The Mobile learning: the next generation of learning project addresses itself to four different target groups and potential users:

1. The European telecommunications industry;
2. The European e-Learning industry;
3. Stakeholders and decision makers in European vocational and education training (VET);
4. Trainers, students and training organisations in Europe especially those interested in facilitating access to learning.

The European telecommunications industry is an industry with an immediate need for applications and many mobile applications are just being released or are still under development such as mobile commerce (m-commerce), mobile positioning systems (MPS) etc. Learning and training, however, do not figure in most of the mobile application scenarios. This project sets out to provide structures and products to make mobile learning a major factor in the development of telecommunications applications for the world of 2.5G and 3G.

This project sees e-learning as the state of the art for distance learning in Europe today. The project recognises that the next dimension of learning and training is the development of wireless communication and wireless learning in society over the coming years. As such, the future is wireless and the project sets to put in place wireless solutions to replace the wired computer scenarios of e-learning today. These developments are crucial for e-learning providers and the elearning industry today.

The next generation of learning is of vital importance to stakeholders and decision makers in European VET both at national and international level. The innovation of the project is to set in place the building blocks of a new sector of training by harnessing the almost universal availability of mobile devices to education and training. This widespread availability can be harnassed and exploited to provide access to training opportunities for those who otherwise might be at a disadvantage for geographic (wireless networks span the rural-urban divide), economic (mobile handsets are relatively inexpensive) or social reasons.

The results of this project will be of importance to European trainers and training organisations as they plan for their future and seek to devise new lifelong learning and training scenarios for all citizens which will correspond to their life situation.

The needs which this project addresses for the target groups identified above is to be prepared for the next generation of learning and training. The development of a mobile Learning Management System for the provision of mobile learning meets the needs of both the European telecommunications industry and the developing European e-learning industry as they confront the growing wirelessness in society, based on wireless LANs, wireless computers and wireless telephones. The project also meets the needs of stakeholders and decision makers in European VET, and European trainers and training organisations by opening up for them the pathway to the next generation of learning.

An in-depth analysis of the history and evolution of distance learning led to the identification of these needs. In the 1970s European leadership in distance learning was achieved by the foundation of the European Open Universities, in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, and the success of the CNED in France. Unfortunately this leadership did not transfer to electronic learning (e-learning). The reason for this was that there was an electronics revolution in the 1980s which was quickly harnessed for distance learning in America with the development of group-based distance learning by satellite and videoconferencing. As this led seamlessly to the WWW, Europe was left behind.

Today the world of e-learning is dominated by American LMSs (Learning Management Systems) like WebCT, Blackboard, Lotus Learning Space, Saba and others. It is also dominated by American standardization protocols like SCORM and IMS and by American pedagogical concepts like the templating of content, quizzing, chatting, multiple-choice questioning and other structures which do not suit European pedagogical values. The leadership of mobile technologies by European leaders like Ericsson and Nokia give an opportunity for Europe to regain the initiative.

To this research was added an in-depth analysis of the relationship of technology to training in distance education. This showed that it was technologies that were generally available to citizens that triumphed in distance education, not those that had inherent didactical possibilities (like the 12 inch laser discs of the early 1990s). Never in the history of technology in education has there been a technology with the universal penetration of mobile telephony. Not only this but mobile phones are technologies that citizens are used to carrying around with them everywhere.

This was followed by an analysis of the development of wirelessness in society which showed that e-commerce was moving to m-commerce, that wireless deveices were replacing wired ones and that with the arrival of broadband access and of 2.5G and 3G technologies there was the possibility of building a whole new sector of training provision.

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