Some of the challenges and experiences of formal education in a Mobile-Centric Society (MCS).
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the challenges faced by schools, or by formal education in general, as a consequence of today's mobile-centric society (henceforth MCS), the term we will use to denote the new, networked learning ecology that has arisen from the massive penetration of digital media in everyday life.
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to describe some of the challenges faced by schools, or by formal education in general, as a consequence of today’s mobile-centric society (henceforth MCS), the term we will use to denote the new, networked learning ecology that has arisen from the massive penetration of digital media in everyday life. After revisiting some of the ideas of McLuhan and Vygotsky in the light of this new technological scenario, we describe five traits of the MCS and the challenges – illustrated through educational practices – that we believe schools will face if they wish to preserve their function of individualization and socialization. We believe that despite the emergence of the MCS, the main function of the school is still to provide the “box of tools” (a set of psychological instruments, such as reading, writing, mathematical notation, digital literacy, etc.) that enables people to develop their learning skills and life projects and to become part of communities and groups. However, the complexity and mobility of the new learning environments means that the position held by schools needs to be re-evaluated in the face of the informal learning paths and experiences – both online and offline – to which learners now have access. We also need to re-evaluate the meaning of the school itself as an institution and the model of learner it should be training.
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18 Aug 2016TL;DR: In this paper, Esteban-Guitart outlines a distinct vision of education enhanced by students' identities, which leads to a discussion of the sociocultural factors that shape the processes of learning.
Abstract: Drawing on research conducted mostly in Catalonia (Spain), Moises Esteban-Guitart outlines a distinct vision of education enhanced by students' identities, which leads to a discussion of the sociocultural factors that shape the processes of learning. He brings these ideas to life by examining traits of a mobile-centric society, the present-day ecology of learning, and his three metaphors of learning (connecting knowledge, connecting minds, and connecting communities). He then suggests a number of basic principles regarding learning for the twenty-first century based on prior literature in the learning sciences. He presents the terms 'funds of identity' and 'meaningful learning experiences', and reviews the funds of knowledge approach and the Vygotskian basis for understanding identity. In the second part of the book, he illustrates a number of strategies for detecting students' funds of identity and their meaningful learning experiences, and describes some practical experiences based on the theoretical framework he adopted.
72 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose two principles designed to overcome three common biases in our understanding of learning and education, and describe and illustrate the meaning and practice behind an inter-generational, personalized, shared, connected and sustainable education, based on a culture and praxis that is caring and involved.
Abstract: The emergency resulting from the coronavirus pandemic reminds us that, as human beings, we share a common challenge. Recently, it has been suggested that Covid-19 pandemic involve a “world perezhivanie”, a collective and traumatic “lived experience”, characterized by a profound crisis that affects not only our health, but also our economic, social, political and educational systems. In the light of this situation, we need to critically re-imagine education in 21st century. In this theoretical paper, we propose two principles designed to overcome three common biases in our understanding of learning and education. From these assumptions, we describe and illustrate the meaning and practice behind an inter-generational, personalized, shared, connected and sustainable education, based on a culture and praxis that is caring and involved, that allows us to consolidate processes of educational transformation and improvement.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a conceptualisation of identity in relation to Vygotsky's concept of Perezhivanie is proposed, which is then situated within the discourse on digital identities.
Abstract: This article builds on the growing work on Funds of Identity by offering a conceptualisation of identity in relation to Vygotsky's concept of perezhivanie which is then situated within the discourse on digital identities. I also suggest how teachers and researchers could use avatars, digital representations of online users, as an identity text for drawing on and constructing students' Funds of Identity. In order to illustrate this approach, I briefly sketch an ongoing class-based research project called The Avatar Project. Overall, this article reaffirms and develops the argument that the Funds of Identity approach is an evolution of Funds of Knowledge. This thesis is encapsulated in the phrase, digital Funds of Identity: Funds of Knowledge 2.0.
30 citations
DOI•
21 Mar 2016TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore Arts & Science faculty and librarians' attitude of learning theory and perceptions of digital literacy (DL) and how digital information literacy (DIL) might improve and enhance student learning outcomes.
Abstract: This study explores Arts & Science faculty and librarians’ attitude of learning theory and perceptions of digital literacy (DL) and how digital information literacy (DIL) might improve and enhance student learning outcomes. Digital literacy (DL), information literacy (IL), and digital information literacy (DIL) consists of interaction with academic technology (AT) programs and tools. The objectives are: the rise of IL within the parameters of DL and discuss the birth of DIL, examine the modes of adoption and explore the levels of inclusion for faculty and librarians’ concepts of DL with DIL instruction with AT, define the IL phenomenon, and how IL affects faculty and librarian pedagogy. The study reveals the tension and distinction between DL and IL. Key research questions are: What are Arts & Science faculties’ digital literacy (DL) epistemology? What is the librarian’s/ library digital literacy (DL) epistemology perspectives, and what are Arts & Science faculties’ concept of DIL?
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a special issue of Digital Education Review sheds light on these topics and advance our understanding of the theories that deal with learning across various settings and times, and how to promote more equitable youth learning across these settings.
Abstract: Recent scholarship in the interdisciplinary field of the learning sciences has focused on the ways that young people use digital tools to connect learning experiences across different settings and over time. Two aspects stand out in this research: (i) the potency of youth agency in creating new activities, communities, and pathways for interest-related pursuits and (ii) the ways that peers, adults, and different sociocultural contexts afford and constrain opportunity. These contexts, or settings, include peer groups and families; schools, neighbourhoods and cities, and also nationwide infrastructures that foster connections between school-based and out-of-school learning. The articles in this special issue of Digital Education Review shed light on these topics and advance our understanding of the theories that deal with learning across various settings and times, and how to promote more equitable youth learning across these settings.
21 citations
References
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TL;DR: Jerome Bruner argues that the cognitive revolution has led psychology away from the deeper objective of understanding mind as a creator of meanings, and only by breaking out of the limitations imposed by a computational model of mind can be grasped.
Abstract: Jerome Bruner argues that the cognitive revolution, with its current fixation on mind as "information processor;" has led psychology away from the deeper objective of understanding mind as a creator of meanings. Only by breaking out of the limitations imposed by a computational model of mind can we grasp the special interaction through which mind both constitutes and is constituted by culture. (http://books.google.fr/books?id=YHt_M41uIuUC&pg=PA157&dq=Bruner,+J.+%281990%29.+Acts+of+meaning&hl=fr&ei=EwOXTrqpCsPWsgaGgO2YBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
10,465 citations
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01 Jan 1964
TL;DR: Lapham as discussed by the authors re-evaluated McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.
Abstract: This reissue of Understanding Media marks the thirtieth anniversary (1964-1994) of Marshall McLuhan's classic expose on the state of the then emerging phenomenon of mass media. Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate. There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.
9,283 citations
Book•
16 May 2003TL;DR: Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines. They get themselves learned and learned well, so that they get played long and hard by a great many people. This is how they and their designers survive and perpetuate themselves. If a game cannot be learned and even mastered at a certain level, it won't get played by enough people, and the company that makes it will go broke. Good learning in games is a capitalist-driven Darwinian process of selection of the fittest. Of course, game designers could have solved their learning problems by making games shorter and easier, by dumbing them down, so to speak. But most gamers don't want short and easy games. Thus, designers face and largely solve an intriguing educational dilemma, one also faced by schools and workplaces: how to get people, often young people, to learn and master something that is long and challenging--and enjoy it, to boot.
7,211 citations