Ubiquitous Learning

Speaker	Nicholas C. Burbules
Date	September 25, 2008
Time	12:00 pm
Location	240 Wohlers Hall
Sponsor	College of Business Office for Information Management (OIM)
Contact	Nicholas C. Burbules
E-Mail	burbules@illinois.edu
Phone	217-244-0919
Description	The widespread availability of handheld and mobile devices, along with almost constant network accessibility, has changed communication, social networking, information accessing and entertainment. But we haven't talked enough about their implications for learning. Slogans like "anytime, anywhere" learning only begin to capture what is changing. Social and cultural changes are reinforcing technological changes. Our current language of "online education" or even "e-learning" don't always address the significance of these shifts, or the ways in which learning processes themselves may be changing. Some are using the term "m-learning" (for mobile learning), but ubiquity means something even more than mobility. For example, WHAT people need to learn may be different given the more or less constant availability of networked technologies; it is less important, perhaps, that people be able to carry certain kinds of knowledge around in their heads if they have immediate access to information and/or to knowledgeable experts via networked technologies. This talk is intended to open up a discussion about the where, when, what, and how of ubiquitous learning, and what it might mean for university programs, teaching, and curricula.

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