Ubiquitous Computing: Rethinking Teaching, Learning, and Technology Integration

Abstract

Ubiquitous access to digital technologies is becoming an integral part of our business, home, and leisure environments, yet despite a quarter century of educational technology initiatives, ubiquitous computing remains conspicuously absent from our schools. In this chapter, we argue that simply putting more computers in schools will not solve the problem, but rather that teaching, learning, and technology integration need to be reconceptualized within a ubiquitous computing framework before the full educational possibilities inherent in digital technologies can be realized. Using examples from our laboratory classroom, we discuss how teaching needs to be reconceived more as “conducting” than “instructing”; how learning needs to become more the responsibility of the student, and located with her in an expanded space and time that extends beyond the classroom; and how technology integration needs to be understood not as an add-on, device-driven enterprise, but one motivated by teaching and learning needs and in which multiple technology choices are readily available to teachers and students both within and beyond the classroom.

Citation

Swan, K., Cook, D., Kratcoski, A., Mei Lin, Y., Schenker, J. and van ’t Hooft, M. (2006), "Ubiquitous Computing: Rethinking Teaching, Learning, and Technology Integration", Tettegah, S.Y. and Hunter, R.C. (Ed.) Technology and Education: Issues in Administration, Policy, and Applications in K12 Schools (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 231-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3660(05)08016-9