Now What? (Education and Technology in a Post COVID World)

“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…”

–Bill Cope & Mary Kalantzis, 2009

I consider myself a Millennial. My grad school thesis was on Generational Cohorts portrayed in media, and way back then, we were collectively called Gen Y. Now, I’m told I’m a Geriatric Millennial, or some such nonsense that kids are saying these days. Whatever. Regardless of what you choose to call us, we are obsessed with our technology, our memes and emojis, and definitely with our social media—and with that, our instant access to entertainment, to food, to information, and to other people.

This week’s post explores an idea that has come up in another of my classes, and, as an armchair detective regarding all things interesting words and phrases, I find myself mulling on the concept of ‘ubiquitous learning’ or “u-learning,” as I’ll call it in the true Millennial fashion of abbreviating everything.

From what I have gathered, ubiquitous learning is centered on the idea of a person being able to access a wealth of varied information from multiple sources, any time of day or night. 21^st century instant gratification indeed!

I closed my iCloud docs and minimized my Kindle app to do some serious digging. Based on a Google search, along with numerous mentions in another e-textbook, Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis seem to have written a great deal on the subject. I immediately browsed the university’s online library, downloaded a PDF of their book, charged up my iPencil, and excitedly dove into chapter 1 while my study playlist on Apple Music droned on in the background. Bill and Mary did not disappoint.

The introduction is titled “The Beginnings of an Idea” and explains that the authors’ goal is to “define an emerging field” that they believe is possible due to “in part by the affordances of digital media” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 10). Of course, at the time that this book was written in 2009, the world was only just becoming enamored with the tether of social media and constant access to the global world. Within just a couple of years, society would fall completely into a full-blown love affair with carrying the world of tech in our pockets.

A lot has changed since 2009. Still, back then, the authors acknowledged the rapidly changing world, new technology in the works, and new spaces being created for collaboration and the sharing of ideas (Aww, they’re talking about your toddler years, Facebook and Wikipedia).

The authors (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009) cite the University of Illinois’ Ubiquitous Learning Institute’s mission statement in 2006 as an example of the possibilities to explored when it comes to using this ‘brave new world’ for learning:

        "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…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 activities 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” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 3). 

The book’s first chapter is a treasure trove of how ubiquitous learning could be tied to the transformation of education. But the authors (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009) explain that, just because we have access to new technology, it doesn’t necessarily mean that “u-learning” is actually being employed. Rather, it merely suggests that computers have become an integral part of our daily lives. However, Cope and Kalantzis do predict that this kind of society means that we as educators will need to “shift our educational paradigm” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 4).

They go on to pose an interesting question: “could we educators take the lead in the development of appropriate technologies rather than recycle hand-me-down technologies that were originally designed for another purpose?” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 4). I confess that the thought gives me pause.

Then, the authors pose another thought that intrigues me” “Technologies are the product of social needs. When they work for us, their social benefits sometimes prove to be more revolutionary than their technical specifications” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 5).

Could the unfettered embrace of technology into every aspect of our lives indicate that something was, in fact, missing? Cope and Kalantzis (2009) continue this line of thinking by stating, “We make meanings through these devices (to others as well as making sense of things for ourselves). We represent ourselves through digitized media, recording more and more of our lives, deliberately, impulsively, or incidentally” (p. 5).

In other words, something meaningful was missing. So, Millennials and other generational cohorts alike jumped at the chance for technology to fill a void in society. And further still, people of all ages gravitated toward a new society where technology and information is at our fingertips 24-7. Does this mean that the state of our educational systems had left the masses hungry for a new way of learning long before the technology caught up? As more and more about how students actually learn comes to light, we can see glimmers of this truth.

“U-learning” examines the aspects of social and collaborative learning, perhaps indicating what educators like John Dewey have said all along: humans learn as an act of social interaction and societal experience. “U-Learning” is interactive, and collaboration and the building of community is a key component to its success (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). Humans now participate in social media content creation and sharing; they collaborate on Wiki-posts and memes going viral.

Our concept of time has changed as well (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). We order e-textbooks on demand, we watch TV shows when we want, and we program personal ‘radio stations’ to play the songs we want when we want them. The world has truly become ubiquitous as humans have more control and more options to experience it than ever before.

Cope and Kalantzis (2009) explain that for Millennials like myself, this world is like second nature—even if we do have vague recollections of a world before email and iPencils. They go on to caution about the divide between the digital haves/have nots, an issue that came glaringly to light in a way it never had before as the world stared down a global pandemic where technology was the only thing connecting us to each other.

So, we as a society and as educators have learned through that ordeal (and others) that we still have a long way to go when it comes to technology and how this thing that has permeated every aspect of our lives can be used for informal and formal learning scenarios alike. Still, if COVID-19 did teach us anything, it is that educators will continue to innovate with the tools that they have; humans will continue to find new ways to seek out information and interaction they are looking for; and that the next generation will look back on the “quaint” aspects of my teen and college years and wonder why I had to manually scroll uphill in 2 feet of snow every day just to get to the digital classroom. But then, I’ll save those musings for my next Geriatric Millennial chatroom discussion…

‘Til next time…

Reference:

Cope, W. & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Ubiquitous learning. University of Illinois Press.