MOBILE LEARNING AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES IN ACADEMIA: A CASE STUDY

Mobile learning technologies have a huge potential in bringing more efficiency to the learning process. In the last decade the usefulness of mobile technologies for many fields of activity has been emphasized. This paper intends to analyze the behavior of a student population from both the undergraduate and the graduate level with regards to mobile learning and technologies. The survey was administered in the University of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania. A combination of exploratory research techniques and a survey methodology was used for studying the academic behavior of students when facing the potential implementation of mobile devices in their learning process. A set of procedures were used for gathering and analyzing more than 300 observations from a heterogeneous population. The results show that from a technological perspective mobile learning is feasible, however, a lack awareness and understanding about this new way of learning still hinders the effective implementation of mobile learning. Furthermore, the results reveal several issues that need to be resolved in order to achieve the effective integration of mobile technologies and for implementing a mobile learning system. Based on these insights, this paper offers several contributions with respect to understanding and creating a link as well as closing the current gap between students' learning process and mobile technologies.