Introduction

What is mobile collaboration?

Mobile collaboration includes the use of mobile devices and applications to enable individuals to communicate, share information, and work together in both synchronous and asynchronous environments. In the context of workplace education, mobile collaboration plays a central role in providing instantaneous communication between colleagues, educators, and their organization in general. These technologies can be applied in both administrative and educational circumstances and contributes to the growth of interaction both within a corporate training session and in asynchronous learning opportunities (Gong et al., 2023, pg. 399).

What mobile collaboration also does is it equips learners with the tools needed to work in the modern workplace. The integration of technology will vary from workplace to workplace, but the use of mobile collaboration tools plays a role in efficiency and innovation across multiple sectors.

In this video from 2014, the potential of mobile collaboration using 3G and 4G technology was about educating the user to explain the power to problem solve with the device in their hand. When considering what is possible today, does the potential described in this video still hold true?

What does mobile collaboration look like?

In the workplace

In day-to-day work, mobile collaboration involves communicating, coordinating, and working alongside our colleagues regardless of location. This can include sending emails and instant messaging, collaborative document editing, project management, joining virtual meetings, and making requests such as asking for feedback and approvals, all of which can apply within or outside of the education sector.

Formal learning

In learning environments that are structured and include an element of assessment, mobile collaboration could include participating in virtual discussion forums, contributing to real time polling and quizzing tools within a training session, and using note-taking tools to collaboratively share and build upon new ideas in a professional development training series.

Informal learning

In learning environments where learning may be self-directed or community-driven experiences, mobile collaboration can appear as peer-to-peer communication through messaging applications, resource sharing on digital whiteboards from articles, videos, or infographics etc., or contributing to forums in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

This is a main difference between the formal educational environments such as K-12 or post-secondary education from workplace education, as most learning opportunities in the workplace occur through informal learning opportunities through opportunities that promote autonomy for the learner (Tynjälä, 2008, p. 132).

Platforms for mobile collaboration

Each of these communication platforms provides users with the flexibility to collaborate through instant messaging, file sharing, multimedia uploads, video conferencing, and more.

The list of additional collaborative tools illustrate what has been used in the development of this OER.

The Learning Management System (LMS)

Canvas

The Canvas app allows for access to an individuals inbox, posting of announcements, discussion forums in courses, and limited use of multimedia for collaborative features in a mobile version of the LMS.

D2L Brightspace

An LMS that offers various collaboration tools via a mobile app called D2L Pulse such as discussion boards and document sharing, but is limited in its functionality compared to the desktop version.

Moodle

The Moodle app allows for connecting with peers in courses, instructor announcements, uploading multimedia, and participating in forums and wiki pages.

Google Classroom

Allows for sharing of resources from peer to peer and peer to instructor as well as course discussions. Instructors also have the ability to post announcements and monitor engagement within the app.

Communication Platforms

Additional collaborative tools

Slack

Zoom

Microsoft Teams

Padlet

Canva

Google Drive

Mentimeter

Wearables for mobile collaboration

Another area that is emerging in mobile technology is the prevalence of wearable technology. A recent development in the field of VR headsets is the emergence of standalone headsets such as Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3. This kind of mobile technology offers the ability to collaborate in virtual spaces, such as Frame VR: https://learn.framevr.io/

Visit the Future Trends of Mobile Collaboration page to learn more.

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