The 7th Mass Media: Mobile

There has been a lot written about the creation and use of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). I believe that they are the future of adult education, providing flexible, customized and personalized learning environments, allowing learners to learn what where, when, and how they want to learn.

I have also been reading a lot and hearing a lot about the use of mobile devices as deliverers of PLEs. Here is a great post that talks about mass media and that mobile devices have become the 7th mass media. It is the blog of the book "Communities Dominate Brands - Business and Marketing Challenges for the21st century".

The following quote from the post caught my eye - "the mobile is the 7th Mass Media is as profound as Gutenberg inventing moveable type". People are using more mobile devices than computers or any other device to connect with each other and to access information (Pew Internet Report - PDF), and if you combine this use of mobile devices with the creation of PLES, couldn't you have the "perfect storm" of learning? I certainly think so. All I know is that I have to spend more time getting to understand how I can create and deliver learning opportunities, resources, and environments to learners using mobile devices.

Will the iPhone and the other next generation devices be the next great thing in learning? Hmmm...

Photo "1000 Mobiles" by Gaetan Lee