Educational technology in a cultural context

The year 2005 has been dubbed the year of the handheld. Tough market competition among software and hardware manufacturers is providing consumers with increasingly sophisticated gadgets and artefacts that make information handling, communication and possibly learning a "just in time, just for you, just enough" commodity. Innovative digital technologies are opening stimulating avenues for the creative communications professional and educational designer.

The effective utilisation of digital media depends on two crucial factors: resolution of underlying cultural issues and an organising pedagogy.

The digital impact extends to all forms of media, including TV, broadcasting and traditional news organisations such as the BBC and the Financial Times. They are operating in a world where people can get their information through a multitude of sources, from established newspapers to "bloggers". Nigel Pocklington of the Financial Times states:

"We are in the middle of a rather uncomfortable generational shift, especially in the UK. We are shifting to a generation that has not grown up reading newspapers. We are now dealing with online and digital worlds, where people get news from screens and mobile devices. It is a challenge to manage that transition."

Technology is continually triggering new forms of expression. Since the appearance on the market of Apple's iPod and Motorola mobile phones equipped with the iTune service and a memory that can hold up to 10,000 songs, music and radio broadcasting has been transformed, giving more flexibility to the broadcasters and listeners. "Podcasting" is an internet-based radio show which podcasters create, usually in the comfort of their own home using only a microphone, a PC and editing software. After being uploaded on the internet, listeners download the podcast on their mobile devices at their own leisure, all for free.

Digital entertainment is passing through a similar radical change. Sony has just launched its first handheld games console, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which it hopes will challenge Nintendo in the portable games market. With the growth of powerful PC technology and ownership, broadband take-up, portable players and mobile devices, as well as interactive TV, hardcore and casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005. The influential entertainment industry magazine Screen Digest predicts this market will increase to $21.1 billion by 2007, superseding the cinema and TV industry. Game manufacturers are continually announcing details of new and familiar titles that will run on the wide-screen format and make use of built-in wireless capabilities.

While Sony and Nintendo battle it out, newcomer from the UK Gizmondo is trying to establish itself in the handheld gaming market promoting their device that can play music and movies, has a built-in camera and GPS receiver that may also be used in multiplayer, context sensitive games. Like Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's next-generation game console Playstation 3, it integrates the gaming function with playing music, watching DVDs and streaming media from portable devices or a Windows XP computer. Gizmondo, from Tiger Telematics, consists of a mobile entertainment hub that could be used both at home and while travelling.

Multifunctionality, interconnectivity, interactivity, compactness and mobility will be the key features of the future electronic gadgets that will change the gaming experience. Recently Sony revealed that PS3 would be able to render in real time complex movie-like animations that previously took hours to create. It would also be able to display images at a high-definition resolution equivalent to that of digital projectors in movie theatres.

This generation of multipurpose, interconnected compact gadgets has the potential to transform the way we interact with media and with each other. It also promises to revolutionise the way we learn, through innovative pedagogies.

While the ubiquitous computing phenomenon is being extensively exploited by the entertainment industry, education and training institutions lag behind resisting most innovative initiatives. Unless fundamental misconceptions and misperceptions about technology and its application for learning are clarified and major beliefs are challenged, educational technology will never take a central role in the educational process.

As a first step, the fallacy that technology has some magical formula for stimulating learning just by its mere presence in the learning context has to be rationalised. Just introducing computers, providing peripherals, getting classes wired or buying the latest gadgets will not guarantee profound transformations. People immediately reject technocratic approaches, pushing expensive, technological interventions without any pedagogical and technical support. Negative attitudes, disillusionment and increased apprehension towards use of technology are nurtured when applying outdated instructional models to new learning paradigms. This is evident in most online courses that consist only of a decorated electronic version of the same pile of notes. A text-based, teacher-directed frame of mind is transferred to a virtual instructional context without the slightest change in the underlying pedagogical concepts.

Making good use of learning technologies demands clarification of shared understandings about educational technology and underlying metaphors. The relationship between educational technology, ICT, eLearning, distance learning or flexible learning need to be clarified and the relative importance of each acknowledged.

At the same time the "digital generation gap" should be addressed. The BC (Before Computer) generation, who are immigrants to the technological plethora, is dominating the technologically native young generation. Two contrasting generations are in direct conflict about the "what" and "how" to learn. A generation that had its education through language-based, sequential, classroom-driven pedagogical models conflicts with a younger one that experiences learning through icon-dominated media and random multi-modal information-processing. They experience life with an enhanced sense of connectedness having the internet, MP3s, MSN, SMS, MMS and blogs as their main source of learning. This situation demands a pedagogy that capitalises on the strengths of both generations while addressing underlying tensions.

Another challenge lies in shifting from a "reproducing" to a "designing" approach, an enterprise demanding new tools and innovative pedagogical models. Collaborative knowledge construction tools, like Virtual Learning environments, will provide the right environment for knowledge negotiations. Game-based learning gives the opportunity to experiment with new pedagogical approaches involving experiential learning. Mobile learning extends the concept of learning from localised, point source, institutionalised formats to ubiquitous, networked and dynamically evolving experiences.

The traditional conformist frame of mind needs to be challenged by a dynamic, entrepreneurial approach that seizes opportunities for catalysing education and training offered by these technologies. Maltese researchers and practitioners should be encouraged to obtain leading status in educational technology within the Mediterranean region. This is in line with the recently published National Strategy for ICT that points to a number of possibilities for changing Malta into a hub for ICT-related services.

In line with this, the Faculty of Education is developing a framework to promote the indispensable role that pedagogy plays in technology-intensive future scenarios. A number of initiatives for training and certifying people interested in designing, managing and evaluating technology-based and/or technology-enhanced learning are being developed. Based on the concept of flexible learning, an innovative blended methodology with complementary online facilities for distance learners will be adopted. The initiatives will have an interdisciplinary orientation considering technology as the means to promote other domains of knowledge and existential issues. The framework will be embedded within a larger network of international expertise through collaboration with foreign universities.

As an initial step, the faculty is organising three international events as detailed at: http://www.educ.um.edu.mt/etcc/ An International PhD Summer School on Educational Technology in a Cultural Context (June 20-25)is being organised in collaboration with the University of Twente, the Netherlands, and the University of Joensuu, Finland.

Local and international students planning to specialise in educational technology will participate in an intensive week of activities about the role of educational technology in promoting different domains of knowledge, while addressing existential issues within a socio-cultural context. Besides discussions and workshops led by renowned international and local experts, participants will have to design and develop projects in any one of the dimensions or applications of educational technology, taking Malta both as content and context for their assignment.

This event is being organised within the framework of two international conferences organised in collaboration with the International Association for the Development of Information Society (IADIS). The International Conference on eSociety (June 27-30), will discuss themes such as eGoverment, eCommerce, eLearning, eHealth, Information Systems, Information Management and ePublishing. The International Conference on Mobile Learning (June 28-30) is a specialised conference on the highly evolving area of educational technology that focuses on ubiquitous computing such as use of PDAs in the classroom and field experiments, remote group simulations, join data acquisition, mobile gaming, collaborative learning, mobile video conferencing, service providers for mobile networks and many other related topics.

These initiatives should serve to sensitise people about the need to promote the technological component in our educational system. Through the establishment of networks, we start to develop the expertise required to sustain and promote innovative technology intensive learning experiences. The ultimate objective is to create a centre of expertise that offers a vision for future educators and trainers, while at the same time exploiting the niche offered by educational technology within the Mediterranean region.

¤ Please address correspondence to: Philip Bonanno B.Ed (Hons), Mphil PhD Candidate, University of Twente, the Netherlands. Dr Bonello is PhD Summer School Coordinator and assistant lecturer, Junior College, University of Malta.