Nearly half a decade after its inception, microlearning –teaching and learning on the scale of the "teachable moment" or the space of a cellphone screen-- has been conceptualized and explored using a wide variety of frameworks and technologies.
These range from constructivist and Montessori methodologies (Mosel, 2006; Tscherteu, 2006), through mobile and situated applications (Gugerbauer, 2007; Frankl, 2007), to calls for new pedagogical and research agendas (Hug, 2006; Gabrielli, Kimani, Catarci, 2006) to cite just a few examples. This paper begins with a brief review of the research and informal literatures that have been quickly amassed in this new field. From this overview, it develops the thesis that the "microlearning agenda" –as an explicit emphasis on the minute and particular in teaching and technology - presents valuable lessons for research into technology and media in education generally. Microlearning is revealed in these contexts not simply as one approach among many, but as something that goes on continuously, whether it is an explicit focus for research and technology development or not. As such, the lessons gained through microlearning are shown to have a generalized applicability to the studies of media and technology in education in the broadest possible sense.