Mobile learning and teachers as intellectuals1

ABDELAZIZ MOHAMED TAMOGHZI

Abstract

Change is a salient characteristic of the "new times". In response to this change,

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Higher Education (Higher Colleges of Education

(HCT), Zayed University (ZU) and UAE University (UAEU) have recently adopted the

IPAD initiative (HCT, 2012) to support learning and instruction. Within this context, It

is imperative for teachers to understand this change. This hinges upon teachers

willingness to embrace a new mindset to look at change from a the perspective of an

intellectual and a visionary(Giroux, 1988). This will involve understanding of the Ipad

pedagogical affordances potentials for learning and instruction along with a postmodern

curriculum that rejects ‘canned’ methods, refuses the linearity, the boundaries and the

hierarchies that limit thinking and prevent creativity.

1 This paper (2013) is a reaction to the Ipad Initiative following the decision taken by the UAE Ministry of

Higher Education to use ipad as a pedagogical too. See (Gitsaki, Robby, Priest, Hamdan, & Ben-Chabane, 2013)

Introduction

Change is the overarching characteristic of the “new times” (Anstey, 2002). In

response to this change, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Higher Education has recently

adopted the IPAD initiative (HCT, 2012) to support learning and instruction. This

initiative brought together three leading higher education institutions: the Higher

Colleges of Technology (HCT), Zayed University (ZU) and the UAE University

(UAEU). The principle undergirding this initiative is mainly "to integrate the concept of

mobile learning into the daily lives of those institutions’ students and faculty" (HCT,

2012, p. 3).

In our new technologically advanced, multilingual, culturally diverse, globalised

societies, teachers have to understand and manage change and act like intellectuals

(Giroux, 1988). Being intellectuals rests on how teachers can reflect and act on their

beliefs and change the learning experience in order to transform their students' lives. In

the same vein, Giroux warns us that succumbing to the top down bureaucratic reforms

reduces the teachers to a specialised ‘proletariat’ whose task is to uncritically manage and

implement curricula rather than to develop and make history.

Acting and thinking like intellectuals and visionaries about curriculum, pedagogy

and technologies help the teacher to ask the hard questions in order to understand what he

is doing, why he is doing it, and whether he should continue to do it. More specifically, it

can help the teacher to look at the forest as well as the trees, clearly define change and be

proactive, and consciously position himself as a scholar (Giroux, 1988) in this world and

its uncertainties.

Furthermore, postmodern thinking about curriculum, pedagogy and modern

technologies can assist teachers to deal with the complexities of their daily school life.

They can deal with the imposed top-down teacher-proof curriculum reforms by changing

the linearity of curriculum text to a complex, lively experience; they can devise

transformative pedagogies that honour their mission and transform their learners. They

can tap into the resources and affordances of Internet and the information communication

technologies to rectify and change the curriculum into a curriculum text that defies the

boundaries of time and space; and goes beyond the confines of the page and the

classroom.

These thoughts came as a reaction and reflection on a newspaper article that

appeared on the National, a local newspaper, with a provocative title "Experts warn over

IPADs in classroom" (Swan, 2012). The article reports on educators' reaction to the

IPAD Initiative latest initiative introduced by the Higher College of Technologies (HCT),

to use IPADs as tools for teaching and learning(HCT, 2012).

This paper first looks at the UAE technological, sociological and economic

context which, to my belief is crucial to situate the IPAD Initiative. Second, it discusses

teachers' role in the success of any change. Third, introduces the HCT IPAD initiative

and situates it in the UAE's Information and Technology (IT) world position based on the

Global Information and Technology report 2012(Dutta, Lanvin, & Paua, 2012). Then, it

discusses the introduction of the IPAD initiative and relates to teachers' apprehension and

resistance to change. Finally, it proposes a postmodern curriculum view which, according

to me, is vital for teachers to cope with change and understand it in order to act as

intellectuals and agents of change.

The UAE techno-socio-economic context

Since the founding of the federation in 1971, the UAE has made giant leaps in

many domains. On the Human Development side, in 2010, the country ranked 30th in

the index of the United Nations (UN) Human Development Report and the top Arab

country in the list of 187 countries around the world (Al Tamimi, 2011). Economically,

the UAE gained three places in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) and is identified

as an "innovation driven economy". The GCI report states that "the country’s

competitiveness reflects the high quality of its infrastructure, where it ranks a very good

8th, as well as its highly efficient goods markets (5th)"(Sala-i-Martin & Schwab, 2012, p.

35). In a Parallel development comes a technological astounding achievement. the UAE

has achieved considerable advances according to the Global Information Technology

Report (GITR) (Dutta et al., 2012). The Networked Readiness index is based on a

framework that gauges four main key areas:

the friendliness of a country’s market and regulatory framework in supporting high

levels of ICT uptake;

the degree of a society’s preparation to make good use of an affordable ICT

infrastructure;

the efforts of the main social agents—that is, individuals, business, and government—

to increase their capacity to use ICT as well as their actual use of ICT in their day-to-

day activities; and

the broad economic and social impacts accruing from ICT and the transformation of a

country toward an ICT- and technology-savvy economy and society.(Dutta et al.,

2012, p. xii).

According to The GITR, the UAE was ranked 30th amongst 142 countries

reviewed in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), a fact that shows the importance

the country gives to Information and Communication Technology as a crucial

instrument for the economy and the human development as a whole.

On the social level, the UAE society is being more and more dependent on the

new technologies. It is being shaped and reshaped by the consumption of IT devices.

The UAE Higher Education IPAD initiative

It makes sense, then, that this economic achievement and 'e-readiness' constitute a

platform for educational change. it is also an incentive for educators and policymakers to

think "big" and put plans for major steps towards a different strategies that leverage the

Information Technology enabled environment. It is within this environment that the HCT

and its counterparts Zayed University (ZU) and UAE University (UAEU) took the

decision to launch the 'Higher Education IPAD Initiative (HCT, 2012) to "integrate the

concept of mobile learning into the daily lives of those institutions’ students and faculty

"with the aim "to encourage within the students the development of independent and life-

long learning skills necessary to success in a fast changing world.(ibid, p. 3).

A visionary perspective on technology, literacy pedagogy and curriculum

The National Newspaper article(Swan, 2012) reflects a cautious reaction towards

the IPAD initiative and a fear of the "unknown" results of this new experience. The

IPAD as a tool for teaching and learning certainly needs new pedagogies and requires a

new mindset that looks at the change from the perspective of an intellectual and a

visionary. Conlon (2000) relates an old story, which I rephrase here by adapting it to the

UAE cultural context. Three workers are building a new mosque. Asked about what they

are doing, the first worker replied that he was just laying bricks one on another. This

worker thinks like a technician. He looks at what he is doing from a narrow technical

perspective. The second worker replied that he is building the front wall. This worker

thinks like a craftsman. He understands exactly his limited role in the larger plan and

strategy. The third worker replied that he is worshiping god. This fellow transcends the

technicalities of the whole project and envision the ultimate goal of the construction site

which aims at the substance that lies behind the materiality of the building.

Asking the hard questions that pertain to the essence of the application of

technology in education is what really matters. To become agents of change, teachers

have to think like intellectuals and visionaries and ask fundamental and visionary

questions about the big plans and strategies. This perspective can have two interlinked

positive results on the teacher. First, it allows him to be part of the big plan, saves him

from the details and the technicalities of the daily classroom chores. Second, he will be

proactive. This quality serves as a shield against the uncertainties of an ever changing

world. Being proactive means also being critical by looking both at the trees and the

forest and his role as an intellectual and a visionary who asks real fundamental questions.

What is change about? What is the purpose of the change? What is school about? How

can technological tools (i.e. IPAD) effect the learning and instruction? How can these

technologies best achieve the purposes expected? These questions can help the teacher

leave his comfort zone, overcome " I am just a teacher syndrome" (Helterbran, 2010) and

be part of the change process.

Acting and thinking like a visionary is crucial because, we, teachers have a

mission . Central to our mission is to help our students “read the word and the

world”(Freire & Macedo, 1987; Kincheloe, 2008, p. 10). This is an endeavour that

requires understanding and managing change; a reconceptualisation of the curriculum we

teach; the pedagogy we use to make that curriculum accessible to and negotiable by the

students; and most importantly the technologies that mediate meaning. This mission has

grown even more complex by the pervasiveness of new digital media(Anstey & Bull,

2006; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Luke & Elkins, 1998) which has consequently

impacted our "texts and literate practices of everyday life which are "changing at an

unprecedented and disorienting pace”(Luke & Elkins, 1998, p. 4).

Lankshear and Knobel (2011) urge us to adopt “a new approach to thinking about

literacy as a social phenomenon(p. 27). Shifting to another paradigm in theory and

practice means to understand and embrace a new “mindset”, a “technical ethos” and

“ontologically new” literacies. It is this “mindset” which will help the teachers to adopt

multiple routes to literacy and leverage the power of the new and ever-changing

technologies along with their affordances and the literacies associated with them.

Technology and education

Debates about education and technology are not new. They will continue

whenever a new technology is introduced in the educational scene. What is important is

that debates draw on rigorous research and generate more than trivial remarks on

newspapers . An example is that of Clark-Kozma debates about whether media can

influence learning. Clark (1994) claimed that media are" mere vehicles that deliver

instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that

delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition"(p. 22). Kozma (1994) argues

that failure to understand the potential relationship between media as a technological tool

and learning is may be because we have not made one and we have not precluded

consideration to conceptualise media as "mere vehicles".

Research on the effectiveness of technologies and whether they have profound

effects on teaching and learning can open opportunities to ask questions, debunk myths

and deconstruct and construct knowledge. Another example comes from Zemsky and

William Massy (2004) "Thwarted innovations, What happened to e-learning and why?".

They tried to answer the question “Why did the boom in e-learning go bust?" The authors

conclude that "[e]-learning will become pervasive only when faculty change how they

teach—not before." (p. iii). According to them, this conclusion is based on three

"troubling assumptions" about the technology and education:

If we build it they will come—not so. Technology does not guarantee that

learning can occur.

The kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water—not quite. Students

are more interested in the entertaining role of technologies

E-learning will force a change in the way we teach—not by a long shot.

Despite the promises of technologies to enhance learning, teachers resort

to the ways they were taught.

In his article "Thwarted innovations or thwarted research?, Michael Simonson

(2004) reacted to Zemsky's & Massy's report by questioning the rigour of the research

questions and the research methods used. "Most probably", Simonson concludes "Robert

Zemsky and William Massy are outstanding scholars. Most certainly, Thwarted

Innovation is thwarted research" (p. ix).

What is amazing about the preceding debates is their productive nature of

knowledge. These discussions go beyond the technicalities of the technological tools to

tackle issues that relate those technologies to the learner, the learned and the learning

process. Looking critically at the technologies and their educational affordances is what

matters for visionary and intellectual teachers.

Technologies and their affordances

"Most fundamentally, affordances are properties of the world that make possible

some actions to an organism equipped to act in certain ways" (Gaver, 1991, p. 80). An

IPAD with a camera affords taking snapshots. If the IPAD is equipped with an email

application, it can send emails, provided that it has an internet wireless connection

affordance. However, not all technologies affordances are perceivable. By thinking like

intellectuals and visionaries, the teachers can discover not only the potentials of the new

technologies and their productive pedagogical uses but also understand what factors

determine the awareness or unawareness of some affordances inherent but hidden in the

device. Gaver asserts that" [T]he actual perception of affordances will... be determined in

part by the observer's cultures, social setting, experience and intentions"(ibid, p. 81).

How does an isobar line on a weather map mean? What affordances does a doctor

perceive in an X-ray photo? In the same sense, a landscape, an album, a graph, a diagram,

or a video can afford potentials for actions for different people in particular social and

cultural contexts. Likewise, an IPAD can afford access to online games for the purpose of

entertainment, but it can also afford the text highlighting features that are inherent in the

"I-annotate" application. Rhetorically, what if , as prospective IPAD user, I am not

aware, at all, that the application itself is installed on the device?

Determining the pedagogical affordances of modern technologies wedded to a

sound pedagogical framework can bring about important transformations in the way we

teach an learn. This condition hinges on the teacher’s ability to work with a n intellectual

and visionary mindset.cin the following section, I discuss two technological tools and

their affordances and comment on the pedagogical framework that is used or can be used

for better results.

IPAD affordances

IPADs have significant potential to be enablers for education. However there is a

lack of empirical evidence that this technology-supported learning initiative can actually

improve learning outcomes. The UAE Higher Education (HCT, 2012) move to adopt a

strategy to leverage the potentials of the IPAD in teaching and learning is a challenging

endeavour. However, this challenge can be met by studying IPAD's educational

affordances and the appropriate productive pedagogies. IPADs, in and of themselves, do

not come with a list of solutions to the problems nor do they propose pedagogical 'how-

tos'. Consequently, it is important to have a closer look at the ipad affordances from

different perspectives, mainly those related to theory, the learning environment and the

curriculum.

Theoretical framework

Ipads as a mobile learning technology need to be theorised. There have been

attempts to assess it against a set of criteria (Jones, Issroff, Scanlon, Clough, &

Mcandrew, 2006; Sharples, 2006). Sharples (2006) advances the following criteria:

• Is it significantly different from current theories of classroom, workplace or

life-long learning?

• Does it account for the mobility of learners?

• Does it cover both formal and informal learning?

• Does it theorise learning as a constructive and social process?

• Does it analyse learning as a personal and situated activity mediated by

technology? (cited in, Traxler, 2011, p. 19)

In the same context, (Jones et al., 2006) also suggests:

• control (over goals): the purpose for learning should be set before any activity

• ownership: Students ownership of the learning experience

• fun

• communication: helps students to communicate their ideas

• learning-in-context: situated learning that relies on authenticity real world

experiences

• Continuity between contexts: bridge the formal and informal learning and relate

the classroom , the real world and the virtual worlds that students access during their

learning experiences.

Theorising ipad uses and relating them to practice will lead to a generation of

theories that inform practice. Such endeavour can be of great importance to learning and

instruction because it will build sound and reliable theoretical frameworks.

A new learning environment

Churchill, Fox and King (2012) note that "ipads have the potential to become

“transformative technologies” that create flexible, collaborative, and inquiry-oriented

learning environments" (p. 251). From this perspective, Ipads are clearly an affordances

generative technology. Their potential to help create a learning environment is crucial

because human interactions and human relationship with technologies do not occur in a

social vacuum. This environment and its flexibility defy space, time and the formal

education. Learning is no longer confined in the classroom nor is it constrained by time.

It sets the agenda for ubiquitous learning and mobile learning which affords anywhere

anytime access to knowledge is the norm.

Ipads also present a set of interactional affordances that can facilitate

collaborative experiences. Learning can occur through communities of practice

interconnected by a common learning goal and guided by authentic real experiences. This

can be made possible by the availability of internet access.

This new learning environment, however, is not tension free. According to Hsieh,

Jang, Hwang, & Chen (2011), these tensions are mainly caused by the transition from

old to new instruction approaches. They also note that IPADs have the potential to

support student reflection if careful considerations are paid to the students learning

styles.

A postmodern worldview to curriculum

An Ipad without perceived affordances as potentials for learning and instruction is only a

piece of useless hardware that can serve anything but education. Defining what an ipad

can add to education, what environment it creates and what theories are at play in the

learning process are of vital importance. However, a sound curriculum and curriculum

theory are also needed.

As a text, the curriculum is linear and is bound by space and time. It is delimited

by the classroom or the institution along with a scope and sequence that mark the

beginning and the ending of the learning experiences. Such characteristics do not fit with

the ipad as a 'transformative technology'. What is needed, instead, is a postmodern

curriculum that is open , complex and transformative (Doll Jr, 1989).

Like an iPad that is open to multiple connections, complex in its construction and

transformative in its pedagogical affordances, a Postmodern curriculum also emphasizes

openness to a range of perspectives in social inquiry, artistic expression, and political

empowerment (Knox & Marston, 2001). It emphasizes that discourses, particular realities

are social socially constructed by a specific group, community or class of persons. It

resists taboos, certainty and resolution; it rejects fixed views and notions of reality; a

Postmodern curriculum rejects ‘canned’ methods, the linearity , the boundaries and the

hierarchies that limit thinking and prevent creativity (Atkinson (2000); cited in Marsh,

2009). A postmodern curriculum is viewed as an educational affordance that honours

difference and welcomes complexity. Like an Ipad that, when connected to the internet,

is only a node among billions of other connected nodes, a postmodern curriculum accepts

various reading from different perspectives and “acknowledges the lack of clarity that

surrounds us and sees in multiplicity and diversity natural phenomena as enriching and

challenging (ibid, p. 225).

In a Postmodern curriculum, Knowledge is always partial and perspectival

(Usher, Bryant, & Johnston, 1997). It is socially constructed and reconstructed leading to

the transformation of the learner and the learned. A postmodern curriculum supports the

emergence of alternative forms of teaching, research, and data representation (Slattery,

2006). In the same vein, Ipads, as pedagogical tools, call for new forms of teaching that

go take the learners and the learned into consideration.

Conclusion

Mobile learning, epitomised by the use of Ipads, can help bridge the achievement

gap and take learning to the next level. This is, certainly, a difficult endeavour but it is

not impossible. Ipads can emancipate the teachers and the learners as well as the

curriculum from the hegemonic power of space (classroom) and time (school schedules).

This hinges so much on the teachers' willingness to think and act like intellectuals and

visionaries. Also important is an awareness of the pedagogical affordances of the IPAD

along with a theory that informs practice. Finally, there is a need for a postmodern

curriculum that encourages teachers and learners to go beyond what is prescribed in

syllabi and scopes and sequences.

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