M-Learning: Um estudo de caso aplicativo na EAD do IFPE

The e-Learning enables the creation of a new place for teaching and learning, where students who resides in difficult locations and/or who works for long hours are able to study mediated by technology. To do this, the students needs to have a high commitment, autonomy and dedication to their studies. According to MEC, 20% of the new students on the superior education of Brazil are from e -Learning courses and this kind of education has grown 50% each year. However, due to the high dependence of a fixed infrastructure to enable the use of internet technologies, several cities of Brazil has found dificulties to offer e-Learning courses. In contrast, according to data from ANATEL, about 99.99% of the Brazilian territory is reached by mobile companys through mobile phones. In this context, rises the concept of m-learning (mobile learning), which lets us to bring the whole environment of e-Learning for mobile devices such as Palms, Tablets, and especially cell phones. Thus, this article aims to report researchs in the area of m-Learning to find and explore their potential as well as modeling and developing an e-Learning environment mediated by mobile phones. With such environment we intent to integrate the current IFPE's virtual learning environment enabling new ways to reach and technologies for teaching and learning for students of IFPE.