This post is a discussion forum for ideas related to W01 – Mobility Perspectives.
Specifically, this is a place to share your ideas about how important context is, how can educators employ it, and how might learners benefit from harnessing their own context better.
INSTRUCTIONS:
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Context is so essential to humanizing the experience of learning. Without context, a double entendre, or a inside joke, a jargon or a sly comment would lose efficacy, which can be due to a multitude of filters and factors that inhibit the contextual awareness. This could be an intercultural communication issue, lack of situational awareness, the foregoing value of wisdom, or what may have you.
Context in a digital sense is the reason why technology is shaping so quickly to include those three key factors of identity, place, and community to contextual understanding. Whether it be recognizing how male dominated the Reddit platforms can be, or how Pinterest is stereotypically for women, to the sexism in Multi-Media Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as League of Legends, to the aggressive and vulgar exchanges on Call of Duty, that learning is occuring in these diverse platforms digitally and mimic some of the social and cultural conformities that exist in real life (IRL).
Even the profundity in which the ways we communicate online are infiltrating in-person social interactions, such as these acronyms or memes that we continue to collectively interact with, will only (I hope) act as a cultural bridge for those individuals whom would not have had any opportunity without the advancements in the digital communication technologies that exist today.
Context-driven media and AI-designed teaching resources are almost essential as a supplemental form of learning for students these days. It should not be the driving force of teaching or pedagogical decisions but it opens students up for better comprehension and a shot at their literacy, critical thinking, and idea generation. It’s a tool that I use to personalize concepts, vocabulary, or to investigate images/concepts that are difficult to grasp.
Students are now so exposed to all forms of new media – I call it “mishmash media.” It can be informative, definitely creative, but confusing. For example, a simple reel/video meme on Tik Tok/Instagram uses green screens, AI-generated characters in the background, incorporation of audio, use of costumes, bring in well-known meme ideas. That’s a lot to take in and to produce just to communicate one general thought. All in 30 seconds. As an educator, I can pick apart the function of the factors listed above to create context-driven content. But that makes teaching and student engagement much more difficult. Especially, when analyzing the differences, uses, and significance of primary and secondary sources. It’s not stimulating like the context media they’re so used to. It’s slowed down. And therefore, how can we as educators re-teach stimulation and learning, and patience. Breaking things down with authentic thought and philosophical discussion before committing to the next scroll. How can we indulge student engagement in-person through supplemental adaptations of open devices?
I think that context is very important in almost any learning or education environment. Decontextualized, “just the facts” approaches to instruction just don’t ring true for most learners, and the importance of not only acknowledging, but embracing context is greater than ever. With the increased availability of mobile technology in classrooms and other educational spaces I think it is very important to leverage new abilities to understand and embrace the context of learners and educators.
I think there are 3 main components to this, in my role as an Elementary school educator. First, I need to use the digital tools at my disposal to help understand the the contexts of my learners. There are many tools that I can use to find out who they are, how their identities and culture shape them as learners, and what their needs are as individuals.. This might take the form of data gathered from their interactions with school tasks and assignments, actively soliciting feedback, or creating social spaces where they voluntarily share and provide this info.
Second, I should take this information about learner contexts to select and create meaningful experiences for them. By crafting narratives and tasks that consider the facets of each learner’s context at a particular time, I can hopefully start to do a better job of engaging them in activities and making their learning important for them. I think that part of this is also presenting observations I have made back to them, so they can tell me if I’m on track and help me shape their mobile learning experiences.
Finally, as always in education, it is critical to reflect on the successes and shortcomings of my approaches. Did I characterize student contexts accurately? Did my experience design capitalize on these contexts to help adapt my instruction to engage them more deeply? If so, why not?
A final thought is that mobile technology might help me to be more mindful of the broader context of my instruction. This could be the context of my school, the technology I have access to, or other limitations or possibilities that I might not be considering to help improve my teaching.
I originally posted this comment under the discussion about “What I think is most special about mobile education”. My answer was essentially context! By that I mean the physical context of being in the place to apply the learning. Then I came across this discussion asking “Does Context Rock!?”, so I’ve reposted my comment here:
I think what is special about mobile education is that it can bring context to learning in real time. When I apply this to myself from a life long learning perspective I can think of two examples just this weekend! First, I had some electrical work to do, which I was very uncomfortable with, so I Facetimed my dad (5000km away) who walked me through it (while my daughter held the phone). That was a great learning experience, and frankly, if my dad was here, he wouldn’t have taught me how to do it, he would have just done it. Second job this weekend is that I need to replace both toilets in my house. Hello Youtube! Of course I can have the phone right there with me to talk me through it. Not that complicated, but gives me piece of mind. I have used this Youtube for mobile learning for all sorts of home projects or fixing the car etc. The point is, it is like having a guide right there with you (mobile)! I think that is a powerful thing for both the confidence to tackle new things and to provide real-time information connections with the environment. What I mean by real time connection is that it is different than learning something in abstract and then later applying that knowledge. So how could this map on to a school based learning activity? Here is an example that comes to mind. Students are sent out around school grounds for an environmental science activity. They could be given the coordinates to a site and have a list of questions to submit via form (real time) which would force them to do the research on the ground. Take a samples of the plant life, identify them. upload the photo. Take a soil sample. Describe. etc. etc.. Report on observations. etc. The mobile technology (their phone) is like a super powerful field research assistant. This would give them the immediate environmental context to match to the new information. The class could then come back together to discuss the findings adding back in the critical in-person social element. We know that our phones are the most powerful tool we carry with us, that can make us in some ways super-human, but they can also be a super-waste of time and potentially anti-social. I think it is incumbent on educators to help students build habits to use this powerful tool in positive and productive ways as they will use it as their lifelong learning tool.
I think we see a lot of application of mobile technology towards the context of the identity of the user. Far less on the context of place and time they are in; often the contrary, as phones become a distraction from places and events we’d rather not be at. There’s something rather distressing about the excessive ability of technology to cater to the interests of individuals, removing the need for them to adapt to their context. An extreme example I saw a few years ago was a pair of individuals riding an small scooter, with both driver and passenger focusing on their own phones rather than anything around them.
Obviously there are great advantages to content and experiences adapting to individuals, but I feel that this has gone too far into the virtual realm, instead of serving as a bridge to greater experiences. In education, we hear a lot about diversification of learning to individual student needs, which I agree with, but that movement is about removing barriers, not making everything completely self-serving. Students still need to apply effort and challenging them is often valuable; the idea is to make those challenges viable. The massive tailoring of content offerings social media and other technology offers can take this away and make everything easy and agreeable.
When we see mobile apps presented, the positioning is often one of doing a task anywhere, regardless of location: checking email, ordering food, learning a language, banking. The trade off of personal desire is place based activities. There are a few exceptions to this that I’ve seen: interactive guides for museums are a natural way to enhance both real world and online content by bringing them together. A few years ago saw the introduction of Pokemon GO, a game using augmented reality that encouraged people to move around their neighborhoods to have experiences they couldn’t at home (and promptly drew criticism from non-gamers for the perceived absurdity of chasing fiction creatures in the real world).
I taught physics for the last few years, and came across a number of tools that used the sensors built into phones as lab equipment. The amount of data available on the outside world is really astounding: besides the obvious camera and microphone, most modern cell phones include GPS receivers, 3 axis gyroscopes and 3 axis accelerometers (tracking any slight movement or rotation), magnetic field sensors, barometric pressure sensors and a magnetic compass. A few decades ago, most small aircraft had fewer sensors than that. In theory you could have throw a phone in your pocket, wander throughout a complex underground mine, and use the data to reconstruct a 3d layout of your travels. All of this is standard, but seems severely underutilized.
I don’t know what kind of shift would be necessary to enlarge the context of individual to include the context of place. Curated site guides (like in museums) are both labor intensive to produce and rely on fundamentally interesting places to begin with. Connecting nearby strangers based on similar interests brings questions of privacy and safety to the forefront. Commercial applications are probably the easiest to imagine but would likely begin in a lackluster fashion (notifications about sales on things you like in a store you are walking past, or updates on houses for sale nearby). I definitely would like to see a move towards devices help people engage with where they are, not escape it at the slightest sign of boredom.
I am an academic advisor at a university, and therefore when I work with students, context is incredibly important. Each student comes from a different background, has a different story, and needs support in their own ways, even though the same information, policies, services and curricula are available to every student. My job as a support staff in the education industries always made me wonder about traditional classroom teachings. One teacher, providing the same teaching to a full room of students, with the same textbooks and contents, and it is no wonder in almost every classroom, some students excel, some receive average grades, and some struggle to understand everything.
This is where I think context is incredibly important in education in general. How do we unlock the potential of every student, not just those that thrive in traditional teaching models? With the availability of technology, and the possibility of mobile learning, I think we now have the opportunity to explore context to a whole new level in our teaching. In our technology-enhanced learning design, not only can we now increase accessibility and adaptivity of learning for students, we can build learning content relevant to the learners’ specific needs and situations. We can increase personalization based on learners’ contexts, allowing tailored content. Because of the ability of personalization, the design can now incorporate more real-life scenarios based on each learner, or each groups of learners’ needs to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are more relevant to the learners. We can also increase ways of interactions for learners based on their preferences, and motivate them to engage in more social interactions. I believe context rocks! It provides more relevant and diverse content, increasing learning outcomes.
Not only does content rock but also it is king. With the emergence of content creators everywhere people have the chance to share their story and point of view with a wider audience. Companies hire content creators to do their marketing for them. I think this shows that story telling is a huge component in our lives and the way we consume media.
With the development of technology, education is part of this media. Traditional modes of educational delivery involve static components like pen, paper, and textbooks. In this specific context, students are limited to their peers, teacher, and the materials right in front of them. Moreover, students do not have the chance to shape the narrative of textbooks as it is the writer’s job to do that and not pupils. It takes a good instructor to “lift” the content off the page and make it meaningful for the students.
I also think humans are naturally curious of what others are doing with their lives. This is partly why people love sharing and viewing stories on their Instagram pages and TikToks. I think there’s something to be learned through this medium and how we can incorporate this into instructional design. At the core of it, students should be encouraged to produce “content” related to whatever they are learning in class.
Like the identity that should always be in the plural, I want to say that the contexts are a rock band! Each individual has several contexts with each their particular, unique “musical” styles. These contexts are interactive, transforming and permeable. When I think of the mobile learning experience, I believe that its greatest quality is to be accessible to the individual who needs it or who wants it when he considers that he needs it, a bit like the DIY. In my role as a high school teacher, my goal is to create varied learning contexts for my different students (with multiple identities) and the classic classroom context does not work for the majority of learners. COVID has (fortunately) forced the digitalization of learning experiences into new contexts for many teachers. The same goes for learning in the workplace. However, the mobile aspect was completely neglected: students, or workers, had to be able to be in front of a generally fixed device in order to be able to learn online. Their mobility context has been forgotten, or the urgency of the situation has not allowed reflection in action on this subject. It is not only the future of learning that is mobile, the future of human beings is also increasingly mobile and I agree that education must adapt quickly to this paradigm shift.
There is an old saying in the real estate market, “location, location, and location”! Well, in the education field, it has always been content, content, and content. By content, I mean content of meaning, credibility, and practicality. Undoubtedly good content rocks! But what makes the content good? First, I would say good content adds value to learners. It is beyond those words that have been written or spoken. What I find intriguing is the meaning that comes out of those words, which is similar to the case when you plant a seed and nurture it with water, sunshine and fertilizers, and one day it will bloom. This also serves as a reminder that learning is a gradual process, like growing trees, it takes patience and persistence. Secondly, content comes with many formats in technology-facilitated learning. It can be hard for learners with ADHD to read an entire book, but audiobooks are a good alternative. Likewise, visually appealing content can easily grab learners’ attention. For example, video story-telling made obscure concepts more vivid and easy to grasp.
In a previous ETEC course, I explored cognitive learning and found a TED talk about engaging emotion and imagination by Gillian Judson. Judson expands on the idea that we are all ‘perfinkers.’ Dr. David Krech invented the term to describe the idea that humans don’t only think but “perceive, feel, and think at the same time. We perfink.” Stories reach our hearts and minds, and the best stories uncover a connection to ourselves. Educational designers and educators can make mobile learning meaningful and memorable for students by engaging in context through storytelling. Context does rock.
Engage Emotion, Engage Imagination: Cognitive Tools At Work | Gillian Judson | TEDxWestVancouverED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loIZyzPVgrU
Context definitely matters as it essentially dictates the quality and substance of the information being taught. As time is a valuable resource, especially in the lens of mobile learning, it’s important to create quality content that is precise and to point where learners can grasp the context without needing to second guess or become confused by it. Not only does context rock, it’s also the king as individuals need to have a reason to relate, motivate or simply find interest to what they’re learning. If they deem the context to be irrelevant or poorly constructed, chances are it will negatively impact the overall experience. With that being said, context needs to be tailor made for each learner while ensuring that it fulfils the objectives and needs of a particular group. If learners feel excited, interested and intrigued by the context, chances they will want to read more. As information can take the form of different mediums, context also needs to be fluid enough (eg: doesn’t need to be only text, context can include images, sounds, VR/AR experiences, AI etc) to appeal to learners.
I believe this point to be really important, becuase contextualizing information, meaning, and learning are what gives education longevity in the minds of students. Not only do we need to make school a positive context for learning, but we need to contextualize that learning in meaningful ways. Timing our lessons with current events, with what the students are experiencing can allow understanding and application to surpass memorization. I particularly appreciate how you connect this to reading. If the context becomes learning to enjoy reading, rather than the content of what is read, students are more likely, in my opinion, to become lifelong readers. In this way, we also need to think of modern context for information. People are used to absorbing information in short bursts, rather than long drawn out consumption or readings, and I belive we should adapt our teaching strategies accordingly.
Context is important because it makes content relatable and relevant. I think context-rich content in social media is a predominantly result of three things: a huge number of personal smartphones, like/share/follow buttons, and data. I think educators can learn an important lesson from social media/participatory culture. If people are given the freedom, tools, and a strong enough incentive to create, many will do it.
In the way that technology must be context specific, the context will also feed into the choice of how to use technology. In this way, as the ‘Mobility Perspectives’ outlines, context should include the “who, what, when, where, why”, of it all (i.e. having the identity, community, place and purpose aligned with the individual learning needs). So to answer the question at hand: Context does rock!
In my own professional experience, we have used context specific approaches to bring awareness to social issues like disability inclusive education. As a concrete example, we have created a narrative video outlining the life of a fictional student with a physical disability to give participants of our course an idea of the issues encountered by differently-abled individuals. This story was then tailored specifically to the country contexts of the participants of the different cohorts of this course to encourage even more critical thinking.
In this way, I believe “context rocks” in that it is the ‘human’ basis of learning, the intrinsic motivating factor of learning. Learning often does depend on how we connect to each other on a human level.
On the other side of this same coin, I find that, more and more, technologies are adaptive to context. It will be interesting in this course (and beyond) to continue to reflect on the use of such adaptive technologies and how they can feed into this intrinsically motivating basis for learning.
This is likely a bit off topic, but I wanted a space to reflect on one of my queries from this week’s reading, and as I didn’t see a discussion topic that naturally fit, I thought that context could perhaps present such a space, as in way it is context that I am thinking on here – specifically the context of mobile learning and open learning.
To me when I think of mobile learning, I think of the learning that is accessible in a mobile format, which these days we’d typically think of through a mobile device.
On the other hand, when I think of open learning, I think of open access, open education, open culture … the notion of sharing learning content in a way that others can freely access and can remix, adapt, and share. Tied to this I think about Creative Commons and Traditional Knowledge Licenses.
Now maybe I am missing something here or missing the context in which either mobile learning and / or open learning is being used, but I don’t understand how mobile learning can totally consume open learning as they are not the same thing. Yes, they can exist in the same space and some open learning can also be mobile learning, just as some mobile learning can be open learning, but they can also exist separately. Open learning for example can occur in real world teaching contexts. The notion of open learning and sharing and remixing teaching ideas for example is the values in which Interpretation Canada is founded upon, and this has been the case long before the term ‘open learning’ was founded. In fact, this notion of sharing, remixing and repurposing learning materials is how many educators have operated long before open learning was termed. One just needs to look to books like Sharing the Joy of Nature and Rediscovery to see examples of that. And not all mobile learning is open. Some has paywalls for example. I’d also suggest that while mobile learning is connected to technology, open learning is not, making it the more timeless of the two.
For me, “Context” is being able to have a real time learning experience that is personalized based on your interests, place and purpose. Or at least, this is what interests me in this topic.
Now that many of us have had half a year or more of “Distributed Learning”, can we imagine taking this further by asking, “what if we could remove education from the barriers of what is, and have students find the others, locally or globally, to have a shared learning experience, in real time, out in the real world?”
I don’t know the video game world per se, but maybe a cross between pokemon go and education/Distributed Learning?
Ed tech cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. It is critical that we consider many factors including students age, the desired outcome of the lesson/activity, access, etc. When I took on teaching online grade 1 due to covid this year, I had to figure out how to deliver remote learning to 30 five and six year olds who do not know how to read or write. My district provided us with an outline of expectations and what a day should look like, however, it was presented in the context of older learners who can already effectively use technology and sit for a long period of time. I had to adapt it to fit the context in which I would be teaching. We are doing online learning and using simple technology that they are able to independently use after seeing it done a few times and it stays consistent every week in order for them to become proficient at one or two different technologies instead of confused by new things each week. Another consideration for the context in which I am in is that my students have not learned to write yet. How can I justify following a fully digital program when that is not what my students need? Taking my students age and needs into consideration I was able to adapt online learning to include pencil and paper work where they take a photo and send it to me, shorter lessons with lots of movement incorporated and having them master a few simple online tools.
As a Tech. Ed. (shop teacher) at the high school level, putting all the projects, tools and processes in context for my students is very important. I realize a small amount of my students will enter into the world of trades after high school, but I stress the basis of all the skills in class are transferable to their current and future lives. When teaching auto, I’m always speaking of how “this” is important because you can look for it when buying a used vehicle in the future. Or while teaching metalworking that you may need a hack saw in a couple years when you lock your bike up but lose the key. When students are prepping their woodworking project for a finish I also express how the same technique can be used to refinish the old wooden handrails for stairs in the first house you buy. Otherwise, I can be seen as this old school individual working in a shop with ancient machinery and time as past me by. Now, incorporating mobile media towards context for students in my course is something I need to work on. I use it sometimes for inspiration. For example, having students look up building/tooling processes towards completing a personal project. But outside of this, this is definitely an area I can work on.
Hi Michael! I do the same as a Foods teacher – I stress how they will use this hands on knowledge and experience for the rest of their lives. I’m always having students use their phones to find inspiration for modifications to recipes, but also to complete their inquiry projects and complete online reflections. I think the Applied Skills courses like ours are a great place to really embrace mobile technology.
Meg.
Hello, I also agree with your comments! As an informal educator in elementary science, context is the best way to bring home a concept. One of the best ways I found was to show a quick video of how something works, and then have the kids model it with more simplified equipment.
I completely agree that “context rocks!”, and have experienced its importance time and time again as a teacher. I currently work in an elementary school, with indigenous students who live on a reserve, and we are constantly striving to make the context of student learning connect better with our learners. When they can see that content is relevant to their own experiences and values, student engagement and learning are improved. In this particular situation, the statement “Traditional stories and media don’t care about me.” does not completely ring true, as the traditional stories of indigenous peoples are woven into their own contexts from a very young age. Connecting such stories to new learning is a helpful tool in making learning meaningful. But connecting with traditional stories must be done in a way that incorporates the modern context of the students’ lives, to bring relevance to that content.
Students need to be met in their own context for optimal learning. If it is possible for mobile media to be used to create individualized learning contexts, then this is ideal. As a teacher I encourage my students regularly to share connections to their own experiences during their learning. The level of student engagement when such connections are being recognized is noticeably elevated. Context certainly is key to optimal learning for students at all levels.
Hi Wendy!
I couldn’t agree more! Context is key, but also is the ability to relate current context to traditional stories and ancestral knowledge. It is so true that students need to be met in their own context, but this year I have focused on reminding students that they need to look for connections in their courses to their life and interests. I remind them often that to be engaged in their learning, they need to find even one little piece that they can relate to their life. That’s the beauty of teaching high school students – the onus can be placed on them to make the connections.
I totally agree with everybody that context DOES rock.
When I was a student, I have never enjoyed taking history class, because it was all about memorizing details that are irrelevant to how I see the world as it is now. Recently, I signed up and paid for a global history course (planned and organized by history scholars from Fu Dan University) on an online learning platform hosted by a prestigious magazine. However, that was not the main reason I chose that course. The main reason was the context. I was attracted by a few lines on their poster.
“Chinese people really like chilli, but do you know where did it come from?”
“Where did ancient Chinese people come from?”
“Why do the northerners like noodles while the southerners prefer having rice?”
I was triggered by all these questions. Working in an international school makes me realize that I need to know more about the connection between China and the world. What happened in the past around the world that is still affecting China until today. It is the first course that I encountered that try to link the history of the world to China, which is something I always want to know.
Something I want to point out is that we need to guide the students through the process of knowing and selecting the right context for them. I got questions like “It’s not that I don’t want to study, I just don’t know where to begin.” or “I did some research about that, but I couldn’t find what I wanted.” If we want the students to take the initiative to control their own study, we should nurture them to find the content and context they want and need.
David’s statement that “traditional stories and media don’t care about me” has given me a lot of inspiration.
My smartphone cares about me through responding to many of my social motivations. It is a documenting tool, which allows me to take photos, record videos or audios readily. It is also a production and communication tool. I could use it to produce artifacts such as a collage to post on Instagram, or a short video to share with my mom on Mother’s Day. My mobile narratives definitely reflect my daily existence and the identity I intend to form. However, behind all these contexts are algorithms that cause concern for many.
I’m a language teacher, so context does rock in my situation. I use a lot of realia and emphasize the crucial role of prior knowledge and context in knowledge construction. I believe that mobile media can help shift the decontextualized didactic teacher-centred classroom to a contextualized participatory student-centred one.
Hi Ceci, I like what you mentioned about how the narrative reflect your existence and shape the identity you’d like to form. I feel we can all create the image of how we would like to be with social narratives while context is the more realistic view of where we are at now. Can we go further and suggest that using the backward design model, we first use social narratives to set the end goal while using context to evaluate the steps we need to accomplish before reaching our goals?
Context is an integral part of learning and communication and without recognizing its importance; we could be dealing with only the tip of the iceberg when trying to teach and learn. In my own advising experience, students start to lose interests if I only provide general information without considering their unique circumstances. That is why it is important to put in the effort to get to know the students and understand their needs and goals first to provide more relevant information to them.
My work includes providing guidance to students who are at the risk of being required to withdraw from the university so often the question students are interested in asking is “What GPA booster courses can you recommend me?” upon our meeting. Obviously GPA booster is just a myth and it all depends on students’ strengths and interests. As an advisor, I always feel the urge to say something about not to take shortcut but at the same time, considering their current context, it does make sense for them to ask such question. The fact students are on probation and at the risk of leaving school is just the tip of the iceberg so GPA booster courses will only provide (if students actually able to do well) temporary solution to the bigger issues. Therefore, it is important to look into what factors might contribute to the current situation. For some students, it could be poor choice of courses/program and for others, it could be things happening in their lives now that interfere with their studies. It becomes a more effective advising session when students and I are able to contextualize the issue.
Context provides motivation to students when they feel they can apply the learned content to their personal lives. For instance, in ETEC 520 Planning and Managing Technologies in Higher Education, I was able to apply and engage in conversation about my work experience in higher education. The pure excitement of applicable knowledge pushes me to seek outside reading for my personal learning too. Nevertheless, learners have to take an active role to contextualize their learning in order to utilize the flexibility online learning has to offer.
Acknowledging context helps illuminate some of the frictions within teaching and learning — nothing is one-size-fits-all, but oftentimes this is how content and technologies are delivered.
Many assignments or exam, for example, are not necessarily designed with accessibility in mind — they are simply “made more accessible” if the need arises.
I imagine that it must be a very difficult decision for a university to choose which LMS they would like to invest in (as UBC did a few years ago in transitioning from Connect to Canvas). On paper, every “institution-tier” LMS out there must be fairly similar in features and capabilities. But how are these decisions made — should they be based on what would be most beneficial (or probably better in words, least harmful) for all, or should it revolve around faculties / groups which will use it the most and therefore their needs specifically? How about other factors like cost, contracts, integrations with existing services?
Students (and most instructors) don’t have too much say in what systems or tools they’re offered. This is why I think one key is to be aware and proactive when it comes to context — understanding strengths and weaknesses, seeking solutions, maximizing resources / experience / knowledge.
Mirroring many statements already shared – context is paramount, in nearly all applications.
I wanted to share some anecdotes that have stuck with me and continually shape my viewpoint on context:
“Everything is relative” – physics
“Research is not conducted within a vacuum” – research
“Good artists copy; great artists steal” – art (Picasso)
In education, I believe context is a two-pronged problem:
1. understanding the student and meeting them where they are (a student-centred approach), and
2. strive for the learning content, classroom and activities relate, resemble or take place in the real-world.
I agree with the two problems you talk about in relation to context.
I think all teachers can agree our expectations of a new class draw upon our previous experiences but are often thrown away when we meet our new students, environment, families etc. When I enter into a school year I’ve always thought of how I think it will look or be and it is never the way I think.
Every child (as you said) needs to be met where they are. The context of their learning will be unlike anyone else in the class at any given time. Their strengths and weaknesses are also different. The ability to apply a one size fits all to education as we have learned is impossible. With technology in Primary I find it can increase the gap between different learners if not used in the right context. The exisiting knowledge a student has with technology these days is growing so rapidly that I find it hard to keep up with! The things a seven year old knows how to do now versus when I was seven is truly incredible. The idea of memorising facts, words, definitions seems to be ‘out of context’ now in our world. I believe we are trying to navigate forward by producing these real like engaging activities you speak of that are more about problem solving in the given context than simply remembering content.
Education is forever changing!
I believe context is (almost) everything; context gives content meaning and relevance. From personal experience, being a student in Tanzania vs. India vs. Canada was all VERY different. In Tanzania, the classroom was teacher-led, but there was a lot of outdoorsy experience and place-based, culture-based, collaborative learning happening. In India, it was strictly teacher-led and very prescriptive; instructions were not to be challenged, there wasn’t much room for collaboration in class, and learning was completely content-focused. Meanwhile in Canada, learning is more student-focused and learners are more independent. Coming to university here right after high school in India was a complete 180-degree change and a huge “culture shock”.
Now, the integration of technology into these contexts would be varied experiences also. My school in Tanzania although accepting of tech in the classroom, would suffer from lack of infrastructure to support it completely. Constant power loss, flooding, and lack of accessibility would undermine the value of technology entirely. Mobile technology in this context would be marginally successful as it is highly likely that most people would now own a mobile device – whether they have data plans is a whole other question though. One of the after school community-engagement activities we did was to go into rural areas and help build homes and schools, as well as work on farms, while teaching the locals how to communicate in English. Swahili was the main language of communication, and I can just imagine how useful mobile technologies would be in that scenario. They can listen to educational podcasts while farming, watch YouTube videos, use translation tools, and also make educational videos and podcasts of their own to showcase their expertise in local farming, culinary, and other handiwork skills!
My school in India, which was a more affluent international boarding school, had very strict no tech in class policies, there was no WiFi and internet access was only available in the library with all social media and personal email account websites blocked. I have a very, very hard time imagining mobile technology being integrated into this system anytime soon. I do wonder how they are coping with remote learning during this time. I came to Canada as a university student in 2008, and technological integration was a hit or miss. Clickers were very popular, and some lab courses required special software. As a teacher in a public school system, technology has not been abundantly available to me, but in recent months, before the pandemic, we were exploring various tech and opening the doors to more integration. We now have both Google Suite and Office 365 at our disposal. I have used Kahoot!, Padlet, and other similar websites and simulations, I use a lot of digital sensors and probeware for digital data collection during labs, for collaborative projects, students rely on Google Docs or Sheets or Slides, I provide feedback on lab reports and these projects digitally as well. I had been using OneNote for lecture notes before the pandemic already, so transitioning to remote learning has not been a hassle technologically. However, were I still in either of the two other contexts mentioned, this would not be quite so simple.
The ability to personalize learning, or differentiate learning to various needs or contexts, is a significant revolution in education. When students feel that the education they are receiving is relevant to them, in fact specifically tailored to their needs and abilities, they will be more invested in it (See: http://learningstorm.org/about/whats-different-about-psii/). The consequences can be far-reaching. Mobile education can provide that just-in-time solution to a problem – for example a kid who never took calculus but who now needs it, would be able to learn it at will and convenience. However, what about those who do not know what they want to do or what they want to learn? Will adaptive, context-based technology be able to predict their interests and ideal profession based on their context, their choices, their background, etc? Who is making the choices/decisions then – a person or AI?
You had me at “I believe context is (almost) everything”. Just yesterday I was having a discussion with a student about a passage in a short story we’re reading for class during which the father of the family sort of “puts his foot down” and says with certainty, we’re staying here! And it mentions that he did this despite the tears of his wife and the fear of his children. So the student I was speaking with said more or less that the father was uncaring and kind of an asshole. Which might be true of a western family in North America in 2020. But this particular story centres around an Afghani family in around 1980. So it wouldn’t be right to judge the 1980 Afghani father by the same standards as a father in Vancouver 40 years later. The same issue arrises for me when I read articles about how Friends or Seinfeld are “problematic” when viewed through today’s lens. But they’re 25-30 years old – of course they are! They’re speaking to an entirely different generation!
Anyhow, I’m into context.
And THEN you said, “The ability to personalize learning, or differentiate learning to various needs or contexts, is a significant revolution in education. When students feel that the education they are receiving is relevant to them, in fact specifically tailored to their needs and abilities, they will be more invested in it.” And I totally agree. And furthermore I appreciate that your thesis was that they’ll be more invested in it. Research has suggested that learning style preference has little effect on outcomes, but I’d posit – as you did – that students’ interest in the material will differ greatly according to the manner of delivery. So to me it comes down to intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. And I’d suggest that the famous outcomes measured in the research show a lightning flash of time. If students are invested in the material – as can be affected by method of delivery – it’s far more likely that whatever they’re producing is going to stick with them. And it’s a great big fat win when that happens.
Hi Tyler,
I agree with your comment that “If students are invested in the material – as can be affected by method of delivery – it’s far more likely that whatever they’re producing is going to stick with them”. I’ve recently been reading a book called Instructional Story Design, and the author, Rance Green, discusses how when creating job training for adults, providing activities that only include outcomes is useless. Scenario-based learning, or the ability to create a story where the learner is emotionally invested in the outcome, is more effective and can have more ‘sticking’ power. Although this example is based on workplace learning, I think that the message, that we can use stories that speak to the context of our learners to motivate, is valuable. The question that arises from this, is how do we create scenarios in diverse classrooms? I am sure that this would require a deep understanding of our students and how they see both themselves and their experiences.
Jen
Greene, R. (2020). Instructional story design: Develop stories that train. Alexandria, VA, USA: ATD Press.
[Originally posted by Kathy F. in September 2019]
Contents without context are meaningless and cannot be effective. In my view, it is like a nicely written script or drama without knowing audiences’ aptitude or behavior toward specific topics. No matter how modern mobile devices or latest technology we have, no matter how nicely developed online text pages we have, if it fails to disrupt learners’ thoughts or fails to create knowledge; it is useless. I want to say yes, context rocks! Though I do not have years of designing online courses or writing contents, I never support merely creating digital content (or website). I do agree with the line “Context-aware media can take adaptation to a much deeper level of personal engagement” (Week 1: Mobility Perspective) but I am still struggling to completely understand “context-aware media”. Does it relate to adaptive hypermedia (AH)? Technology based educational designs cannot be context-aware and truly effective unless, according to Usha Gosawami(2008), “biological, sensory and neurological influences on learning must become equal partners with social, emotional and cultural influences, if we are to have a truly effective discipline of education”.
[Originally posted by Wade Lee in September 2019]
Context is not only related to mobile technologies, but is key to successful understanding of the world around us. In my Physics courses, I seek to give a real-world context to all of the content that I teach. Having an understanding of the principles of heat transfer is important to understanding electricity as well. Both of these concepts are key to understanding that when your breaker switch blows, you don’t replace it with a higher amperage breaker. Rather, you adjust the items plugged into the socket. Replacing the breaker only builds up more heat in the breaker box and heightens the possibility of fire.
Context-aware media has been present for a few years, and allows others to target experiences to me based on my browsing habits or my location. These applications could easily be extended to education by targeting content to consumers based on their previously studies content. As well, by incorporating assessment tools into the content, a context-aware application could know if the consumer was having difficulty with a piece of content and direct them to other sources of similar content.
So, yes, “Context Rocks?” as it can provide a tailored and richer experience to the content consumer.
[Originally posted by Christopher Clarke in September 2019]
Not only does context rock, but context is also king. I’m sure we’ve all heard at one point or another, “why do we have to learn this?” or “when are we ever going to need to know this?” Engagement has been proven to be important to the learning process. One easy way to do create engagement is to personally connect students to the topics being taught. If they feel something will directly impact them, they are more likely to pay attention. A big focus at one of my schools this year is place-based education. This is the idea that students are immersed in local history, geography, cultures and experiences while still developing the classical core subjects. Mobile learning can immediately tie experiences and encounters, such as discovering local flora in the community, to larger ideas of invasive species while students are out of the classroom. The act of discovery and exploration can allow students to pursue their own learning path based on how their devices allow them to connect the content to their personal contexts.
My views somewhat of an extension to Christopher Clarke’s observations in 2019.
When considering “How can learners harness their own context better?” I immediately thought of the role mobile and open learning has in learner-centric education. A quality UX has the potential to allow students to engage in an educational or training framework by bringing their uniqueness to the process; whether that is place-based, as Clarke references above, or personal values, or personal experience. Such models could allow learners to connect people and experiences to their learning experience from outside the learning environment. For instance, tapping into the expertise of a family friend or relative while exploring a topic in school would extend learning beyond the classroom.
Working in ECE, knowing a child’s context is incredibly important. The age group I work with is still highly self-centric so learning experiences are always best when they engage the whole child. Being able to connect home life to school life, such as bringing visuals and audio from a trip or cultural event into the classroom, always results in deeper learning moments than if a teacher were to describe such experiences without such context. Mobile educational technology allows teachers to bring this added context to learning moments, both planned and spontaneous.
[Originally posted by Jennifer L. in September 2019]
In my personal life, I have been resistant to “context rocks!” because context-aware social media makes me extremely wary (it’s the old paranoia–is my machine watching my every move? What do they want?). Where possible, I turn off location settings or check the minimum amount needed for accepting cookie requirements. Yet, context-awareness still prevails: my Youtube suggestions, the Twitter trends, Facebook ads, the Explore page on my Instagram…all reflect the content I’ve been browsing with the intention of advertising to me, trying to get me to spend my money on them.
But in education, context is extremely important and I’m totally for it. I think that is why we moved away from the content-focused PLOs in our previous BC curriculum, towards competency-based learning, where students can still learn but the context can be tailored to the students we are teaching. Learning can no longer be identical experiences for everyone; clothing cannot be a one-size fits all, and with the increasing use of adaptive learning programs, it only makes sense that our teaching strategies reflect that. Personally, the subject area I find challenging to teach from a context-rocks! perspective is Math and relying on that one textbook. It’s not to say that teachers using textbooks are not context-aware because teachers have been adapting all the time and use different math programs when needed. This year I have started using applications in my math class that utilize adaptive learning technologies to provide extra support in addition to using the textbook. I will then use the generated reports to place students in specific math groups or alter lessons. Context rocks, and definitely makes learning more relevant and meaningful.
I have a complicated feeling about the changes in the BC curriculum.
Yes, moving towards competency-based learning empower the teachers and students to trailer what to learn and how to learn them. But when I meet with students come back from universities around Canada, almost everyone (science/engineering and business students) of them would tell me that professors always expect they should have known something (e.g., advanced mathematics in the first course). Then the students would complain why didn’t the high school teach them more.
To me, I think this is a big dilemma. How can we handle this transition better?
[Originally posted by Aimee Chung in September 2019]
Being an educator has been a livelong learning journey for me, as I continue to build upon my courses, my in-class delivery, my handouts/resources and my marking rubrics/evaluation. One thing that I feel has made it easier for me has been to design classes around they type of students whom I’m teaching (while still keeping in perspective the course goals), and not just design a technical course and expect that it’ll work with all types of students, regardless of demographics, socio-economic status, culture, etc. I learnt early in my teaching career while being contracted out by a few different post-secondary schools, that the type of students they each attract are different, and I quickly found myself needing to re-purpose my handouts in particular to fit the context of the particular program of that particular school, but also to better cater and explain things to students. Some groups of students were better prepared technologically than others and therefore, I was able to jump ahead and generally cover more sophisticated content right away. In other programs, I was getting students coming in with almost no computer skills and typing skills and yet they had signed up to do web coding and web design. I’ve learnt that context is very relevant to how students learn in my classes, and I try to encourage the students early on to share with me their backgrounds, learning styles, expectations, and interests, all with the goal of adjusting what I teach to them with greater context. When the students see things that make sense and relate to what they know, they can learn better and the growth is much quicker. I work with my colleagues to bring an industry relevance to the in-class work that we have the students do, so that many of their assignments can become portfolio pieces and in turn can be used to help them find work. It is very rewarding to create course(s) that have direct this relevance and context to what they would be doing when they graduate from the 2 year digital technology program that I teach in.
On a quick end note, I felt that the statement within Context Rocks that said “traditional stories and media don’t care about me” rang quite true about what I had to go through in school to learn. It was like all the students needed to conform to what was expected traditionally on how to learn, even if the material and format was very dry (overheads, chalkboards, whiteboards, heavy textbooks, not a lot of powerpoint). It was a difficult time to learn and if you couldn’t conform to those expectations, you wouldn’t do well. Now, that has all changed, and learning has become so much more accessible, open and more context and content driven. It’s a great era to learn at this time!