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Heather A Ochmane-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates
Adding to the many ubiquitous learning concepts
As far as ubiquitous learning is concerned, I want to address an observation that stands at the core of the concept to me. Yet it is something I do not have a name for. It is in essence the possibility to roam the world (online/social media) and collect bits and pieces of information in order to build a comprehensive and thorough understanding of a subject matter. Today this is done in a way, which was deemed almost impossible or led to a very restricted view before the emergence of the internet.
I want to give you an example in order to illustrate my case:
Just recently I looked into avalanches. I started of on YouTube, watching numerous slides (English). Scary! I quickly switched over to Wikipedia where I read up on the many types of avalanches (German). Shortly after I watched a documentary about the current state of avalanche research online (Bavaraian TV Channel). Interested in the way in which one can analyse the snowpack I found another interesting video from a mountaing guide on Youtube (Canada) demonstrating the various ways to test the snowpack. Further research brought me to the avalanche warning service from Tirol (Austria) … I could go on but I think you get my drift.
This way I was able to a accumulate a deep understanding of avalanches in a matter of days, something that not so long ago would’ve been impossible (at least in the short time frame).
What I hope to show with this example is that with all of the ubiquitous learning concepts like cloud computing, web 2.0, mobile learning, social media and so forth, the way we use them is as or even more important than the technologies at hand. Yet it takes practice to roam and learn the internet for information like illustrated above. It took me several years to do so. And as somebody who teaches and is in touch with a lot of adult learners, I’m oftentimes surprised how little of them are actually capable of the same feat.
My thesis is that searching, contact and handling of information in the limelight of the many ubiquitous learning concepts is a concept in its own right.
Hi Roman!
I completely agree with you. The basic text and videos do not talk about e-literacy, and I think that it is caused because the researches were done in developed countries, with digital alphabets. But it is not the real situation of many countries around the world, where most people does not have access to higher education or even to internet service.
I can talk about México, my country. Some rural zones does not have electricity so, how can they know or use the internet? They just go to rural schools, walking 2-5 miles every day. That schools have only one teacher who attends students since 1 to 10 grade of basic education. For the students, every school day is a challenge: to go there, to eat something. For the teacher, every school day is a challenge too: for try to teach to tired students with no basic conditions for learning.
If I could say something about your thesis, it could be that ubiquitous learning needs basic conditions of infraestructure and a basic digital knowledge, but it needs a coverage of basic needs of students too, like any learning.
I have finally come across a term for the phenomena described above:
E-Literacy
This concept relates to the skill set required to make efficient use of all of the materials, tools, and resources that are available online, in order to efficiently portray and show understanding of any subject matter.
It's a relatively new concept – https://cleach.wordpress.com/what-is-digital-literacy/ – which has gained popularity – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digitalliteracy/overview.aspx – but still leaves plenty of room for interpretation – https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/15/digital-literacy-in-universities. And although it hasn't been mentioned by course makers it certainly needs to be included with the other ubiquitous learning concepts.
Thanks Derek!
Not sure if 'collectivism' is the right word for it. To me that term stands for a social outlook that emphasises the group and its interests.
This phenomena I tried to illustrate above has been described and discussed in the lecture videos to some extent. But not to the degree I had hoped (although it probably will again from time to time during the 7 affordances). So I thought I'd dwell on this a little deeper.
My point ist that when education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. Seeing as most of the learners participating in MOOCS have a degree in higher learning already, one could say that ubiqitous learning mainly benefits high achievers.
In other words: Online learning requires some IT literacy.
I want to recommend an article I just read and stole some ideas from: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21714341-it-easy-say-people-need-keep-learning-throughout-their-careers-practicalities
Johannesburg Cronje has coined a word for this phenomena, he calls it collectivism