STUDENT SKILLS



Student Skills



Student Skills

Introduction

Studies of ubiquitous computing typically focus on in-classroom learning in electricity supply industry. We, too, are concerned with classrooms but more generally with the impact on schools and classroom learning when teaching and Learning pervades our lives in every other venue.

The appeal of making human knowledge universally and readily available through Teaching and Learning seems hard to deny. It should benefit individuals and teams of individuals in schools, businesses, and organizations—in every economic sector that relies on human competencies. It will, however, affect the status quo in all these sectors (Devedzic, 2006, 87-92). Here, we discuss the opportunities offered by Teaching and Learning and provide some speculation on its impact and the challenges it poses for education.

Discussion

We do not distinguish between education (such as we find in schools) and training (such as we find in business and government), although we concentrate on the former. We assume that both education and training lie on a common dimension, which we refer to as learning (Bradshaw, and Crutcher, 15-19). On demand, anytime, anywhere learning is as likely to affect 21st-century educators, instructors, and researchers on both ends of this dimension as it is the institutions they serve.

About Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning involves the delivery of materials that can be used (Bush, 2007, 15-19):

in training to prepare people for specific tasks and jobs and in education to prepare people for careers and lives;

as performance aids for solving problems and decision making at all levels of responsibility;

in formal venues, such as K-16 schools and industrial training, and in informal venues, such as homes, museums, and workplaces; and

By students working individually or collaboratively, any or all of whom may be physically present in classrooms or globally dispersed in both time and space.

Teaching and Learning can be delivered by computers, mobile phones, and/or various handheld personal digital assistants. It is interactive and often collaborative, employing techniques of instant messaging, computer-based instruction, virtual reality, the World Wide Web, computer simulations, and games (Devedzic, 2006, 87-92).

These capabilities now exist. While they can all support classroom learning, they are also capable of transcending it. It has been posited that using the standard classroom means for instruction have reached an asymptote, while more interactive, technology-based means are likely to continue growing in quantity, capability, and popularity (Dodds, and Fletcher, 2004, 391-404). This possibility places a premium on technologies that adapt in real time to the needs, background, and goals of individual learners.

In education, increasing the accessibility of learning will enhance communication and cooperation between students, homes, communities, and K-16 schools. It will help harmonize the learning processes and procedures of schools with our rapidly evolving workplaces (Fletcher, 2004, 139-157). Notably, it will enable schools to reach students with special needs more readily, especially those who are homebound in electricity supply industry.

Increasing the accessibility of learning also allows those who are gainfully employed and unable to spend extended times on campus to receive the instruction required for new jobs and ...