Chapter 9.3
Personal, Mobile, Connected: The Future of Learning
Mark van ‘t Hooft
Research Center for Educational Technology
Kent State University, USA
Abstract: Digital technologies are increasingly personal, mobile, and connected. Many students use them in their daily lives, but in schools they are regularly limited in what tools they can use and what digital content they have access to. While students want to use digital technologies for learning, educators often ban or limit this use for reasons of safety or learning distractions. This chapter explores the divide between teachers and students, the technologies that could increase the size of this gap, and what educators need to reconnect teachers and students, and education and life. Personal, mobile, and connected technologies should be seriously considered as learning tools, as they can provide the bridge between schools and their surrounding communities, reconnecting the two with learning that is relevant, meaningful, and lifelong.
Key words: pedagogy; ubiquitous technologies; ubiquitous computing learning environment; mobile technologies
Introduction
Computing is real life (Wade Roush, 2005).
The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it (Mark Weiser, 1991).
Even though schools at all levels have invested heavily in technology over the past two decades, digital tools are still playing a relatively minor role in teaching and learning processes. While one could point to many reasons for this lack of impact, including limited access, a lack of staff development, or inadequate technical support, a more likely reason is the disconnect between school and society. Because of this gap, students often perceive that what they learn in school and the tools that they use for learning there are not relevant to their lives (Farris-Berg, 2005; van ‘t Hooft, 2007; van ‘t Hooft, Swan, Lin, & Cook, 2007). In fact, many educators try to maintain spatial and temporal boundaries between school and society by banning new technologies such as cell phones and social networking sites like MySpace.At the same time, these boundaries are gradually eroded by emerging digital tools and the students who use them on a daily basis. This chapter explores the divide between teachers and students, the technologies that could increase the size of this gap, and what educators need to reconnect teachers and students, and education and life.
Today’s K-12 students are different from students twenty, ten, or even five years ago. Many communicate, learn, and think in ways that adults often do not fully understand. While students choose digital tools that tend to be disruptive such as SMS, Instant messaging, social networking sites, and video sharing, teachers are more likely to choose technologies that support existing and more traditional ways of teaching and learning (Hedberg, 2006; Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005; Project Tomorrow, 2006). The difference in technology use has to do with control. In an age of ever-stricter limits on youngsters’ physical space, coupled with their age-old desire to escape adult supervision, teenagers visit social networking sites and use mobile communication tools to hang out, form social groups, and develop their personal identities virtually (Boyd, 2006; Romeo, 2004). At the same time, educators tend to control, limit, or ban the same technology for reasons of safety or distraction. The real reason is often the fear of the unknown, because current digital tools were not part of the world in which they grew up. The result is a society in which adults have broad access to their own PCs at work while students have to share limited and filtered technology resources at school. The resulting tension between youngsters and adults with regards to technology use for learning should therefore come as no surprise.
Many pieces have been written about innovative trends in (educational) technology (e.g. Breck, 2006; Norris & Soloway, 2004; Research Center for Educational Technology [RCET], 2006; Roush, 2005; Thornburg, 2006). Despite the fact that digital tools will continue to change in ways we cannot possibly imagine, current visionaries agree that future digital tools will be
-Personal (one-to-one access).
-Mobile (always-on-you technology).
-Networked and connected to the Internet 24/7 (always-on technology).
-Accessible (cheap and easy to use).
-Social (allow for creating, sharing, aggregating, and connecting knowledge).
-Multi-modal (support different media including text, image, sound, and video).
Given these characteristics, it is obvious that the ways in which we interact with knowledge and information are changing. Society has picked up on this shift, but current education practices have done relatively little with the ever-increasing digital connectivity, instead hanging on to outdated approaches such as distant learning and “link cherry picking” (Breck, 2006, p. 43), the practice of adding a few reference links to existing lesson plans.
According to Breck (2006), learning should occur online because current knowledge has moved there. She calls this the “global virtual knowledge ecology” (p. 44). Therefore, Breck argues for schools to adopt a new attitude toward the Internet, take advantage of a new access to information, and above all, benefit from the new aggregation of knowledge made possible by the Internet’s open content and “interconnectivity within and among subjects” (p. 46). Just being able to access information on the Internet for learning is not enough. Being continuously networked with information and people for learning is the key.
Besides a change in what we access, we are also changing how we access it. Younger generations are increasingly accessing the Internet by way of personal, mobile, and Internet capable devices, wherever and whenever the need arises. When interacting with their mobile devices, they tend to “interact with other users [and] interact with more than one computer or device at the same time" (Roth, 2002, p. 282; see also Cole & Stanton, 2003; Mandryk, Inkpen, Bilezkjian, Klemmer, & Landay, 2001). Because digital tools are increasingly personal, mobile, and connected, they lend themselves well for both individual and collaborative learning, encourage the use of technology in everyday activities, and enable students to understand digital tools as lifelong-learning tools (Inkpen, 2001; Sharples, 2000; Thornburg, 2002), eventually leading to the type of ubiquitous and “invisible” computing that Weiser (1991) envisioned.
Rethinking Teaching, Learning, and Technology
For anytime, anywhere, lifelong learning using personal, mobile, and networked devices to work, the changes that are needed in education go beyond deciding what technologies are best. Digital tools change constantly, but connectivity and mobility of the learner and/or technology are here to stay. In addition, the core skills that employers require for 21st century jobs are very different from the ones that many schools are still teaching, and include digital-age literacy, inventive thinking and problem solving, effective communication and teamwork, and high productivity (Anderson, 2008; Lemke, 2001; Thornburg, 2002). Because of these societal developments, educators need to re-examine “the validity of many of the assumptions [related to education and schooling] that have remained unchallenged for decades” (Thornburg, 2002, p. 97). School should be seen as a process, not as a specific location in space and time. Rethinking schooling in order to meaningfully and effectively incorporate digital tools and the new skills described above should happen in three areas: teaching, learning, and technology.
Rethinking Teaching
To take advantage of the possibilities, teaching must be continuously redefined within the changing context that new tools create. Teachers need to rethink their pedagogy (how we teach), boundaries (where we teach in space and time), and curriculum (what we teach).
First, teaching should be re-conceptualized as “conducting learning,” putting more responsibility for learning on the learner. Pedagogy can be defined as the art and science of teaching, the strategies, techniques, and approaches that teachers use to facilitate learning. Because ubiquitous technologies enable students to easily switch from learning individually to working collaboratively, and to access a wide variety of tools and information, pedagogy can and should be enriched and customized with materials and strategies that are appropriate for individual students as well as small and large groups. As a result, teaching needs to be seen more as the facilitation of personal and social learning. Traditional definitions of teacher and student may no longer apply, as the boundary between the two will become increasingly blurry, and frequent switching between teaching and learning will become more commonplace.
Second, teaching can no longer be restricted by spatial and temporal boundaries that current educational systems impose. The Internet, social software, and wireless mobile devices enable relevant and meaningful anytime, anywhere learning, even when teachers and students are not in the same physical or temporal location. This is an extremely important argument for using digital tools for learning, as the disconnect between what students learn in school and the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to succeed in life has a tremendous impact on current educational problems, including lack of student motivation, drop-out rates, and a lack of high school graduates who have the necessary skills and knowledge to enter the workforce without substantial amounts of training in the workplace (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004). Considering that the competition for jobs is increasingly global makes the chasm between school and ‘real’ life an even larger issue (Friedman, 2005).
The area of transcending or changing boundaries in teaching is an important yet tricky one to re-conceptualize. It necessitates a reconsideration of the locus of control. In a digital environment where learning is no longer confined by boundaries that are set by teachers and administrators, more control (and responsibility) is transferred to the learner. In environments where these boundaries are set, students often find ways around them, learning new things despite what they are being taught.
Third, the content and focus of teaching must be re-defined to be relevant and useful to students and to meet the needs of the 21st century world. As younger generations are increasingly turning towards small and portable technologies and the Internet, and are using digital tools in new and innovative ways, educators should take heed. Students are often far ahead of their teachers in technology skills, but do need guidance in how to responsibly and safely “use digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and communicate with others” (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004, p. 6).
Rethinking Learning
Mobile, connected, and personal digital tools can support both individual and social construction of knowledge simultaneously in virtually any context. In particular, students need to be given more control over their own learning. Four areas in which learning should be redefined as more learner-cantered are engagement and motivation, individualization and choice, collaboration and peer learning, and learning for all students.
First and foremost, learning should be engaging. A motivated student invests in learning activities and tailors it to his or her needs. Digital technologies engage students when they are used for learning in ways that are meaningful, relevant, flexible, and hands-on (e.g. Farris-Berg, 2005). Because many school-age children already use digital tools for daily, personal use, teaching students that these same tools can be used for lifelong learning should not be a big jump as long as its use is engaging and motivating. As students become more involved in their learning they can pursue more complex, inquiry-based, self-directed, and extended learning tasks.
Second, realizing the full potential of digital tools for learning involves individualization and student choice. Students can choose because they have access to a wealth of resources beyond the limited resources of the typical classroom (McClintock, 1999). Access to rich collections of materials in a variety of media formats makes it possible to tailor resources and activities. It is up to teachers to guide students in making sensible choices, not to tell them what they should know. Individualized learning with digital tools often yields unique, creative, and high quality work as well, involving higher-order thinking skills and a wide variety of representations to communicate what students have learned.
Third, learning in ubiquitous computing environments needs to be redefined in terms of collaboration. While individualization of learning is important, it is fundamentally a social activity (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978). If it is to be student-cantered, learning must involve at least some collaboration, focus on the processes and the final product, and emphasize critical thinking skills over memorizing facts. Many digital technologies afford unique supports for collaborative and peer learning activities. Through social software tools and wireless communication, students can easily share and/or work collaboratively (whether this takes place across the classroom or the world), often resulting in higher quality interactions and student work.
Finally, learning needs to be re-conceptualized to provide equal opportunities for all students.In this context, digital tools can be used to bridge the digital divide, as well as support learning for those students who are struggling in more traditional learning environments, have special needs, or are considered to be gifted and talented (Swan, van ‘t Hooft, Kratcoski, & Unger 2005). Equal access to digital tools is a pressing issue in education for a variety of reasons that are related to economic equality and growth, social mobility, and democracy. In societies that are increasingly dependent on online resources it is usually the poorer and underserved segments (e.g. rural areas, inner cities, migrant workers) that lack the access to resources they so desperately need. This lack of access is mirrored in many schools that serve these types of populations, although recent trends in cell phone usage may begin to alleviate problems of access (see e.g. Blunt, 2006).
Rethinking Technology
This area of reconceptualization is probably the trickiest one of the three, and arguably the most important one, as it has important implications for rethinking the other two. The first step in rethinking teaching and learning within a context that includes an amalgam of digital tools is simple, yet radical. Educators need to give technology serious yet critical consideration, without discarding it right off the bat as unsafe, distracting, or unusable. As described above, ubiquitous computing environments change traditional learning in that they increase engagement and motivation, provide individualization and choice in addition to increased opportunities forcollaboration and peer learning, as well as learning for all students.
Educators also need to come to understand the different ways in which younger generations are using a variety of tools as an integral part of their lives (see e.g. Lenhart & Madden, 2005; Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005; van ‘t Hooft, 2007. This is easier said than done, as the proliferation of new devices and the innovative uses students come up with often leaves adults trailing in the dust. As a result, teachers are often hesitant or plain opposed to the use of digital tools such as cell phones, handheld computers, instant messaging, and blogging for learning, because they don’t understand the tools and are afraid of the negative impacts without considering potential benefits. Students will continue to use technology in their lives whether schools let them or not, and schools are at least partiallyresponsible for working with students on how to use it in safe, productive, and responsible ways, both in and outside of school. Only then will schools and children be able to make the most out of the available technology, while being aware of the hidden dangers such as cyber bullying, Internet predators, or identity theft.
A second step involves a balanced approach to rethinking teaching, learning, and technology. Digital tools are used in all kinds of different jobs to communicate, and to gather, process, disseminate, and access information. Successful companies and individuals adopt new technologies as they see fit and adjust their practices if need be. Increasing globalization, telecommuting, and outsourcing are prime examples. Yet, while the ‘real’ world adapts to innovations, many educational systems are trying to force the same technology into an outdated educational model to do more of the same, using technology as an add-on. In fact, we need to stop thinking about technology integration altogether, but instead see technology as an agent of transformation that will enable us to do new things in new ways (Prensky, 2006; Thackara, 2005) and help schools prepare students for the world that lies beyond. The current gap between school and the ‘real’ world is in the long run going to hurt students, putting them at a disadvantage in a world that is increasingly connected, digital, global, and multicultural. If schools do not learn how to embrace the digital tools that students use matter-of-factly in their personal lives and prepare students for the world they will become irrelevant (Friedman, 2005; Gates, 2005).