B ACKGROUND

It has been about half a century since the invention of the computer, and it has had an enormous impact and influence to society. During the 1980s to 1990s, computers were growing by leaps and bounds, and with the debut of the first laptop notebook computer as well as the birth of the wireless Internet, the information technology are growing at an amazing speed, and the wireless Internet is even closely related to the day-to-day life of every one of us. Recently, with the introduction of mini laptops or notebooks, mobile computers have become a necessary part of our life and a valuable learning tool. During the period from 2002-2007, Executive Yuan developed his “Challenging 2008: Major Plans for National Development”, in which was the promotion of “E-Taiwan”, and the establishment of “A Fiber to the Home”, which was an island-wide network in which citizens across the island could

have access to the internet no matter where they lived. Other programs (“E-Government”,

“Bridging the Digital Divide”, “E-Life”, and “E-Business”) were designed to enable Taiwan

to become one of the countries in Asia which made the best use of the Internet (CEPD, 2003).

What followed during the period 2007 to 2011 was that the government invested 55.6 billion dollars to enhance the country’s information and communication infrastructure. They

also formulated the “M-Taiwan” plan to make Taiwan move from an E-society to an M-society through the construction of a wireless broadband network, in the hope of achieving the goals of mobile internet service, mobile life, and mobile learning. A “Double Networks Integration Project” was also introduced which included the two main mobile phone and wireless networks. The project would integrate with the General Packet Radio Service and Wireless LAN to develop a future networking move toward mobility. With the wireless environment developing rapidly, mobile computer use will increase. (National Information and Communications Initiative Committee, 2010)

The Ministry of Education had promoted two plans the “TANet to Elementary and Junior High Schools Plan” and the “ICT Education Infrastructure Plan”. In these plans, all elementary and junior high schools had to not only set up computer classrooms but also had access to the Internet, thereby speeding up the process of equipping both elementary teachers and junior high school teachers with a basic knowledge of IT (Ministry of Education, 1998).

In 2001, the Ministry also started planning the “Master plan for ICT in education”, which promoted the integration of IT with teaching in elementary schools and junior high schools (Ministry of Education, 2001).

The total number of trained teachers from all counties and cities with information literacy and information integrated teaching skills was 114,591 in 2008, which is 75% of all

teachers (Ministry of Education, 2009). The Grade 1-9 Curriculum emphasizes that the educational goal of the 21st century is to integrate information into teaching and apply them in creating teaching materials, in the teaching act itself, in designing curriculum, and in assessing students. Teachers must understand the technology and use it to innovate (Wu, 2000;

Mitchell & Hunt, 1997). Computer and technology use can increase student interest in learning through computer-assisted instruction, distance learning, and multimedia instruction.

As a result of the promotion of government policy and the trend towards using information and communications in society, every teacher must think of a way to raise his or her information literacy. In this way he or she will be able to timely and appropriately combine information technology with instruction in order to deal with the advent of the Information Age characterized by mobile learning.

In recent years, many countries have been working hard to promote U- Learning. For example, Japan started promoting U-Japan in 2005, Korea proposed IT839 project in 2004.

Recently, Executive Yuan proposed U-Taiwan project. All aimed to bring wireless communications and mobile equipment to our lives and studies, transforming the environment in which cable networks were extended to wireless internet networks. Therefore, the application of future wireless mobile devices will be more diversified (Lai, 2007). Mah (2006) points out that the information environment in Taiwan keep moving in the direction----to be

wireless and mobile. E-learning, together with the development of wireless internet and mobile technology can help people to obtain knowledge through not only the use of cable internet but also the extension of wireless technology, thereby creating a mobile learning environment which transcends time and space.

Currently, information technology integration mostly relates to tablet PCs. Teachers and students can participate in on-line learning, take on-line tests, or access necessary information (Hsu, 2006). Many other mobile computer devices have emerged in recent years such as the smart phones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, and Palm Computers. They are small and light and have wireless transmission function. They are equipped with more functions such as word processing software, enable users with powerful digital learning and connection to the world (Xu & Wang, 2002). The advantages of mobile computer instruction are manifold. The teaching environment itself becomes mobile, instructional or learning materials can be searched for through the wireless network at any time and from any place, and communication between students or teachers is enhanced. All these make information technology integration becomes more versatile and more flexible (Hsiao, Tsai & Yu, 2005).