“Personal, portable, wirelessly networked technologies will become ubiquitous in the lives of learners”, (Looi, Seow, So, Chen, & Wong, 2010) and informal learning through mobile technology represents a potential fundamental shift in the way people learn. Using mobile technology, learners can actively participate in learning outside of formal learning environments.
“Use of these technologies facilitates communication, collaboration, sharing and learning in informal settings with their peers, friends, and family unbounded by time and location.” (Looi, Seow, So, Chen, & Wong, 2010) However, learners can also use mobile devices as a supplement to formal learning in the classroom by connecting the mobile device to an online learning portal created by his/her learning community. “An online portal provides a platform where students can move from the individual space on the mobile device to the public space to facilitate collaboration and sharing.” (Looi, Seow, So, Chen, & Wong, 2010)
Distributed cognition theory, proposed by Edwin Hutchins, determines that learning occurs through three processes: social group, events/experiences in time, and between the interaction of material and environmental structure. In the case of mobile technology, learning can occur by way of distributing cognition among social collaboration in public learning spaces via a platform in the “cloud”, and through experience and/or artifacts found individually via informal learning in both real and virtually augmented environments.
Some of the difficulties encountered in evaluating the potential for informal and technology-enhanced learning through mobile devices are: individual student’s access to mobile devices, compatibility and cost of software and operating system of devices, inability to evaluate all learning activities outside a controlled environment, and ethical consideration.
“The notions for place, time, and space for learning have changed” (Looi, Seow, So, Chen, & Wong, 2010). With that, we must try to harness the potential impact of informal learning experiences upon students. The cognitive distribution of learning objects across social platforms, individual experiences, real and virtual spaces, and time through mobile devices has the potential to change how we learn, and should be used to leverage both individual and formal learning opportunities.
Reference:
Looi, C.-K., Seow, P., Zhang, B., So, H.-J., Chen, W. and Wong, L.-H. (2010), Leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: a research agenda. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41: 154–169.
