"Mobile learning is something you'd use informally, on the move and often under time pressure, to continually refresh your knowledge, when and where it's needed," explained Cardinali. "It should be as simple as possible on the front end, providing easy means to access and locate information quickly. But, on the back end, it requires some complex technology - which is able to profile your skills and competencies, your location and your device - to give you just the right piece of information, when you need it and where you need it. You might describe it as performance support on demand, anytime, anywhere."

"Learning content that has been developed for delivery via a desktop or laptop computer is unlikely to be able to be delivered via a mobile device without some modification - if only because of screen size," he added. "This means that you have to develop a process - and there is much to recommend the view that such a process should be made available to all producers of learning materials - whereby learning materials can be chunked, that is, made into smaller 'bites' of learning which can be more easily delivered via a mobile device at the point of need. In turn, this means that content for mobile learning programs needs to focus more on essential information. This turns the learning program into more of an electronic performance support system - or even a learning 'app'."

"With your mobile learning platform profiling the content as you need it, based on your background, the time, device and location available, you have an educational continuum following students and trainees wherever they need learning or wherever they ask for just-in-time support," Cardinali said.

Increasingly, it seems, there are organisations which are keen to put Cardinali's - and others' - views on mobile learning into practice and gain valuable business benefits. One such mobile learning champion is the global law firm, Eversheds.

According to Eversheds' London-based learning and development specialist, Tim Drewitt, Eversheds' staff are using their previously unproductive 'waiting time' to carry out CPD activities via learning materials delivered through mobile devices. He explained that, by May 2011, Eversheds' lawyers had not only become used to learning at their desktop in 'smaller chunks' but they had also come to prefer learning that way. This means that they spend less time away from their desks on 'learning related activities'.

They also had accrued 30,000 hours of -˜waiting time' over the previous year - waiting in airports or train stations, travelling on trains, and so on. This has become discretionary learning time - with a consequent increase in the amount of learning materials being made available to them via mobile devices such as Blackberrys and iPods.

"We began using learning technologies to deliver leadership and management development learning materials in 2008/09," said Drewitt. "Following a 'soft launch' in 2010/11, our next step - for 2011/12 - is extending and embedding this approach within the organisation."

He continued: "2008/09, with Eversheds was downsizing due to the recession, offered an ideal opportunity to introduce staff to rapid eLearning materials, along with webinars and virtual classrooms to help reduce travel costs and time away from work. In that period we delivered some 500,000 minutes of legal training via e-learning to the company's 45,000 or so employees - including 350 partners - working from 48 offices around the world."

This is exactly the sort of 'good news' case study that the learning technologies world needs.

For years, theorists and apologists for the use of learning technologies have argued that this form of learning was flexible enough to be available on demand, when and where it was needed or convenient to learn. Yet rarely has any company - let alone one from the legal profession - permitted an insight into its learning practices as Eversheds has. The company's strategy of enhancing productivity by using its staff's inevitable waiting time to enhance their knowledge and skills via mobile learning is a shining example which other companies - particularly large ones - should take to heart and try to emulate.

For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning - especially elearning - and technology-related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
You can contact Bob.