Learning without walls, free of time and space boundaries where learners are allowed to work on the task at hand as and when they feel appropriate. Purposeful absence of continuous teacher control and guidance, giving more room to learners. The role of the educator then becomes to “create learning ecologies, shape communities, and release learners into the environment” (Siemens, 2003)

According to Siemens (2003), a learning ecology includes the following

• A space for gurus and beginners to connect (master/apprentice).
• A space for self-expression (blog, journal)
• A space for debate and dialog (listserv, discussion forum, open meetings)
• A space to search archived knowledge (portal, Web site)
• A space to learn in a structured manner (courses, tutorials)
• A space to communicate new information and knowledge indicative of changing elements within the field of practice (news, research).
• Idea of Connectivism is also simple explained by Siemens himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx5VHpaW8sQ.

This goes well in hand with what New London Groups presents as the concept of ‘A pedagogy of Multiliteracies’ (The New London Group, 1996; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). The concept of Multiliteracies, which apparently seems a complex one, but once read in conjunction with Mulimodeled approach, it does look a simple one. There are four components of multiliteracies presented by The New London Group i.e.,

• Situated Practice draws on students’ real-life experiences,
• Overt Instruction equips them with the required metalanguage and knowledge of differing text-types,
• Critical Framing helps students to interpret the social context and inherent biases of texts, and
• Transformed Practices enables them to use the discourse for their own real purposes.

The main characteristics of ubiquitous learning are: (Chen et al., 2002; Curtis et al., 2002) https://clwb.org/2013/06/10/what-is-ubiquitous-learning/

• Permanency: Learning materials are always available unless purposely deleted.
• Accessibility: Access from everywhere as personally required
• Immediacy: Wherever a student is, he/she can immediately access learning materials.
• Interactivity: Online collaboration with teachers and/or peers (chat/blogs/forums)
• Situated instructional Activities: Learning in context (on-site).
• Adaptability: Getting the right information at the right place for the right student.

I believe the concept is contrary to didactic learning principles, and provides freedom of choice, material, and applied skills to learners.

Informal Learning is where learning can start from any point of interest, and then leads to other related themes. The time and sources of information or knowledge are variable. So for this informal learning, which ubiquitous in nature, I experimented the following about six months ago.

On a course related to teaching with digital technologies, I wanted to engage learners (23 teachers of various levels who were from different schools) in knowing about non-linear learning and Connectivist’s approach in order to understand establishment of learning ecologies. On pedagogical level, I decided to create a short lived learning ecology. My first draft of the session plan was, however, very close of that of didactic one; but thinking over and over again, I decided to introduce a few key words, and ask learners to make some sense out of these names, terms and phrases. See Figure-1 below:

Figure 1: Image of the slide presented to learners during instructions, they were asked to make some sense out of these.

These key words however were inter-related and one leads to the other while exploring the ideas. Learners were allowed to use library, online resources, and any expert they know. They were given a couple of hours to explore and then present their understanding the way they feel most appropriate to them. After the instructions I removed myself from the lead role and became part of the learning groups in a free manner challenging, appreciating, and drip-feeding where necessary; and above all leaving them on their own predominantly. It was interesting to find the initial low activity which then turned into a hyper learning activity where learners were actually discussing, analyzing, and critiquing various concepts, making links with personal practices, imagining situations . After almost three hours each group presented in the following creative manners:

• A staged panel discussion where learners took on various roles advocating the teories;
• A multimedia presentation including videos to explain their understanding ;
• A video recorded presentation where various theorists were sitting together and explaining their own theories – role play
• A small training session applying the same concepts.

It was such a pleasant experience where the outcomes were never thought of so much of variety. I believe it was partly due to the autonomy given to learners. They found effective resources which were never part of my initial plans for the session.

Learners review of the activity were positive and they identified that the pedagogy opted was complemented the concept i.e., Connectivism where ‘pipe is more important than the contents in the pipe’ (Siemens 2004). They also rated the activity and their own presentation at Transformation level on SAMR Model (Puentedura 2012).

I believe it was a good example where we experienced how learning ecologies work and can lead to organic solutions based on the experiences and knowledge base of the members involved; overt instructions were provided by the online resources and expert opinions as needed. There was no formal structure or chronological order of tasks included, which lead to experiencing non-linear approach to teaching and learning.

The whole idea is to introduce the intended learning outcomes in the form of hints, provide certain resources (in this case access to internet, library, and a few experts around, and time), and then ‘release the learners into ecologies’. When they come out, they have learnt in their own way.

I do believe that this is not an exact example of ubiquitous learning as per definition, but as I said it was an attempt to create a short lived learning ecology and an ubiquitous learning opportunity which is a non-linear one; targets emerge from learners’ interests and especially from where they are.

References:

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures. Psychology Press.

Siemens G., (2003). Learning Ecologies, Communities, and Networks: Extending the Classroom. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/learning_communities.htm [Accessed: Aug 23. 2018]

Siemens G., (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm [Accessed: Aug 23. 2018]

The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard educational review, 66(1), 60-93.