Ubiquitous Computing
September 26th, 2006 by dmirliss
From looking at my blog you might think that my disseration has something to do with virtual worlds, that just happens to be a side interest. My real focus is on CSCL and learning communities in a variey of environments (SL being just one of them). My pilot data was collected in on a campus that can be described as a ubiquitous computing environment. I was struggling for a theoretical framework but then got the chance to hear Karen Swan speak at the ELI Assessment conference this past month. You can access her talk on the Educause web site.
She presented a model of ubiquitous computing and teaching that is simple but yet helped me to focus in my interest in such an environment - the social aspect.
This model locates such effects in three broad areas– in the ready availability in ubiquitous computing environments of a wide variety of external, material representations of knowledge; in the particular supports ubiquitous computing provides for individual students’ internal conceptualizations and construction of knowledge; and in the unique social interactions and shared uses of knowledge ubiquitous computing enables, through and around which knowledge is constructed (Swan, Kratcoski, Diaz, van ‘t Hooft & Juliana, 2004). We use the terms “representations,” “conceptualizations,” and “uses” respectively to distinguish these domains, and view them as interacting and interdependent in their effects. http://www.rcetj.org/?type=art&id=5666&&
Within the article cited above Dr. Swan and her colleagues present case studies that examine representations and conceptualizations but not uses. What are the unique social interactions and shared uses of knowledge that are supported by ubiquitous computing? What does this look like in a college classroom? Outside of the classroom? Does it transcend classes?
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