Taken from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254109
The Way Learning
Environments are Evolving
What’s in stock for us in the future?
By
Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School
of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Saturday,
March 26, 2016
Post
241
Psychologist
Sherry Turkle, in a TED Talk back in 2012, pointed out an interesting
reflection on how cell phones have changed our lives. Turkle posits the following
after inverviewing hundreds of people of all age groups, “What I’ve found out is
that those little devices in our pockets, are so
psychologically powerful that they don’t only change what we do, they change
who we are” (2012). If her contemplation of cell phones were taken to all
possible innovations that are coming our way in the field of education, would
they be learning enhancers or disruptors?
Web-based
technologies for learning accessed by means of smartphones and tablets can be
paradoxically good and evil. “As with all technology, mobile phones can have
their pros and cons, depending on how they are used. At their best, they can be
useful tools for staying in touch, finding out new information and
co-ordinating social activities. At worst, they can negatively affect concentration,
communication and sleep, or increase fear of missing out, procrastination and
stress” (Busch, 2016). And if this idea
plainly stated by Busch is extrapolated to other commonly used devices in the
hands of college students, such as tablets and laptops, we are bound to
encounter lots of problems that will affect student learning and course
achievement. College learners are at risk of missing lots of important
information being delivered to them, and consequently not developing skills and
competences for their current or future jobs.
Dispite the need for the development of skills and
competences, mobile computing is indeed one of those changes, innovations, and
trends that will have a strong influence in higher learning environments in the
next 3-5 years. As stated by Mark West for UNESCO, “Access
to robust mobile networks is nearly universal: 90% of the world’s population
and an impressive 80% of the population living in rural areas are blanketed by
a mobile network. This means that learners who might not have access to
high-quality education or even schools often do have working mobile phones” (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization, 2012). Costa Rica is not the exception to this penetration
of mobile technology and networks. And in terms of higher education, this
penetration of mobile phones (and tablets) is going to create attractive
virtual learning spaces for students and instructors. Five years from this
point in history, more and more learners will be engaged in blended and online
education.
Costa Rican
learners are transitioning towards a more dynamic way of learning and being
part of the new trends in university life. If Eric Mazur, a professor of
physics at Harvard, is 100% right, “during periods of study, lab work and
homework” it is when pupils are the most engaged and in a state of ‘arousal
associated with emotion, cognition and attention’” (Hardesty, 2013). If we facutly members can
emotionally and cognitively motivate leaners with hands-on task to apply the
concepts that being studied in a course, our Costa Rican pupils will positively
respond to this new challenge in their way of being educated.
Lecture-led instruction in classrooms will become an obsolete
practice in a few years, but not in five. “The advantages of interactive
learning over lectures have been well-documented for decades, if not centuries”
(Hardesty, 2013). Going back to what Mazur was alluding about “the pedagogical
efficiency of lectures” studied by MIT Professor Rosiland Picard, these
practices’ “readout flatlined during two activies: attending class and watching
TV” (Hardesty, 2013). In other words, the “arousal associated with emotion,
cognition and attention” is not present during class lectures. What we are
bound to find in Costan Rican higher education contexts in the future is
faculty members who are going to be recording and producing their own teaching
material in vodcast-like formats, like the ones used by Salman Khan, founder of
Khan Academy, to teach mathematics.
References
Busch, B. (2016, March 8). Fomo, stress and sleeplessness: are smartphones bad for students? The Guardian .
Hardesty, L. (2013, March 6). Higher-ed leaders meet to discuss future of online education. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/edx-summit-0306.html
Turkle, S. (2012, February). Connected, but alone? (TED.Com) Retrieved from TED.Com: http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together#t-152139
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. (2012). Turning on Mobile Learning Global Themes. Paris: UNESCO.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
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