ABSTRACT

More than a decade of research and practice testifies to the fact that mobile technologies offer many learning benefits that apply to a wide range of people (see Hwang & Tsai, 2011; Kim, Mims, & Holmes, 2006; Rochelle, 2003; Sharples, 2000). Nevertheless, we can notice that specific learner groups have been targeted by researchers, developers, practitioners, and others. The target groups have been variously determined by imperatives such as researchers’ curiosity, funders’ agendas, national education strategies, organizational priorities, and commercial interests. As m-learning becomes increasingly widespread—partly as a side effect of the mass adoption of mobile devices in personal and working lives—discrete mobile learner groups become less discernable in the population, and identification of any neglected groups becomes more challenging. Learners’ particular needs may remain undiscovered, unless more effort is put into understanding the development of m-learning in terms of the learners involved and how their engagement is evolving.