Abu Dhabi, 28th May 2009: The Center of Excellence for ICT, Abu Dhabi Men's College, organized the Mobile Learning Forum 2009 under the patronage of H.E Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan on May 28th. This event brought together educational experts, University and College leaders, academics, business executives, and eLearning enthusiasts from around the world to exchange ideas and experiences on the latest in anytime - anywhere learning.

 The forum highlighted thought-provoking presentations and the chance to learn from world-class experts through keynote presentations from world-renowned mobile learning experts and sessions focusing on the role of mobile technology in facilitating change within educational systems. The conference concentrated on exploring the best practice case studies from some of the world's leading institutions: Mukul Pandya, Carol Strohecker, Forrest Glick and Hum Robson.

"HCT is in the forefront in the utilization of new technologies for education and actively promotes new concepts which will benefit our students across the Emirates" stated Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Technology. "Mobile learning has an exciting future and provides another way for our students to access content anytime, anywhere in the palm of their hand"

During the conference, Abu Dhabi Men's College introduced their eLearning which can be downloaded as podcasts, videos or can be seen in a streaming format over the web. Abu Dhabi Men's College has created more than 100 learning nuggets that summarize the 50 minute class into a 10 minute interval; the plan is to continue producing more of these short learning intervals.

"Mobile phone usage is surging since cell phone users are growing by 5 million a month," said Knowledge@Wharton Editor-in-Chief, Mukul Pandya.  "UAE is an excellent market to explore the potential of mobile technology as a knowledge dissemination tool that provides the student with this full service that allows them to download their classes twenty four hours, seven days a week" He added. On the other hand, Carol Strohecker, director of the center for design innovation in the University of North Carolina thought that this mobile learning program deliberately focus on learning, rather than on technology, as this will motivate students and encourage them to learn and have the authority over their education.

Mobile access to learning media is the latest emerging field within educational technology and the mobile learning initiative will allow our students to explore the latest technology for mobile applications.  As Dr. Simon Jones, Director of Abu Dhabi Men's College explained that this is a new adventure; a pioneering effort that will connect students with the learning offered by the device that all of them carry around every day, their mobile phones. He continued saying: "we are trying to tackle three basic things at the college; First of all we want our students to engage in what they learn in a highly convenient way, secondly we want them to focus, repeat and practice key elements through the mobile learning nuggets and finally we want to connect our students with a wider world of learning with a meaning of the subject, how it's used and the potential it has"

The mobile learning program is a new experience that will spice up the students learning techniques as it will be a key element in the life of the educational sector.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact: 
Zena Hamdan
Marketing Support Officer
Abu Dhabi Men's College
Tel: +971 2 404 8326
Fax: +971 50 814 6667
Email: zeina.hamdan@hct.ac.ae

© Press Release 2009