MCL 2006 Preface

The First International Conference on Mobile Communications and Learning (MCL) was held in Morne, Mauritius. Applications of mobile and communication technology, wireless and handheld devices in education and training is a fast growing area. It is good to mention here that more than 80% of respondents of the 2006 "Web-Based Education: 2006-2010 Perspectives" survey of experts from more than 40 countries worldwide consider this area as one of the dominant areas in online education and training for upcoming 5 years. This is why it is important for international community to have a chance to meet colleagues who are involved into research and development of educational applications of mobile and communication technology. We truly believe that the MCL-2006 international conference provided an excellent opportunity for researchers, Ph.D. students, faculty, administrators, and practitioners to meet experts from all over the world and to discuss innovative ideas, results of research, and best practices on various topics on applications of mobile and communication technology in education. The topics of conference papers included 1) e-learning solutions using mobile technology, 2) standards, usability and perception of mobile learning, 3) advanced network protocols, methods, mechanisms and algorithms for mobile learning, 4) best practices and cases studies, 5) faculty training on mobile and communication technology, 6) existing hardware systems, devices and software applications for mobile learning, 7) Web services for mobile learning, and other related areas. MCL 2006 was collocated with the International Conference on Networking (ICN 2006) and the International Conference on Systems (ICONS2006). We believe this provided MCL 2006 attendees with a great unique opportunity to meet experts from adjacent applied areas and understand better the current status and potential benefits of mobile, networking and communication technologies and systems and their applications in educati- ns and training. Each submitted paper has been reviewed by several members of the MCL 2006 international program committee and referees. We would like to thank all of them for their help with review process. We are also indebted to organizations that made this conference possible, specifically, the IEEE, IEE, and IARIA association.