1. The future of learning is informal and mobile An interview with Teemu Arina
2. Teemu Arina A young Finnish educational scholar. He is running a company called Dicole and he is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the company. They work with social software, mainly on the consultation side.
3. Informal Learning According to Teemu, informal learning is something that is more social, more student-driven and not teacher-driven. It is life: life is informal learning.
4. Tools to facilitate informal learning Along with social software, wikis and blogs are very often considered informal learning tools by educational technology experts.Teemu sees blogs as tools that support reflective practice. When you do something you have to stop and reflect, you have to learn something: wikis are about putting those reflections together in the collective action.
5. Mobile learning It is integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you. It enables us to utilize the context in a better way.
6. Mobile learning in the near future Teemu thinks we have to emphasize the social interaction that takes place in such situations when people meet. And that’s when mobile technologies become useful. When we see mobile technologies, social technologies and physical spaces intersecting very well, that’s when we see what true learning is all about.
7. What is a teacher? The role of teacher is to show different points of view of the same thing that is important to understand. This is what the role of teachers should be in the future: they should be leaders, rather than managers. They should help people come up with ideas rather than being the source of ideas.
8. A piece of advise from Teemur We should be more proactive than reactive about learning and knowledge.
9. My comments… What I liked most about Teemur’s ideas is that he emphasizes the social interaction aspect. Interaction between people is basic in learning regardless technology evolution. I highly agree with him when he says we attend conferences not for the content itself but for the social sake because that is what I personally do. I see colleagues, chat with them in the halls or during the breaks, have meaningful conversations and learn from them in a very informal environment, not necesarily inside a classroom or in an auditorium.
10. … Now, when Teemur was asked what he would change in learning and answered “the mindset of the learners” I said to myself: “Wow! I wonder how he would do that” I am also very concerned about my students’ concept of school. Many of them think they are wasting their time. For instance, those ones who only like music.They play a musical instrument and everything they want in life is to become a musician. So, why bothering studying math, chemistry, history or English. I still haven’t found the key to open their minds.
12. References The Future Of Learning Is Informal And Mobile: A Video Interview With Teemu Arina Link: http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2007/04/12/the_future_of_learning_is.htm#ixzz0xirCgK00
