Thursday, April 1, 2010

Week 12 R685 Mobile, Wireless and Ubiquitous Learning

My definition of learning has changed this semester. This week's discussion pushed the envelope even further. We had a lunch chat in Breeze that included the class, Dr. Bonk and a professor knowledgeable in mobile learning who joined from England! It was an amazing experience to be able to interact with such ease across such distances.

More importantly I realized that learning had another dimension. In January, I'd defined learning largely through formal higher education experiences. There were familiar structures to this form of learning. Sage on the stage, textbooks, independent study on a topic, occasional team projects with specific time lines, grades, diplomas......

Over the weeks I've come to see learning in other forms. Informal learning, collaborative learning, learning on demand, learning for the sake of learning instead of job task-based.

This week's discussion added more to the definition. Mobile can mean informal but it also can mean projecting the learners closer to the real context they are studying. Mobile can also mean reaching across vast distances that don't have infrastructure to support more traditional learning environments. Professor Traxler's slide that showed a tribesman in Africa holding an iPhone said many things. For instance, I saw knowledge conduits that extended well beyond historical ranges. And the knowledge pipeline could be two ways.

We have several more weeks in the semester. I wonder how my definition of learning will change?

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