M-learning in natural environments: new chances or broken promises

Overview & Synopsis

The aim of this paper is to present a study of three cases of multimedia guides for natural locations including an analysis of the information offered, and the methods used in three multimedia outdoor guides. The following guides have been compared; one from the 'Sea and Land' National Park of the Atlantic Islands in Galicia (Northwest Spain), with multimedia portable information accessible only on the Internet; the NABU-AlbEntdecker (for the Alb Mountains in South Germany), a multimedia guide for specific hardware with a geolocation function; like the iWebPark SNP for the Swiss National Park (in East Switzerland), in this case also a multimedia guide for PDAs is available as commercial application. M-learning in the field of location-aware learning offers us a powerful tool for discovering and researching our surrounding environment. If, on one hand, the use of multimedia guides can be rated as very positive, some of the m-learning advantages are widely implemented (especially in the use of audio and video files, and location information). On the other hand, the information provided, in many cases, doesn’t represent a significant qualitative shift from conventional information panels or printed guides (static information, not user-adaptive, poor self-exploring functions…). An analysis of the information offered, and how it is offered in such multimedia outdoor guides is necessary to develop multimedia guides with educational value. The central question is how bringing contents to an electronic gadget can create other wider benefits, rather than simply shifting the material support of the information, from analogue to digital.