounts for any new messages and posts as they learn. Their level of attention gets subdivided between learning and checking social media, and this affects their learning process as they cannot maximize the time they spend in learning.

Another prevalent aspect that is presented as a drawback of mobile learning is a likelihood of learners engaging in multitasking. According to the American Psychological Association, multitasking happens when a person attempts to carry out two activities simultaneously, switching from one activity to another, or doing more than one activity in rapid succession. Many of the learners today are either centennials or millennial. As such, consumption of digital technology is not a problem for them. Nevertheless, a problem with them is that they engage in multitasking and this reduces their efficiency in grasping concepts. Many studies have revealed that their activities which are done concurrently need more time for them to be finished, and often they are completed less accurately as likened to those activities which are done sequentially. Accordingly, engaging in multitasking with mobile phones, laptops, or tablets may have undesirable effects on learning results, hence, resulting in dismal academic performance among the learners. Equally, it has been opined that use of mobile devices in learning entices students to use social media, and social media affects negatively their academic engagement (Briz-Ponce, Pereira, Carvalho, Juanes-Méndez & García-Peñalvo, 2017).