Ubiquitous Learning

Introduction: The Beginnings of an Idea

introduction the Beginnings of an idea mary kalantzis and bill cope This book sets out to define an emerging field, a field that for the reasons we outline in the chapters that follow, we have chosen to call “ubiquitous learning .” Ubiquitous learning is a new educational paradigm made possible in part by the affordances of digital media. Throughout this book, we will explain what we mean by this claim and marshal evidence in its support. But first, who are we and how did we come to write this book? The starting point was a strategic initiative of the College of Education at the University of Illinois, the Ubiquitous Learning Institute, whose guiding ideas were developed in 2006 by a task force consisting of Chip Bruce, Nick Burbules, Cynthia Carter Ching, Michael Peters, Vanna Pianfetti, Sharon Tettegah, and Brendesha Tynes. This group set the agenda for the institute in the following terms: The world is changing rapidly from an industrial to an information- and media-driven economy. As the world around us becomes smaller, and communication and media become more global and more diffuse, the very nature of society and of who we are as human beings is quickly being defined by our ability to be both consumers and producers of knowledge. The nature of that knowledge, how and by whom it is created, and the spaces in which it is encountered are all rapidly evolving. Technology developments make it possible for information to be produced and disseminated by practically anyone, and learning can occur at any time and any place. This notion of “anytime/ anywhere” has often been described as “ubiquitous” in the IT literature. Ubiquitous computing can mean using technology to bridge distance and time, the merging of physical and virtual, and bringing computing off the desk into social and public spaces through wearable and handheld devices. A focus on learning, and on the increasing prevalence of knowledge construction activi- x . kalantzis & cope ties being conducted in online environments by experts and novices alike, however, suggests that the definition of “ubiquitous” be expanded to include the idea that learners can engage with knowledge about “anything,” and that this learning can be experienced by “anyone.” What we mean by learning, however, differs strongly from a common understanding . Traditionally, learning has been configured as a process whereby the learner encounters and soaks up knowledge or skill, much like a sponge, from some authoritative source. This definition is no longer sufficient to describe the convergence of knowledge conditions in the information society. Progressive theories of learning have long maintained that learners do not passively absorb, but rather actively create, personally meaningful knowledge out of their experiences in the world. Now, however, learning through knowledge creation is not just about designing the understandings in one’s own head, so to speak. As we use Web technology to make sense of the world around us through blogs, wikis, mash-ups, podcasts, social software, online worlds, open-source and open-access media, and a whole host of other current and emergent online practices, the constructions of our own evolving understandings become information in the public sphere. In essence, the process of learning and the products of learning are rapidly merging into ubiquitous knowledge engagement. The implications of this profound transformation—for formal schooling, for online communities, for evolving definitions of public knowledge, and for global interconnectedness and economic development—cannot be underestimated. This is a big agenda indeed, intellectually ambitious and with potentially enormous educational implications. From this initial statement of intent, we set a course to begin defining key concepts and exploring current practices. Although a College of Education initiative, we knew from the start that this would have to be a collaborative, cross-disciplinary endeavor. This book is the beginning of these next stages in the development of the Ubiquitous Learning Institute. It brings together some thirty different authors from across a broad variety of disciplines at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The ideas we present here are the product of an unique institution and an unusual cross-disciplinary partnership. At this university, two traditions of intellectual innovation stand out that are germane to the focus of the Ubiquitous Learning Institute and the themes of this book: a technological tradition and an educational tradition. On the technological side, this was the place where John Bardeen worked, who won a Nobel Prize for inventing the transistor, then a second one for discovering superconductivity. It is a place where the first readily available graphical Web...