Context modeling to support the design of mobile learning

Abstract

The evolution of information and communication technologies in the last three decades has had an impact in all aspects of human activities. Learning has also been subject of these changes. Current research efforts in the field of mobile learning have been in many cases guided by a learner-centered approach. Context awareness and content adaptivity are crucial components in mobile learning environments. One important challenge is how to design and implement technological tools and methods to support them. In order to tackle this challenge, learners' context should be defined. In this paper, we describe our current efforts regarding how to model context in mobile learning activities. We introduce a time dependent context model based on a three pole structure that can be used to design and support context awareness in mobile learning environments. We illustrate its applicability in four different cases where mobile learning activities and implementations have been guided by the use of this model.