OOwing to the advancement of mobile and wireless communication technologies, an increasing number of mobile
learning studies have been conducted in recent years. In a mobile learning environment, students are able to
learn indoors and outdoors with access to online resources at any time. However, whether or not new learning
scenarios that combine both real-world contexts and digital-world resources are beneficial to the students has
been questioned. Moreover, it is also interesting to probe whether the existing e-learning strategies are effective
when situated in those mobile learning scenarios. In this study, an in-field activity on an indigenous culture
course of an elementary school with a formative assessment-based learning strategy was conducted to
investigate the possible negative effects of mobile learning by analyzing the students’ cognitive load and
learning achievement. It is interesting to find that, without proper treatment, the performance of students using
those existing online learning strategies, known to be “effective,” might be disappointing or may even
negatively affect the students’ learning achievements. Furthermore, the negative effects could be due to the
heavy cognitive load caused by an improper learning design. Such findings offer good references for those who
intend to design and conduct mobile learning activities.