This post is a discussion forum for ideas related to W01 – Mobility Perspectives.
Specifically, this is a place to share your ideas about the potential of mobile technologies serving to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture.
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Can mobile technologies serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture?
I find this question fascinating. It honestly keeps me up at night. I think that mobile technologies have the ability to help reinvigorate learning’s connection with culture, however I am much more doubtful in its power to reinvigorate connection with community.
Culture : Indigenous communities have been struggling to keep their culture and language alive since the devastating effects of colonialism. Mobile technologies through sharing platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitter allow Indigenous communities to share and educate their rich culture as well as language. I encourage my students to follow Indigenous content creators so that they can learn from Indigenous people about Indigenous culture and languages, instead of learning it in a classroom. I am optimistic that some cultures will be reinvigorated through the power of sharing within mobile technologies.
Community : Here, I am more doubtful. As of this year, I have removed all mobile technologies from my classroom. Since the pandemic, I have noticed a large shift in the younger generation in their inability to connect with others. After removing mobile technologies from my classroom, a sense of connection and community has returned and I have witnessed students talking to one another, collaborating and creating a beautiful classroom community. While yes, I do agree that people can create online communities, I worry that by creating online communities or connecting solely through mobile technologies, it is removing our ability as a society to connect in person with other people. Witnessing the last few years of high school students, I realize that human, face-to-face connection is a skill and it needs to be taught, cherished and encouraged.
The potential of mobile technologies to facilitate and reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture seems vast and transformational. One example is having community members and professionals connect virtually in a classroom. I remember having a cybersecurity specialist from another city connect to my class and discuss a bit of the Stuxnet virus. Without the advent of mobile devices, these possibilities would be a lot more complex and challenging to achieve.
In addition, the ability for people to self-publish strongly encourages discussion in the community. Many people will comment and share feedback on information that people post. This democratization of learning has also allowed learners to participate in learning, discussion, and debate. The use of mobile devices has made it easier and faster to participate in these activities.
The social idea pertaining to mobile learning and education, is truly hindering children’s education. Students are extremely focused on the social aspect of mobile devices. Whether it be TikTok, Instagram, SnapChat, or even games with their friends. I wish students could separate the social aspect of their devices from how they can use it for educational purposes. In my classes, students can not go 10 minutes without checking their notifications and responding to their 50 friends on Snap (I wish I was joking). What are some solutions you have implemented in the classroom? How can we shift this need for irrelevant social interaction and make it a place where students learn something through mobile social interaction?
Thanks!
Jasmine (Jazz)
Hi Jazz,
Couldn’t agree more. I am currently reading a book about this very topic and its negative effect on children’s mental health: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Heidt. There is a website to go with the book that references the research around it. https://www.anxiousgeneration.com
Having said that, other than “social media” I think there are other ways to use mobile technology to connect learning to community, society and culture. Age appropriately of course. Devon’s post below (May 15th) sites a couple of good examples, maps, language apps etc.
This post looks at mobile technologies to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture in the context of First Nations.
As recently as 2018, I was developing and distributing DVDs of cultural and language videos depicting educational events, activities, and opportunities to First Nations communities.
These DVDs were a means of disseminating information to schools and sharing what other communities have been implementing to strengthen First Nations culture in education. While spotty internet access and minimal bandwidth availabilitywere common in many communities and schools, we were delivering this information the old-fashioned way, on DVDs delivered by post.
A shift in the affordability of personal mobile devices and the availability of cellular data (often more readily available than wifi or ethernet due to bandwidth limits) was the initial change to decentralized sharing and co-authoring opportunities for cultural teachings. As many First Nations and Indigenous peoples have experienced historically and continuing
today, disconnection from their culture, language and means to self-determination because of colonial forces, this shift in access and availability to mobile technology and dissemination has been profound. You are no longer required to rely on an outside 3rd party to produce video, audio, podcast, etc., to share your story, when this particular software and equipment is bundled inside your pocket. Communication and dissemination channels such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are a click away, connecting the broader community to gather and share, i.e. #nativeTikTok. While desktop hardware is generally readily available, mobile devices are often a more accessible way to produce content and share culturally relevant content, generating cultural pride and self-identity.
Hello Nicole,
It is interesting to see the transformational effect that mobile devices have on education, especially in rural and developing countries. Last semester, It was thought-provoking to see the digital divide’s impacts across Canada and how it affects First Nation and Indigenous communities. It is essential for communities to keep telling their stories when the influence of social media has such a profound impact.
I remember when in China, mobile devices were being substituted for computers. Many people didn’t even own a computer and relied on their mobile devices for a connection to their culture, community, and society. This shift wasn’t exclusive to there. I see a growing shift to mobile devices globally.
I think mobile technology can have a positive impact on social interactions. But I also think this is still growing, and the impacts are going to come from unexpected avenues.
I admit to never having been a big fan of “social media.” Despite the name, I think it creates conversations and relationships increasingly different from those we would have in real life. Communication is more direct, often blunt, and disagreements can become heated and vicious to a degree that wouldn’t be common in face to face situations, especially if you have some relationship with the person you are arguing with outside the conversation. Online relationships can be based on very one dimensional aspects of a person’s life and lack the depth of understanding that is going to come from knowing someone in real life. Which is not to say that these interactions are valueless; focused discussions and the ability to represent yourself separate from your real world background can be both enlightening and cathartic, and certainly not all relationships online remain superficial. But I think in general, real life friends > online friends will remain true for the conceivable future.
However, there are going to be other ways that mobile technology can create social interactions and relationships. As an example, I’ve spent years living in China, and I had no knowledge of Mandarin when I arrived. Most of my learning and practice of the language was done on my phone; apps were simple and convenient to fit in regular practice, even when I was also taking lessons. Online maps, ride hailing programs and translating software let me move around comfortably without a guide, and let me move beyond tourist hot spots. With a basic level of the language, I could have basic conversations with people, and if I needed to communicate something important (or just move the conversation to a more philosophical level) dictionary and translation apps could help when my language abilities tapped out. This let me experience things and make friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise.
One of the themes that seems to repeat with new technical waves is that the initial burst of activity is an attempt to mirror earlier technology in a more streamlined way, with the truly innovative movements coming later. Initially personal computers were used as typewriters, early internet communications focused on email, social media on informal conversations. I think mobile is in the same situation; we can think of it as a more convenient and portable version of other technology, but that’s not what will be transformative about it.
I believe that mobile technologies can reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture. School Social media pages have become a great way to connect current students, alums, staff, and community members. Information that would usually not leave the boundary of the walls, such as sporting events and fundraisers, can now draw the attraction of an entire community. The appropriate use of technology also allows classrooms to transform from being in a specific physical location and time into a group of learners that can always be connected.
Through my teaching experience last year, I found that students were eager to engage in lessons through teams if class time was missed. Their peers in the class would send them updates and reply to questions, allowing the absent student to be a part of the learning process.
At the same time, this can be done poorly. If the mobile technology that is used to create this sense of community is too complicated to use, then students often tend to withdraw themselves from participating. This is also true if only a small population participates in the activities.
From my perspective, mobile technologies can serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with the community, society, and culture. Most traditional teaching practices and learning environments are based on an instructional approach, which seems simpler and more straightforward. The main purpose is to improve student’s learning through a relatively fixed set of practices. Thus, the educational contents were designed in a simple ends-means way, in which the goals designed by teachers can be met at the end. However, this approach limits students from exploring broader information outside the traditional realm of subjects. With mobile technologies, people can explore more and form stronger community/social/cultural connections with others, especially when face-to-face interactions are restricted due to particular places or periods.
During the past two years, many international first-year students couldn’t come to school physically due to the pandemic. Therefore, my company held school tours for them by showing the campus through Zoom in real time. I could not tell you how happy they were when they could see the campus through the camera lens. Even though they weren’t physically on campus, this visual school tour meant a lot to them during this pandemic. I believe this activity could be accomplished better with the help of virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. These all happened only because of mobile technologies, which is why I believe there is great potential for mobile devices to reinvigorate student connections.
I am aware of the asocial effects that have been brought by technologies, especially when Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analysis come into play, the social gap becomes wider than ever before. Those precisely marketed content will show up in your notifications and gradually change your perspectives. Researchers have also openly expressed that AI has facilitated polarized beliefs and behaviours. Is this one of the results that we wish to see? Or is it the real intention when web designers created the online community? I hope the answer to these questions is no, we need to be aware of the incremental changes that technology brings. I read from previous discussions that technology is a double-edged sword. Yes, it can be indeed, but you as the soldier can decide which side of the sword to use.
Sadly, I am not an anthropologist or a historian who can decipher the ancient manuscript that records the lives of our ancestors. Our ancestors may adore or dislike the fast-paced 21-century lifestyle. However I am inclined to believe that technologies have made the impossible to be possible in many ways, for example, education is now accessible to the majority of regions and countries in this world, except for those less-disadvantaged areas that still struggle with hunger, clean water, and electricity. Whereas dates back to Medieval Ages, education is not what it looks like today. Through generations of inheritance, cultures, social structures, as well as education systems have changed from this generation to another. 50 years later, when our offsprings look back on our lives, they may also have a lot of whys.
While I can see – and even believe in – the potential for mobile and open technology to enhance a sense of community in its participants, there is going to be a great deal of resistance to this. To support this, I have two anecdotes.
A story that shows the potential of mobile technologies fostering a sense of community occurred during the first full school year during the pandemic. I was teaching a fully online course to students from multiple high schools in the city so they had no prior connection with each other. I set up a discussion board for peer-to-peer communication of physics topics with the idea that they would communicate about topics that were challenging to each other. I was pleasantly surprised that many meaningful discussions took place in this environment and more students communicated with unfamiliar students than in a traditional classroom (unless I ‘force’ students to talk outside of their peer groups they generally do not do this). These conversations – with the students who frequented the discussion board the most – eventually morphed into conversation about physics AND extracurricular topics, essentially building a community within people that have never actually met in-person.
Contrary to this, however, are multiple conversations I have had with my neighbour who is an accountant who works in an office. His work now allows him to have a modified work-from-home schedule. I asked him if he would advocate for a full-time work-from-home scenario and he was against the idea of this. He had two arguments: one being that if an employee wants a promotion, they need to be in the office regularly (is this a new form of workplace discrimination potentially?) and the other is that he likes the “connection” of being in the office (he does not believe that he gets meaningful social interactions while online). There is going to be many people who are opposed to completely shifting to an online world due to this perceived ‘downgrade’ to community building.
I wonder what factors impact this. Perhaps age? I wonder if older people, who are less accustomed to and comfortable with socializing online, have more of a pessimistic outlook on community building in an online setting.
Personally I view it as a double edged sword. It’s undeniable that mobile technology is heavily connected to social media, with a large population of users identifying themselves as active or occasional users of social media. In a sense, mobile learning can be viewed as a window to help us understand and stay connected to the social narrative while immersing an individual into the ebb and flow of a particular place through the use of apps. For example, a user who has just moved to a new city/country might rely on mobile technology to navigate the social environment due to unfamiliarity with the culture, languages/dialect or local practices. This point would remain valid even if the scope was reduced to the individual. Most people tend to rely on mobile technology to organize themselves (such as calendars, contacts, instant messaging, delivery services, health apps etc) where if these were to suddenly disappear, chances are it might result in social disarray due to how reliant most people are. If used positively, social narratives can be shared and learnt which (hopefully) will result in a more diverse, multicultural, tolerant and open minded community. On the flipside, if used with mala fide or ill intentions, the social narrative could equally be altered into one that results in conflict, driven by rumors/gossip/false information with other users. I think the biggest challenge is asking how users can create positive communities within the mobile space and how we can use social narratives to (i) connect with each other, (ii) advance knowledge interflow and (iii) promotion of inclusive values.
I agree with you so much. There are always pros and cons to this permanent connection to social media, but the most important challenge is indeed to create these positive communities based on respect for diversity, on communication without value judgment. Should we have a “police” of respect on social media or can we trust the good judgment of individuals? Unfortunately, with the current debates in the news, particularly on the right to abortion, human stupidity is even more visible. On the other hand, the mobilization is also more global, fortunately. I think education has always been the key to success for a more open and respectful mentality. By being more and more accessible through its mobility, I dare to hope that tolerance will become the norm on a global scale and not the exception.
I was reading through other cohorts and came across one from Mel Drake about the concept of “mobile learning environments that exist in informal spaces” such as content curation when we join “groups” to learn more about a particular topic. What really struck me about mobile technologies serving to reinvigorate learning connection was a TED talk in 2006. https://www.ted.com/talks/iqbal_quadir_how_mobile_phones_can_fight_poverty. Iqbal Quadir talks about poverty and the mobile technology. Then another TED talk in 2014 Toby Shapshak talks about phones and our notion of innovation which applies to mobile technology. https://www.ted.com/talks/toby_shapshak_you_don_t_need_an_app_for_that
The point of sharing these TED talks is to take the idea that mobile phones can change culture, community and society but at times, we need to also check our bias, conceptual understanding and learn more like in this course. We can take from others to help solidify or argue other ideas.
My apologies, I published this discussion post and had more information that I wanted to add, but realized I could not edit. So I am adding to my discussion here. I will not make that mistake again.
Iqbal Quadir talks about poverty and mobile technology but discusses moreimportantly the connection between rich countries who give aid and how that it failed to end poverty. The reason he states for this is that the way to impact poverty is to have the authorities come down and raise the citizens up but when aid is sent the authorities become empowered and the citizens become marginalized. The way to counteract poverty is to advocate business as a humanitarian tool, and that connectivity is productivity with the telephone being a weapon against poverty.
Toby Shapshak speaks about the innovation in Africa, he does so with humour, but talks about the problem-solving out of necessity that has created a situation where M-Pesa was developed as a payment system through Safaricom and Vodafone which is a mobile-based payment service so people don’t carry around credit cards to pay for things. That they use older style phones that have a great battery life, and that most of their mobile solutions are SMS-based.
Both of these speakers talk about the connectivity of mobile learning and mobile technology, and that it combats poverty by the interconnectedness of the people to what they need to support themselves.
Can mobile technologies serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with the community, society, and culture?
In a word, yes! The traditional classroom learning environment often takes place behind closed doors, with the presence of society and community limited to what knowledge the educator chooses to bring into their classroom. Often educators limit perspectives that they do not consider to be within their realm of expertise or that may be challenging to adequately address. Mobile technology allows for a broadening of perspective, bringing community expertise and knowledge into the classroom, but also allows for students to explore their broader community/society/culture with a mobile device, thus bringing the educational lens with them through various apps, and connections to their teachers and to their peers.
As a teacher, I have noticed that as responsibilities and complexities pile up, parent engagement with their student’s learning is often limited to reading a report card a few times a year. Mobile technologies can also serve to reduce the friction between the classroom and home. An example of this is the digital portfolio tool FreshGrade, which serves as a digital collection of student work that is collaborative between educators, students, and families. It exists as a mobile app and is consistently/instantly updated, providing instant and convenient insights into a student’s progress from anywhere. As a result, families have a better understanding of their student’s progress without compromising their schedules, and they can collaborate with schools to support their students without ever setting foot on site.
Braden, I really liked your FreshGrade example because I also use this in my class but had not really thought about it in the context of mobile learning before as it has really just stuck to me as a tool for me to communicate student learning and not as a specific learning tool but the way that you describe it really does show how it is a learning tool.
Mobile technologies have a unique social quality that usually surpasses other technologies. Other than face-to-face, we can probably agree that our social life takes place through our mobiles. Of course, we also interact with people through emails, the web, video games, and applications such as zoom, but text messaging, micro-blogging and micro-vlogging (video) allow us to socialize more freely in terms of time and space, hence establishing stronger community, social, and cultural connections. I think that what is key to reinvigorating the learning experience in mobiles will depend greatly on experience design. As mentioned by our instructor, when mobiles are forced into linear narratives derived from previous technologies, they can become asocial. However, if learning experiences are designed with a clear understanding of the social affordances and multi-layered dimensions of mobile devices, then there is great potential for bringing into existence new ways of learning that are more engaging and meaningful.
Maybe I’m just getting old (29), but it often seems like every new trend, slang and dance move was originated and shared through some mobile app. Although not all content may be deemed “educational” (or a positive contribution to “society”), the input and output of data through a mobile device is indeed learning. We are all social by nature, and we’ll naturally figure out how to do it via the most efficient means possible. Instead, maybe I could argue that we are too connected, and perhaps mobile technology can even ease off on the reinvigorating. People hate silence. Think about it – what did people walking down the street do before there were smartphones, mp3 players and Discmans? That’s right. They whistled. I don’t even know if kids these days even know how to whistle anymore. Can you remember when Facebook was only accessible through your desktop web browser? Or when your Outlook for work was confined to only your work computer? Accessibility was mentioned as a pro in the other Week 1 thread, but I think it exists on an inverted U-shaped curve. (Note: I am almost certain I misunderstood the discussion question).
In my opinion, mobile technology can definitely reinvigorate learner’s connection with community, society, and culture. Some may argue that such interaction through mobile technology loses its authenticity, and people are paying too much attention to their devices, neglecting what is happening around them, which to some extent I agree with. But in a place and period of time where face-to-face interactions are restricted, mobile technology is the best option that people have to stay connected with others. Last year I supported some blended classes (50% online + 50% in-person) during the pandemic, and I could not tell you how excited the kids were when they see their friends on Microsoft Teams. Especially for my Kindergarten students who chose to be in a blended class, their first experience of making friends in school happened only because mobile technology was available, and that is precious and huge for them. That’s why I believe that mobile technology opens the window for learners who could not attend traditional instructional activities for various reasons and help them build a sense of belongings with their peers and school community.
In regards to mobile technologies’ ability to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture, it undoubtedly can. As an educator, it makes me happy that [most] students find like-minded communities to connect with, take a greater part in expression of self, author content, and immerse themselves in a diverse global network. Yet the thought of youth seamlessly intertwined with their digital doppelgangers (ie. mobile devices as an extension of self) leaves me with much unease. While I am a strong proponent of the [arguable infinite] connections that mobile technology offers the learner, I worry about how far they/we have pulled away from other forms of authentic F2F connection. As an educator and person with their own digital doppelganger, I think it is imperative that we hone in on the asocial aspect this technology encourages and find innovative ways to navigate this dilemma before blindly promoting mobile isolation as a form of authentic connection.
Can mobile technologies serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture? The social narrative is filled with noise and clutter that, as a collective, create the threads of the contemporary discourse. Unfortunately, many of these items are said to have “no place in education” at a top level but are still part of the narrative that is usually unspoken in education due to its seemingly unrelated or inappropriate content. It is rare that one single artifact is the narrative. It may be important or a catalyst to change and inspiration but still has a position in the story and does not stand alone. Viral videos of incredible situations are only relevant if we are prepared to see them. The ebb and flow of trending topics find their way into education and eventually the curriculum (gender, culture, economics among others) and create a more inclusive and inviting education system that acknowledges the community that is belongs to. Curriculum and practice evolution often happens as a result of many of these social narratives that are currently being shared, and upvoted via mobile technologies.
Like most of you, I am torn on this subject because I see the value of using mobile technologies for building learning’s connection with communities, societies and culture but worry those connections aren’t as robust without physical interactions. Whether it is myself, my kids or students at the university where I work, I see a lot of people with their heads stuck in the smartphone and missing what’s happening on the other side of the device. I have also seen journalists miss interesting angles of a story because of the rush to file online first as Erica described.
Mobile technologies have enabled us to connect with others globally, and through virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence, they can truly reinvigorate learning’s connections with community society and culture. I really appreciate Deisy’s approach in having educators become more familiar and maybe embrace these technologies with a holistic view to furthering the opportunities for learning.
Hi Sam, i agree with you. Just combining my comment with your post and Deisy’s – Mobile technology can help build learning connections with various communities, societies and culture with the help of physical interaction. Like you said, often times, news stories often miss an important angle. Similarly when an instructor or a teacher is teaching a course, an angle could be missed. It might be harsh to say, but sometimes instructors have their own biases, so through the access of mobile technologies, learners and even instructors can be exposed to a fuller scope of whatever they are teaching and learning.
Can mobile technologies serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture?
Definitely yes! Mobile devices have the advantage of being now considered an essential tool in daily life. No matter your interest, hobbies, or needs, there is so much that you can do with just one device: phone calls, calculator, calendar, clock, music player, and more. You can also find information, learn, make contacts and keep in touch with your loved ones. I think this is one of the reasons people get attached to them.
With those features, it has been so easy to stimulate intrinsic motivation in users. And, in my opinion, that is the key point to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture. Mobile devices offer the participation asset that allows users to create and recreate their reality, having an active role in their community. However, their use in formal education and with small kids has been limited. For years parents and schools (even for adult learners) have banned mobile devices in educational environments. And for some, it was the lockdown that pushed their adoption in such activities.
In such context, our challenge as educators is to get familiar with learners’ interests, languages and context, and technology affordances to propose learning strategies that could attract people and keep them engaged with learning and community development. Here we are to discover some.
This is a question I’ve pondered many times before, and one that I don’t think is yes or no, but rather is dependent on the individual and how they utilize their mobile device.
For me, mobile devices (and mobile learning) have changed my life, as I am no longer chained to one place, rather my office and ability to work is now something that I carry in my pocket. There are both positives and negatives to this when it comes to community, society and culture, as well as social and healthy living habits. One just needs to step on a bus or sit in a restaurant to see that these devices can at times hinder community and disconnect society, as everyone is glued to their device and missing the opportunity to actually connect with those around them. Furthermore, as a journalist, I’ve seen first hand how journalists can completely miss the story by staying too glued to their mobile device, being driven to be the first to report and deliver on in real time, and thus neglect actually taking the time to be present and to experience and immerse oneself in the story that one is attempting to share.
On the flip side of this, I have friends from around the world who I have gotten to know through my mobile device and the social communities that they give me access. While with many of these people, I have not met them in real life, I engage with them daily, we discuss ideas, and they support and engage with my work in a way that many people in my physical world do not. Now I should state here that the truly engaging mobile communities here, tend to be the ones that are at their early stages, when the community is just small and before people become obsessed with likes and other quantitative measures. Fortunately I am a member of a number of experimental mobile communities that allow me to immerse myself in the social opportunities that they bring. The past few months that’s involved being the part of the taping of podcasts via live studio audiences, thanks to the Fireside Chat App. This has meant that my buddy Ralph Talmont and I are often enjoying a conversation about creativity at least once a week, while he sits in Poland, I’m somewhere in Canada, and other friends join us from other parts of the world. While we’ve known each other for about a decade from first meeting through a mobile app he’d created, and then physically meeting a couple years later at TEDxWarsaw, we’ve never spent so much time in our lives together as we are at present, thanks to mobile technology that is social. We even get together with friends of his from around the world to cook the same dish together, each in our own unique way, each from our own kitchens. Its wonderful!
But as I stated off the top, how truly social mobile technologies make us or hinder us is ultimately in the hands of the individual user.
Erica, you make some great points and I agree that I do not see this as black and white as yes or no.
I have a 12-year-old son. While I hate seeing his nose in his phone and his eyes virtually attached to his PS5, the pandemic highlighted how valuable mobile technology and learning can be. I’m not talking about kids learning from home on their laptops, but how they used mobile devices to support their learning via text groups or conference calls. Learning at home can be a challenge for everyone. Those like my son, with learning disorders and IEPs who did not have easy access to their teacher, EAs, SERTs struggled until they found ways to use their mobile devices to help each other. Together they created small communities that helped and supported each other. From pushing a friend to get his work done to work through math problems when they were stuck or asking each other what answer they got and when the answer differed working together to figure out who had it right and where the other had gone wrong. Collaboration plays a significant role in our homes, at school and at work. As you’ve illustrated, that collaboration has no barriers when you are mobile.
Love that your son and his friends were able to find ways of working together virtually and support one another.
In traditional interpretation, the concepts of community and society basically refer to the collection of people characterized by common geographical areas, and culture refers to the collection of lifestyles, ideas and values derived from people’s social activities during the long term. The collective of people’s activities is the foundation of community, society and culture.
Development of technologies can change people’s activities in a society, which further influences the evolution of culture. As we can see, wide application of network technologies has changed our social activities dramatically. When people use new ways to engage in their activities such as accessing information, communicating or interacting, they are building new connections with each other. The traditional ideas of community are gradually diluted, and are instead partly replaced by virtual communities on network and social media.
Mobile learning is one kind of these emerging activities, where new connections between learners are growing. Mobile technologies come with its inherent user stickiness; its accessibility and incredible information capacity unceasingly attract users to join. As a result, new communities emerge, not being limited by area or regions any more, but as a virtual space parallel with geographical locations. Just like in the MET community, every user is experiencing, (enjoying), as well as progressing this form of learning, while building connections in it.
I teach at a online school where most students take only a class or two asynchronously. This makes community building really difficult. This past year our we opened a new specialty program for our students with a grade 9 and 10 cohort taking synchronous classes together. Within the new program students live throughout Alberta, with one family in Ontario, making meeting face to face impossible. Their school community is completely online and the connections they make with their teachers and peers are developed solely through the use of tools such as Hangouts.
We have recently just formed Houses within the school – yes, think Hogwarts. Each House has a student prefect, house captain and a faculty member who is the head of house. The purpose of the House System is to build meaningful relationships among students and teachers. Students are able to gain points for their houses in several ways including acts of service in their local communities. To me is a perfect example of technology being used by learners to make connections. It is exciting to see as the year progresses what activities will be most successful in building relationship in this context. Much of the development of what activities will occur and how communication will happen has been left up to the students and it has been amazing to watch their excitement and engagement.
I really love this idea of connectedness within an asynchronous learning landscape. I’ve found myself seeking connection in my courses, finding people, to reach out to whether it be on video chat, messaging or physically sitting with someone in the same course, just so I can work through problems or questions with someone else. I think that as we push mobility and the new frontier of learning, we need to be mindful of holding space for interaction, connectivity and shared experiences.
Back in July 2020 I made the jump to move from Saskatchewan to Ontario. My boyfriend was laughing at me because I was so surprised at the quality of services compared to the small town I grew up in within East Central Saskatchewan. The biggest revelation has been telecom services, for I could not believe the equity disparity between both provinces. I never realized the power of decent WIFI access until I moved out east. At the same time, it became a real wake-up call to myself concerning the realities that many students in Saskatchewan faced with emergency teaching. Not only were the grids maxed to capacity, but rural and low income students were left out, with no access to G4/5 networks and all retail store being completly sold out of laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets both in store and online. This raises a very sore spot in the Covid 19 pandemic, the barriers of access to education in times of emergency teaching. As teachers and instructors, it also begs the question: what can we do about it and how can we narrow this digital divide?
Brittany,
This is an issue that many of my students face in rural Alberta as well. My family moved last year off an acreage where our only option was satellite internet into Sherwood Park where we can now access high speed internet. I teach online from home and have 4 boys that have spent different periods of times at home due to COVID doing their school online. This would have been impossible if we still lived on our acreage. Not only would we have run out of internet part way through the month, the cost was nearly double for substandard service. It is encouraging that there has been programs like the Universal Broadband Fund by the gov’t of Canada that are looking at these inequalities.
In discussing with my students today about recent events in the States, we asked ourselves, how does a person go from being a happy kid to a grown man who storms Capitol Hill wearing a Viking hat and furs. We came up with the thought that that person must have received a poor education, or the adults in their life all subscribe to a singular belief, which grew and snowballed out of the control over the years. How does someone grow up so culturally and politically isolated? We thought about rural communities in the States, how “rural” is nothing like what we have experienced in Canada, and how that a large population of Americans have never stepped foot outside of their own county.
Mobile technology can be a solution to prevent extreme isolation. Rural communities often have just one school and struggle to find qualified teachers. If a school does not have to have a physical structure, then an online school can employ any teacher from anywhere in the world and VR can enable students to “travel”. Students in this online school would come from multiple places, thus exposing students to a variety of cultures and political views. One can argue that cultural and political diversity already exists on the internet, that a student simply has to access it. But, ubiquitous and unrestricted access to learning materials does not lead to learning. Students have to be guided, to learn how to sift through information, and this begins with finding adult role models. Thinking back to my earliest memories, the first adults I learned to trust after my parents, and the adults that my parents introduced me to, were my teachers. Teachers hold a special kind of power over youth. That Viking man might have not developed such a radical disposition had he been exposed to more open, healthier ways of thinking by conversing with adults and peers from diverse backgrounds.
Hi Ying,
Thanks for a thought-provoking post! I agree with you and yes, the amount of information or resources available doesn’t always transpire to “meaningful” learning.
You mentioned mobile technology can be a solution to prevent extreme isolation and I agree with you but I think the pendulum can also swing the other way. People can be too “attached” to mobile technology resulting in isolation and cutting themselves out from other social interactions or connections that can help them develop wider perspectives/views.
I think the important idea is finding the balance and our students will need to learn that too.
Good evening everyone and happy long weekend!
SOCIAL NARRATIVE: Can mobile technologies serve to reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society and culture?
With regards to the above topic – Most definitely it can! However, working at the University myself and a millennial, I find there was a lot of push back with higher leadership in slowly accepting ANY technology in the classroom over the last 10 years. I cannot speak for students and faculty, however, I work with staff development. From my experience, we have 2 camps of staff. We see a slight divide with the demographic in choosing synchronous vs asynchronous training. Some prefer the former with live webinars, interactions, and after trying the latter, it didn’t take well. So now we are doing a blended model where by providing recorded online content from instructors to the learners before hand and then having a live session for Q&A with the instructor after a week. Mind you, the reason we do this is because the in-class sessions are 6-8 hours long. So we are trying to break it up for staff to digest the information. Just because they are working from home, doesn’t mean they can dedicate the time due to the current covid situation. There are so many variables to consider and ADMIN work to manage all this is digging into valuable content creation time.
We do have a LMS that I administer and its mobile app can prove to valuable if, once again, higher leadership look to leverage it and promote it through management. In creating and authoring e-learning content with mobility on my mind, I can see a great number of advantages that can pivot the management direction of how to incorporate learning into a mobile format. The good news is that, I have been in touch with many departments to assist them with their e-learning ideas and concepts that can enrich the learning experience of their audience. This opportunity is important to bring together the staff, although spread out, into the learning culture with less stress, and get in line with other institutions in online ed technologies. One can hope, since we have been pigeon holed by mother nature into this new learning path overnight! It’s a blessing for some and we also have to be aware that learning is different for everyone and developing mobile learning is not a one size fits all.
Hi, a Gen X is here with a different story from Eastern Europe. I was lucky to work with a very progressive university president who kept investing in technology since the beginning of the 21st century (I didn’t know him before that time). As a result, when the university suddenly became displaced (its administration fled to the safer part of the country and left everything material behind – campuses, libraries, laboratories etc.) in 2014, it took it only a couple of months to organize the online undergraduate and graduate education again. Professors and students worked asynchronously from different countries for several years quite well. When Covid struck, the university survived again because online learning was already nothing new. Then another wave of the Russian-Ukrainian war hit, and my dear uni became twice displaced as it had to move further west. The fact that it still functions is amazing. Of course, it is not only on the president. The university team is fantastic; very resilient.
Looking at the ‘future of work’ perspective, the workplace has been redefined to meet the needs of an agile workforce. For example, the industrial office spaces are moving towards home offices and friendlier, lounge-like spaces that encourage collaboration and remote work. Similarly, designing a flexible learning environment for the 21st century student, means using practices that encourage the development of self-directed, collaborative and critical thinking skills (Benade, 2017).
I think one of the best ways to encourage this kind of development is through practical assignments that are grounded in real-life problems. As an undergraduate student in graphic design, studio time was focused on producing tangible deliverables and participating in critiques, where we presented our work to ‘clients’. In this environment, we developed communication and presentation skills that are often overlooked but highly valuable in the workplace.
Another example is Amara (https://amara.org/en/) a mobile and online platform that uses volunteers/crowdsourcing to translate and subtitle videos hosted on YouTube. This in turn, provides accessible videos for participating organizations at a reduced cost. I used Amara when I was learning how to caption videos, as part of an accessible media program. Knowing that our student work was contributing to a larger, real-life problem prepared many of us for work in the industry. A former classmate of mine now works remotely in accessible media, captioning video and remediating documents. The mobility of Amara – being able to use work anywhere with an Internet connection, made the process of captioning (and working remotely) more approachable. Anyone who has captioned videos can tell you – it’s a tedious job that requires time and attention to detail.
While it’s not foolproof, I think mobile technologies can help integrate a learner into the modern workplace when combined with experiences that are grounded in real-life problem solving.
[Side note: I was previously introduced to Benade’s 2017 journal article in ETEC 524 and was intrigued by the connection between space – physical, social and experiences, learning and productivity.]
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Benade, L. (2017). Is the classroom obsolete in the twenty-first century? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(8), 796-807. DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2016.1269631
Hi Aiann,
Because of the pandemic, many people are working from home while also taking care of their children. Do you think that this situation is actually quite stressful?
If in the future, more people were asked to work remotely from work, how would that affect life and work balance? Additionally in most families, there’s only one desktop. As the parents are working from home, they have to use the only computer making hard for children to have access to it for their schoolwork. Some teenagers might have a smartphone or tablet but I believe that many parents are unwilling to buy a smartphone for their young children and even to let them spend hours on it.
I think the pandemic made a big shift in everyone’s life in terms of trying to build new structure and balance. Many parents from my classroom struggled initially trying to motivate their children to work while they themselves needed to work. I would get emails day and night begging for strategies in parenting to help guide their children. But I think this was a big eye opener to the value of routine and building life/work balance at home. For the moment, we are in a new normal, but it’s also been a blessing for many families to take a step back from routine and re-evaluate where the priorities are. Many of the families from my classroom finally came together and started having family diner again or playing board games with siblings in the time that they would normally be commuting to and from work. Or many of the students finally started helping around home to cook, clean, and do other tasks. The flexibility of the mobile learning enabled students to build a schedule that worked for the whole family. Although I had very few mandatory meetings other than presentations and instructions… Everything was individualized to the students schedules.
With the shift for a new normal, there will be funding allocated to students to transition entirely into mobile or on-line learning. I think this will ease the tension in families to have the necessary technology. Back when I was homeschooled in elementary school in BC, my homeschooling program sent us a computer to work on and a small grant for extra curricular activities as well. If students are switching from the normal classroom to alternative ways of learning, there is government funding allotted to each student which can help to offset these costs. Though I am not sure if this is the case in all countries around the world… With the quick and dramatic shift of the pandemic, I realize this was not the case for many families and schools, but I do know that every school tried their best to make accommodations or lend technology to families in need.
The interesting portion of mobile learning is that yes, instructions and guidance are given online, but the practice doesn’t have to also be online. It can be experiential or project-based. Learning can now incorporate siblings, family members, and community in more relatable ways for the learners.
Mobile technologies have massive potential and are already reinvogorating learning’s connection with community, society and culture, in informal and formal environments.
In ETEC524 last semester I read an article that discussed the informal learning opportunities created by a learner community/participatory culture on a Facebook application called Hot Dish, where people from the US met to learn, discuss, and take action by completing eco-challenges on issues related to environmentalism and global warming. (Source: https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/17439884.2015.1064954?needAccess=true) The article reminded me of some the mobile learning opportunities that exist in informal spaces that I had not previously considered as such. For example, I collect data as a citizen scientist on iNaturalist, which is like a real life Pokemon (and should be more gamified to encourage more participation!), and I am constantly learning about new flora and fauna species. I’m also in several gardening groups with different purposes/niches: Ontario Native Plant group, Master Gardeners of Ontario, and Friends of Baker Creek. Each group has a different purpose, mission and offers different learning opportunities. While I may only know a few people IRL (in real life) that love gardening or people who use iNaturalist, that’s not our only connection or topic of conversation, but I can always go to my mobile learning communities to ask questions, answer questions, and be a part of the ongoing discussion.
In more formal learning communities, MOOCs and open courses provide a connection that transcends the traditional online/blended course, and there is a value-added in being able to participate in constantly evolving open communities where participation occurs over time.
For some people or learners who have no real world opportunity to engage in learning about a specific interest, either because no opportunity exists in their institutions or community, or those interests are culturally prohibited, informal and formal mobile learning communities are fantastic opportunities.
For some people or learners who have no real world opportunity to engage in learning about a specific interest, either because no opportunity exists in their institutions or community, or those interests are culturally prohibited, informal and formal mobile learning communities are fantastic opportunities.
Your last statement resonates with me as I also believe that mobile technology creates the right conditions for communities of practice to thrive. As you mentioned yourself, you personally don’t know many people who share the same interest. However with mobile technology and wireless connectivity, now you have access to a unique group of people who are just as passionate about plants and gardening. Mobile technology made it possible to connect with like-mined people, share resources and form a community where support and nurturing can take place.
I think yes, mobile learning CAN invigorate connections and connectivity for students. However, I grow increasingly concerned that some online learning is falling into classic patterns and tired formats. For example, classes that involve read, complete assignment, post, comment as the only means of collaboration miss the boat. There are so many opportunities for collaboration among students, we need to celebrate that. Mobile learning should be transformative, not to just substitute of other methods of teaching. There are things we absolutely could not do, even 2 years ago. Students have increasing ability to create and collaborate. Those are the things that will move the educational world forward.
Completely agree with you Benjamin! There is a lot of potential for connectivity through mobile learning and it should not just be a substitute for things that used to be done with paper and pencil. Years ago, the computer may have just been used for students to type out their good copies to publish, but now students can incorporate coding into their stories and make their stories more interactive!
Students are often the ones who are the drivers or creators of the opportunities for connectivity. I have seen students create podcasts for literature circles instead of just having a circle discussion. They create Kahoot games to quiz each other on content learned in class. They create class notes together on Google Docs. Mobile technology has opened up a lot of doors for students to connect with their peers and build a community within their own classroom.
[Originally posted by Michael Yates – August 2019]
With respect I would like to point out that the true challenge mobile education will have is creating communities, culture and even societies in an online space. Education has always been in tune with the community due to the fact the teachers usually live in the community they serve. With mobile education and the no boundaries mobile technologies provide this simply may no longer be the case. I believe a new community needs to be created that is bound by guidelines and even laws. Right now there are so many instances of mobile bullying and “trolling” that mobile technologies are thrown out of schools entirely.
As stated in the social narrative how do you create socialization in an antisocial environment. These technologies were created by people who are less than social themselves (mass generalization, but if you have worked with enough programmers you will kind of see the truth in it). How are we as educators going to impart our students with etiquettes that bridge the “in person” and “online” space.
That being said it is truly a new and exciting frontier for education, as long as we can control the one uncontrollable variable (people).
This is one of the concerns at my school during this time of remote learning for students. As a school community and staff, we brainstormed ways of keeping in connection with our students. Our school has a newsletter every week that show cases students and their work. It’s a collaboration of photos and written descriptions so that we can keep up to date with what students are doing and be able to have that connection by seeing their faces in the photos.
Mobile learning is not only ideal at this time but necessary. For students that could not engage with mobile learning and have access to online learning with devices, they would not be able to remain connected in the online space.
Maintaining connection with our students as educators is vital to the teacher -student experience in learning. I’m grateful to have mobile learning at this time so that I can maintain this connection with my students.
[Originally posted by Amanda Iadeluca – August 2019]
I think mobile technologies can provide learners with an opportunity to become part of various communities based on their interests, which might otherwise be limited due to their location or school size. In a physical classroom, I may have five or six students interested in a certain topic/idea/book/movie/video game/project, and so they can create connections and relationships based on those interests. When I think of mobile technologies, I see possibilities for students to connect across classrooms in different areas of the country, where their online community is built upon the things they engage with and respond to the most. Students can create new connections that can help them in their learning by giving them a wider range of people they can use as resources for information, advice or help with problem-solving.
I teach grade 7s and I see the students that really dive into this opportunity of joining a learning community and even authoring content. Isn’t Elon Musk primarily self-taught? He often eschews hiring university graduates, preferring to hire those who demonstrate this drive to learn using the vast opportunities on their own.
In my context, I’ve got young learners who can easily be manipulated online as they learn proper boundaries and online etiquette. I’m not sure how ready I am for the inevitable parent backlash when a student interacts with a stranger online in one of these communities. Would something like this get the initiative shut down for the rest of them? Setting a safe moderated space for this type of learning to occur is something that would need a lot of thought and effort before I see this taking off with young learners.
I think this is an interesting point, and one that often extends beyond interests outside of first world contexts.
Venter (2014) has outlined interesting occurances in South Africa, where mobile devices are the most prominent in resource constrained environments. In these environments, mobile technologies are implicated in digital self-presentation and in the creation of e-portfolios so that self-taught designers use to overcome barriers they encounter when wanting to enter creative industries. Mobile devices were not designed with these aspirations in mind, and so they are instead negotiated, hacked, and appropriated into tools to allow individuals to pursue creative participation in online and economic visual communication communities.
Mobile technologies are thus not only acting as an extension to broader interests of individuals, but literally as bridges to access spaces that they may be excluded from due to cultural or socio-political structures. This means that mobile and open creates not only communities of interest, but communities that may be more representative of diversity and interest than real world environments have allowed. The question then remains of where the new boundaries of inclusion and exclusion lie? Are there specific fields, such as the creative ones, which are better suited to mobile technology than others? And what are the new barriers that exist within the mobile ecology? How can these be overcome or improved?
[Originally posted by Andrew Yeung – August 2019]
While mobile technologies allow users to connect on-the-go through personal devices, newer communities formed through social media replace the need for local connections. We connect with friends around the world at the click of a button, instead of getting to know our neighbors next door. Enhanced mobility does not address this issue, with people going daily to coffee shops to be alone together (Turkle, 2018).
Schools are resistant to change, partly for good reason to uphold stricter privacy and manage costs. As technologies outside institutions exponentially advance, discrepancies inevitably become greater. The video gaming industry has invested heavily with graphical design and creative interactivity, maintaining enjoyment appeal and intrinsic motivation that school media simply can never match. Consequently while educational games serve an ideal, they will continually lack behind more agile entities.
Turkle, S. (2018). Opinion | The Flight From Conversation. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html
Andrew
Turkle is one of my favourite authors, who once wrote that technology has encouraged, if not caused, “a new style of being” (2011, p.177). What is this new style of being? When we instant-message, e-mail, text, and Twitter, are we living in virtuality or reality? If mobile media is the first digital medium with “real” social potential (Vogt, 2020), the way we socialize has changed for sure.
Before the telephone was invented, to visit a friend, people just showed up and knocked at one’s door. After the invention of the telephone, people began to call before visiting, in order to be polite. Before the smartphone was invented, to visit a friend, people preferred to give one a call first. After the invention of the smartphone, both knocking at the door and making a phone call became intrusive. What did we do then? We began to text…
Andrew said in 2019 that “We connect with friends around the world at the click of a button, instead of getting to know our neighbors next door”. Nowadays, I found my students connect with their friends sitting next to them at the click of a button!
Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York, NY: Basic Books.
[Originally posted by Vivien Kamhoua – August 2019]
Nowadays, communication has never been so easy with mobile technologies, Internet and social media. We are always connected and can access a wide range of information, no matter where we are. Besides communication, a vast variety of apps are very convenient in our daily life, with mobile devices one can read books, access internet, watch video, create documents, store data and much more. When I think of the time when these technologies were not available and people had to get together physically to discuss concerns, share thoughts in order to learn. I believe that mobile technologies have a huge potential in improving learning’s connection with community, society and culture.
However, some challenge remain.
– Although, mobile technologies enable people to stay connected, this ease of connection online is changing people’s perception of connectedness. People are spending more time connected on mobile devices than interacting and talking to each other. Considering the fact that we learn more through nonverbal communication, I think we should appropriately differentiate when to use mobile technologies to improve learning’s connection, and when to physically be present.
– The cost of technology: Unfortunately, most products, services, usage models, expertise, and research related to mobile technologies in use in education come from high-income context and environments. Therefore, low income communities around the world struggle to follow.
I agree that the meaning of “connectedness” is changing. As an educator, I feel responsible in teaching my students how to have authentic connections and explain this changing perception to them.
[Originally posted by Sarah Jones – August 2019]
I think mobile technology can reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, culture and society because it allows for open, flexible, and personalized learning that transcends classroom and geography. A lot of learning happens outside the classroom and mobile technology bridges the gap between school and home, school and community, and school and society to establish social connections that would otherwise not be possible. It can also deepen classroom relationships among peers. For instance, it is much easier for study groups to meet virtually on school nights. I think mobile devices and social media can be effectively used by classrooms to increase connectedness and establish a stronger learning community. I do think face-to-face interaction (turn devices off) time is just as important and that a collaborative, co-learning pedagogy is the best approach to ensure students develop good communication skills. However, I believe a platform that allows students to share their learning experiences with peers from home and others in the community (potentially beyond) can really enhance overall learning experience and lead to transformative learning opportunities.
[Originally posted by Johnny Wu – August 2019]
In answering this question, I would like to share my first hand experience in how mobile learning has invigorated learning’s connection with community society and culture. The ability to make real connections with the world and help make a real difference on a global scale has powerful implications in the classroom. The technology that we have has made our ability to do this easier and more accessible than ever before.
I have recently created a project with my students called the Global Citizen’s initiative. Students had to work in team of 4 to create a non-profit organization to raise awareness and fundraise for a human rights issue in another country. One of the tasks was to create an instagram account under their team name. I felt it was important to educate them on the idea that social media can be used for positive influence around the world and can be an effective tool in their activism cause. One group raised awareness for Capetown in South Africa as they created #defeatdayzero, a day where Capetown will completely run out of water in June. Their instagram account built a following as they posted images to build awareness. Through their fundraising initiative of sthey raised over 250 dollars for this initiative and were able to purchase a 2200L water for Capetown. The group received responses from the charity organization thanking them for their efforts. The next goal for them is to connect via skype with a classroom in Capetown.
The level of engagement and excitement throughout this project was the highest I’ve ever seen from a group of students. Through this, they connected with other cultures and societies and were able to make an impact on a global scale.
I really like the point raised here on how mobile technologies can enable us to learn about, connect with, and even influence communities, societies, and culture internationally. The ability to create impact somewhere else is really powerful. To me, learning is not limited to just understanding and connecting with those around the world, but also to create positive impact globally like what Johnny encouraged.
[Originally posted by Tracey Stevens – August 2019]
I do believe that mobile technologies can help to reinvigorate the connection between learning and community, society and culture. Given that the mobile penetration rate keeps increasing, and that the mobile phone provides access to a number of accessible digital activities (apps, searching the internet, podcasts, social media, etc.), this combination necessarily allows for more opportunity for a better collaboration between education and society and community. Given the customization abilities afforded by the mobile phone, learnings about the local community or society at large can be tailored and personalized for optimal impact. Schools can also collaborate with the larger community using mobile technologies and communities can likewise directly shape the learnings (of potentially new leaders) via these technologies. Consider the impact of a language learning app for indigenous languages that are difficult to learn so that the language doesn’t disappear. And given the current stress the education systems are under, mobile technologies can only assist in rebuilding the external connections.
[Originally posted by Harmeet Grewal – August 2019]
We have already seen how technology can reinvigorate learning’s connection with community, society, and culture just by being in the MET program. Students in the program are located across the globe and are able to connect and share ideas in a way that would not be possible without technology. The result is a transfer of culturally conditioned sets of knowledge to people who would otherwise not be exposed to such knowledge. This type of learning is opening people’s eyes to new experiences and perspectives and connecting people across communities and cultures. Transferring our knowledge in such a way means that we are also able to create unique online communities of learners.
The question, however, is not about technology in general; it is about mobile technology. Does mobile technology serve to accomplish these things in a more effective way? Is there any difference? If there is a difference, I believe it’s because mobile technology is so much more accessible than technology like desktop computers are. It is far easier and much more convenient to connect with people and communities on the go on a mobile device than it is to take time out to go home and sit at one’s computer. I’m sure there are also other educational capabilities that mobile devices afford that can make bringing people together much easier, but this is an area that I admittedly know little about. I look forward to learning more as the semester progresses.
Mobile technology has the advantage of immediate access, just like Harmeet mentioned, easier on the go to use a mobile device that to sit at one’s computer. I first felt this transition when I got my laptop, it provided me the freedom to work anywhere, as I could take it with me, instead of being stuck at home to do my work. Even at home, I could start dinner in the kitchen, and have my laptop close by to answer emails. Then when I had my first kid, moving my laptop from room to room became too much of a hassle, so my phone became my main device for communication and connection. My smartphone allowed me to be connected to family, to new mom online groups, and society in general. To be honest, it wasn’t until I was on maternity leave, that I appreciated my smartphone so much, for the purpose of connection, and learning. I read countless parenting books using the kindle app, blogs, and participating in mom online groups. One of the reasons I chose to take this course right now, was the possibility of completing the course just by using my smartphone. It allows me the use my most ready-to-use device, and at the same time as an educator to learn from my own experience using a smartphone in a learning environment.
Similarly to Adriana, I have endeavored to complete ETEC 523 exclusively on my SamsungGalaxy S21 FE 5G smartphone. At the end of week 1, my experience has been clunky, my responses have been slow and while I am able to type this response to a peer posting 3 years from the swinging bench in my garden, I somehow now feel I have tainted my time in nature with technology and I doubt Ariana will even see this, let alone respond. Or maybe I am just an aging traditionalist afraid to embrace new trends like so many of our reticent predecessors have been with similar emerging technologies, like the abacus, the printing press, and the loom. Any device that reduces time spent working to allow more recreation time spent enjoying life would surely be a welcome intervention by anyone….or would it?