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Rethinking Teaching

Rethinking Pedagogy
	With ubiquitous access to digital tools and the Internet, classrooms no longer need be thought of as isolated places with limited resources. Rather they can, and should, be reconceived as portals with access to abundant resources and rich connections to the world. Teaching accordingly needs to be thought of less as instruction and more as facilitation of learning. Teaching should be re-imagined as scaffolding each and every student's learning with resources appropriate to his or her abilities and interests.

	We like to think of the role of the teacher in a ubiquitous computing classroom as similar to the role of the conductor of an orchestra. The conductor's job is to bring together the disparate voices of the instruments to bring to life a common musical theme. Similarly, the role of the teacher in a ubiquitous computing environment involves both supporting individual learning and blending the learning of individuals into a shared class experience.

Rethinking Boundaries
	Ubiquitous computing diminishes boundaries imposed by brick and mortar and the school day. Mobile computing devices, wireless networks, and online spaces make it possible to extend teaching and learning beyond school walls and the school day, and to bring the larger world into the classroom.

	For example, fourth graders in RCET's ubiquitous computing classroom participated in a state-wide stream quality project, using digital probes to measure water temperature, Ph levels, and stream flow. Students also used nets to collect and count organisms in a local stream. They recorded and graphed all of their data on handheld computers, using the built-in digital cameras to take pictures of the stream site. Once students got back to the classroom, they shared their findings with experts, state officials, and other classes in Ohio through videoconferencing and data sharing across the Internet. Other students in our ubiquitous computing classes are using mobile devices for learning on the bus, at home, and in various other locations as ideas occur to them, and to record real world experiences to bring back to the classroom. They are using video conferencing to talk with experts on a variety of topics and to interact with students in a school in Mexico City. They are sharing classroom experiences with their parents via email.

	Of course, these are small examples when one considers the possibilities for teaching and learning outside of the school room and school day as they are available now, but they signal the beginnings of a transition to learning that transcends spatial and temporal boundaries.

Rethinking Curricula
	In many ways, ubiquitous technologies have radically changed our everyday lives. Many of us use tools like ATM machines, check-out scanners, microwaves, cell phones, cable TV, GameBoys, and the Internet routinely. However, today's classrooms are not fundamentally different from classrooms that existed fifty years ago.

	Many educators argue that schools need to change or they will become irrelevant. They argue that we need to use digital tools across the curriculum, just like we do in our lives. We must also rethink what knowledge and skills are important, and what it means to be literate in a digital world. Ubiquitous computing changes what is pedagogically possible. For its full potential to be realized, what is taught must be systematically rethought across the curriculum at school, district, state and national levels.

	For more information see also Swan, Kratcoski, Lin, Schenker, van 't Hooft (2006a).

Last updated on 09/24/2010