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Mobile devices, through their capacity to enable anytime-anywhere learning as well as capture, annotate and share multimedia, offer entirely new ways for students to learn. This chapter provides review of mobile learning with a particular focus on learning design. First various definitions and characteristics of mobile learning are examined in order to establish a common understanding of its boundaries and meaning. Example uses of mobile learning in schools and higher education are described as a way to provide a more concrete understanding of design possibilities. Benefits of mobile learning are unpacked, as distilled from the literature, including the ability to provide flexible, accessible, authentic, personalized, ubiquitous and seamless learning. Mobile learning issues are also examined, including technical problems, cognitive load issues, distraction, equity and safety. A primary school science and a university pre-service teacher education vignette are described so as to offer a more in-depth illustration of what mobile learning can look like and achieve in practice. Finally, mobile learning research findings and observations are synthesized into recommendations, to inform and guide evidence-based mobile learning design practices. Opportunities for future research and investigation are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of using mobile devices as an instructional tool on teachers' creativity and to promote their usage as instructional tools in educational settings. The research also studies the perceptions of teachers on the effect of using mobile devices as an instructional tool on their creativity and what features of mobile devices are believed to help in terms of enhancing their creativity.

This qualitative inquiry used an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) method for inspecting the professional capabilities of Pakistan's primary and secondary school teachers. Data were gathered from nine individuals through interviews. Three themes regarding creativity emerged from the study data.

It is found that the use of mobile devices as a teaching tool significantly increases teachers' creativity by enabling them to manifest their creativity and explore different pedagogical vistas in which they can use a wide variety of instructional resources and tools. Using mobile devices as a teaching tool improved three skills: motivation, self-confidence and communication skills. Mobile applications, cameras and portability of these devices are among the features that teachers considered to have encouraged their creativity.

Finding the obstacles and difficulties teachers have while utilizing these tools to demonstrate their creativity may be valuable for future studies. First, because respondents were teachers from elementary and secondary classes, the population was not entirely homogenous, even though they had adequate help. Second, only semi-structured interviews were utilized for data gathering in this study. Further data collection methods, including observational research or participant-written reflective diaries, are thought to have been preferred.

For future research, it may be interesting to determine whether the results of this study can be applied to other demographic groups. Based on this study, it is also recommended to conduct a quantitative study to know teachers' perceptions of the impact of these devices on creativity, since these studies can have promising results for teachers.

Through the use of various materials, tools and activities, these devices provide several distinctive teaching alternatives. Because of this, using it as a teaching tool gives teachers the ability to tailor courses to a range of learner types. Additionally, having easy access to a multitude of online resources and the capacity to interact with others helped in ideation. The teachers experienced feelings of motivation, self-confidence and a desire to impart information, all of which are traits of creative teachers. Based on the findings of this study, we may now think about using mobile devices in the classroom to encourage teachers' creativity.

The outcomes of this research indicated that teachers' creativity is strongly influenced by their use of mobile devices as instructional tools. This paper advances the understanding of teachers’ creativity by highlighting their lived experiences. This study is novel because it highlights how these devices have the potential to be used as instructional tools, which has not been highlighted by any study so far.

This study aims to investigate the usability of a public university website for measuring its efficiency, users’ satisfaction or anxiety while searching for and retrieving information through different devices.

A task-based approach was adopted for the study. Twenty-eight participants were asked to complete 11 information-searching tasks on the website. The participants were divided into two groups. The tasks were carried out by members of each group, using desktop and mobile devices in a rotating fashion. Volunteers observed the participants' actions and recorded information regarding their productivity, time usage (using a timer), satisfaction or annoyance while performing each task. Finally, based on the use of the devices, a comparison was established between the participants' performance accuracy, efficiency and anxiety.

The study provides an overview of a task-based user experience carried out on the university website using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. According to the results, participants' satisfaction levels were generally high, and their anxiety levels were low while completing the tasks on a mobile device. In comparison to the desktop, it took less time overall to complete all tasks. On the other hand, using a desktop computer (97.1%) resulted in better task completion success rates for participants than using a mobile device (85.7%).

No previous task-based evaluation study of this kind has been conducted to assess the usability of any university website in Bangladesh.

A rising trend has been observed to minimize extraneous cognitive load when reading by enhancing secondary knowledge through technology. For the readers to comprehend information more efficiently in their cognitive architecture, instructional procedures, which are secondary knowledge, should be aligned with the modern technology environment. With continual, rapid technological advances in modern society, people have changed their news reading habits after using mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers.

This research employed a quantitative survey to compare the changes in the news reading habits of the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students in the Library and Information Management program of a university in Hong Kong after using mobile devices to read electronic news. A total of 102 responses were collected, which comprised 51 UGs and 51 PGs, respectively (the student population for the program was around 100 UGs and 100 PGs).

Survey results showed that mobile devices had changed the respondents’ habit of reading news to read more content on phones, with a variation on news categories. Such changes included the duration and location of news discussion among the respondents that shorter periods were used to read and that more people read while traveling and in restaurants. Notably, reading the news helped respondents in their learning. Most respondents preferred to read electronic news by using mobile devices. The convenience of reading and discussing news may also cause a potential threat that intensifies disputes, arguments or even bullying on controversial issues.

This study confirmed that the usage of the mobile devices changed the respondents’ habit of reading news. This user group constitutes the future generation of information specialists in various disciplines. This study fills the research gap of finding students’ reading habits when using mobile devices, especially in East Asia. Educators are encouraged to recommend relevant news content to students to improve their general knowledge base and arouse their interest in reading and discussing related news topics.

In recent years, the use of mobile devices for academic persistence has grown to be an indispensable element of students’ learning, highlighting the broad acceptance and adaptability of mobile technology in learning environments. The current study examines how college students in rural areas use mobile devices and how self-efficacious they are when seeking online information. Additionally, the study investigated the connection between mobile devices usage (MDU), mobile devices self-efficacy (MDSE) and online information seeking behavior (OISB) on the basis of demographic differences.

A quantitative research design was used by deploying a five-point Likert scale for measurement, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v.26 was used for data analysis. A variety of statistical methodologies, including t-tests, ANOVA and correlation coefficients, were conducted to inspect and assess MDU, MDSE and OISB across gender and age groups. Data from 331 students at the public sector college in a rural region was gathered using a questionnaire. A total of 315 legitimate replies were received.

The study's conclusions showed that the respondents used their mobile devices for educational purposes less frequently. Nonetheless, the respondents' degrees of MDSE and OISB appear to be high. Furthermore, a strong link was demonstrated among the MDU, MDSE and OISB. On the contrary, there was a negative correlation link between MDU and both MDSE & OISB, while a positive correlation between MDSE and OISB was found. The results also showed substantial variance in all research components based on age and gender, indicating that male and younger respondents performed more efficiently than female and adult respondents.

These results indicate that information literacy guidelines and a variety of educational initiatives should be put together by the government, educational policymakers, librarians and educators, with a focus on how to use mobile devices for learning and information seeking. This will make it possible for students to more efficiently find the information using their portable devices.

The use of mobile technologies and learning devices has been increasing in every field of life, and library and information sciences are no exception. This study aims to explore the perceptions of library and information science (LIS) students regarding mobile learning (m-learning) along with their primary purposes, social media applications, advantages, disadvantages, barriers, impact and overall satisfaction with using these devices.

A survey method was used, and data was collected from the students of 12 library schools in Pakistan for a total sample of 250 students.

Their main purposes of usage, their needs, advantages, disadvantages, barriers, impacts and the level of overall satisfaction were also identified. The inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA) also identified the difference of opinion on the basis of gender, programs, types and number of m-learning devices. Overall, the findings highlight the need for academic libraries to give mobile access (launching mobile applications) to better use library services. To ensure this, libraries must keep an eye on new advances in mobile technology, researchers’ needs and related electronic library services and observe how these services are being used.

Theoretical and practical implications have been highlighted to understand the perceptions of LIS students about m-learning devices.

The mobile library service providers and management need to improve their services by offering services that fit the diverse needs of their users and should know how to attract modern library users.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns and ownership of smartphone apps among students at the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at the South Valley University (SVU), Egypt. This study may help faculty members and students, as well as DLISs in general and SVU’s DLIS, in particular, to understand the nature and purpose of such use.

This study used quantitative research methodology in the form of a survey, which was undertaken from February to March 2015. The survey instrument was a self-administrated questionnaire, with a response rate 82.7 per cent (441/533).

The findings of this study showed that smartphone users (82.7 per cent) at SVU’s DLIS tended to be junior females. Smartphone non-users (17.3 per cent) tended to be also young females but primarily sophomores. The highest percentage of smartphone users had been using smartphones for four to five years, and the largest number of students was described to be advanced users who heard first about these mobile devices through friends and the Web. Most users had 21 to 25 apps. Social apps were the most popular and included Facebook, e-mail and Twitter. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. Apps related to educational purposes included Google Mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia Mobile. Students perceived most apps to be easy to use and useful to them. There were a number of uses for socializing including messaging, following the news and playing games. Students had mainly positive attitudes towards apps with a few negative concerns. Almost all students confirmed that they trust most apps. Barriers related to the use of apps included training and lack of awareness. Further research may be needed to specify the relationship between the students’ use of these apps and their academic performance. The main tasks done on smartphone devices were mainly for socializing. Students indicated that popular tasks and activities, such as sending and receiving messages, following the news, making communications, making chat, making friends, finding specific information, finding general information, making discussion groups, playing games, completing class assignments, checking materials related to courses, doing business, seeking jobs, watching movies, listening to music and accessing library services are important tasks accomplished by them through the use of these devices. The current study indicated very positive attitudes towards the use of these apps. Student at least agree with the statement that smartphone apps allow for easy dissemination of information, provide too much information, increase the speed of finding information, help communication, convenient, secure, build confident and reduce paper use. However, a large number of students also at least agree with the statement that these apps are time consuming, intimidating, addictive, violate privacy, require high language and technical skills, harmful and frustrating. Almost all students confirmed that they are at least trustful in some apps, such as WhatsApp, e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Viber. A large number of smartphone users surveyed in this study have been described to make excessive usage of social apps, such as communication apps, messaging/texting apps and social networking sites, which were at the forefront of use. Additionally, a large number of them adopted these devices, especially for communication purposes. The most used apps were Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Viber. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. However, some of the students were using some of apps related to educational purposes, such as Google mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia mobile but not on a regular basis. Students perceived the use of e-mail app, Google mobile, Facebook app WhatsApp, Kik, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Viber, Line, Skype, Tango, Instagram, Flickr and Wikipedia mobile as at least fairly easy to them. Additionally, they perceived the use of e-mail app Google mobile, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Viber, Instagram, Wikipedia mobile, Google maps, Kik, Skype, Line, Tango and Flickr as at least fairly useful to them, especially for the purpose socialization more than learning.

This study focuses only on undergraduate library and information science students belonging to SVU’s DLIS, Egypt. Any findings and conclusions resulting from this study are limited in scope to only SVU’s DLIS’s undergraduate students. The study does not contain a significantly large sample of a population from across Egypt to draw meaningful widespread conclusions indicative of such a larger population.

This study provides valuable insight into the use pattern of smartphones among a very important client group. It may serve as useful input to researchers who are interested in the study of mobile internet technologies (MITs), particularly in the education society.

Being the first study of its kind about university students in Egypt, it is considered a pioneering and a unique study among studies conducted in the field of ICTs and MITs, especially with this category of information users.

This paper aims to identify systematic ways of linking club members’ behavioral and demographic characteristics to their use of mobile devices in clubs. While the traditional private club experience is characterized by intensive personalization and face-to-face interactions, clubs are increasingly deploying information technology (IT) tools to optimize some of their internal processes and offer a better value proposition to their members.

Based on data from 737 actual club members from the USA, this research used a series of logistic regressions to reveal the manner in which a series of behavioral and demographic variables can be used to predict the likelihood of use of mobile devices in clubs for specific club-related tasks.

This research revealed that there are differences between the two main types of clubs (i.e. golf/country and city/athletic), as well as differences among club members residing in different regions of the USA in the manner in which members use mobile devices for club-related tasks.

This research offers a number of notable theoretical contributions. This research uses actual mobile device use data from actual club members in the USA. In addition, this research offers a comprehensive operationalization of the actual mobile use behaviors in clubs, and offers a methodological blueprint for predicting mobile device user behavior using easily collectable variables.

This research provides specific suggestions to pinpoint the mobile technology deployment in clubs according to behavioral and demographic profile criteria.

This research could lead to feasible segmentation procedures and explicates the increasing role of mobile devices within the contemporary society.

This research addresses a novel research topic in an industry characterized by a grave lack of research on IT.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the current habits of distance learners in higher education (HE) regarding information access and mobile device use, and their attitudes for future changes to their habits.

Distance learning students were surveyed to determine their information access habits, mobile device use, and attitudes towards future changes. A survey was e‐mailed to approximately 1,500 distance learners at Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen) as well as an online survey being publicised in the student newsletter, which all students receive. Four weeks were allowed for responses and the survey was highlighted in the newsletter a week after being e‐mailed; 62 responses were received.

While books and journals were accessed primarily in print, respondents wanted to use them electronically in future; all other learning materials were already available electronically. Laptops and desktops are the main devices for accessing information and, despite most respondents owning a mobile phone and almost half having an mp3 player, remarkably few respondents expressed a desire to use other mobile devices in the future. Reasons range from technological specifications to compatibility of material; furthermore, almost half of respondents have bought or would buy mobile devices for education.

The paper provides empirical evidence for understanding the attitudes of distance learners towards academic library service provision using mobile devices. This research will assist libraries in planning future changes to the delivery of their services.

The current body of literature lacks direct quantitative feedback from students on their information habits and how they would like to access information in the future. The paper fills some of the gaps.

Using Internet‐enabled mobile handheld devices to access the World Wide Web is a promising addition to the Web and traditional e‐commerce. Mobile handheld devices provide convenience and portable access to the huge information on the Internet for mobile users from anywhere and at anytime. However, mobile commerce has not enjoyed the same level of success as the e‐commerce has so far because mobile Web contents are scarce and mostly awkward for browsing. The major reason of the problems is most software engineers are not familiar with handheld devices, let alone programming for them. To help software engineers better understand this subject, this article gives a comprehensive study of handheld computing and programming for mobile commerce. It includes five major topics: (i) mobile commerce systems, (ii) mobile handheld devices, (iii) handheld computing, (iv) server‐side handheld computing and programming, and (v) client‐side handheld computing and programming. The most popular server‐side handheld applications are mostly functioning through mobile Web contents, which are constructed by using only few technologies and languages. On the other hand, various environments/languages are available for client‐side handheld computing and programming. Five of the most popular are (i) BREW, (ii) J2ME, (iii) Palm OS, (iv) Symbian OS, and (v) Windows Mobile. They are using either C/C++ or Java programming languages. This article will explain J2ME, a micro version of Java, and Palm OS programming, using C, by giving step‐by‐step procedures of J2ME and Palm application development.