Monday, 10 August 2015

At the end of our tether

What does mobile technology have to do with academic freedom? Read on...

'A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic that his freedom of speech.' This remark from John Holt epitomises progressive education. Holt could easily have gone on to argue that freedom of learning should also include choice of location. He died in 1985, before the era of the Web and mobile technology, but the thought was undoubtedly already there. Being able to choose when and where to learn is part of the freedom to learn. It is not just about freedom of thought and freedom of speech, but also freedom of space and place. It is about choice. The is academic freedom.

We have no excuse now. We are living at a time in our history where the small device in the hand of the student is able to provide opportunities for any time, any place learning.

The fact is, untethered learning is evident all around us. Increasingly, people are learning informally through their mobile devices. Tethered technologies such as fixed line telephones are on the wane, while for the first smart phones are now outstripping those from personal computers and are have overtaken laptops as the most popular means of going online. Many are grasping the opportunity to go mobile, using their smart phones, tablets and e-readers to learn while on the move, at a time and pace that suits their lifestyles.

Traditional, formal education is playing catch-up... or in many cases not playing at all.

The significance of the mobile device cannot be underestimated. In the last decade personal, mobile technology has gained a dramatic purchase on western society. It has driven many social, economic, political and, yes - psychological changes. The relative benefits and limitations of these changes can be debated elsewhere, but fundamentally, educators need to recognise something significant. In comparison to other sectors of society, where mobile technology adoption is concerned the world of formal learning is lagging so far behind, if it were an Formula 1 racing driver, it would be in danger of being lapped.

Should education go completely mobile? No, and in most cases it won't. Should schools ignore mobile completely? Definitely not, but many do. A blended approach is needed, where the optimum mix of mobile and tethered learning can be supported. Yes, there is a place for tethered learning, as can be evidenced in many subjects such as science and the arts. But so much more can be learnt outside the four walls of the traditional classroom.  Here are just three strategies teachers can adopt to promote this mix:

1) Create opportunities for learners to use their personal, mobile technologies inside the classroom. There are endless examples already available of teachers who have incorporated mobile technologies into their classrooms, for voting, collaborative learning, capturing data, creating content and interacting with specific environments.

2) Provide content that can be accessed by learners both in the classroom and outside of the classroom. This provision should be seamless, and should be accessible and usable on tablet and phone screens. The mobile content should be interactive and (at the appropriate level) challenging, and learners should be able to interact with their teachers and peers too.

3) Ensure that learners are active in the creation on course content themselves. They know their own personal technologies intimately (they chose them) and don't need to be shown how to use them. They will need support though, in determining how best they can and should employ their mobile tools to discover, create, share, re-purpose and remix content.

In this way, we might see the end of tethered learning, as we move toward a more flexible, personalised, blended learning that is location agnostic.

Reference
Holt, J. (2012) The right to control one's learning. In J. W. Moravec (Ed.) Knowmad Society, Charleston, SC: Education Futures.

Photo by Steve Wheeler

Creative Commons License
At the end of our tether by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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