ABSTRACT
Learning theories of the Nineteenth century are all related to mobile learning, even if they are diversified and attributable to different years. Each of them has specific characteristics influencing the mobile approach, from classic and contemporary to innovative mobile teaching. Educational theories of mobile learning converge around key features concerning the learning processes and environments, as well as teachers’ professional behaviour, students’ developing skills, and mobile technological affordances.
In this chapter, three main metaphors developed during the Nineteenth century are analyzed. The metaphor of acquisition has influenced the classic teaching of behaviorism and cognitivism, in which the research focus is on the amount and the quality of information transmitted from teachers to students. The metaphor of participation has seen learning as a process rooted in cultural practices and shared activities and has been adopted by contemporary teaching. The metaphor of knowledge creation is the last one and emphasizes mediated activities of co-creation, which leverage innovative teaching. These three metaphors still co-exist and for this reason the re-thinking of pedagogical practices for mobile learning also needs a recognition of significative educational theories of the Nineteenth century to understand which of their characteristics are still surviving to address mobile teaching.
