The Future Of Learning Is Informal And Mobile: A Video Interv...

Teemu Arina: Some years ago, Finland was very strong in the mobile side and people where laughing at the idea of mobile learning. But I think it’s coming. I think it’s integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you. You are not saying things in a classroom out of context, you are not sitting in a formal course within an organization but you are actually there, where you need to be. You need to apply the context to the context itself. I think that’s what mobile learning does: it enables us to utilize the context in a better way.

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Teemu Arina: Some years ago, Finland was very strong in the mobile side and people where laughing at the idea of mobile learning. But I think it’s coming. I think it’s integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you. You are not saying things in a classroom out of context, you are not sitting in a formal course within an organization but you are actually there, where you need to be. You need to apply the context to the context itself. I think that’s what mobile learning does: it enables us to utilize the context in a better way.

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What does the future of learning look like?

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" informal learning" and " mobile learning"

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For me informal learning is something that is more social, more student-driven and not teacher-driven. Well, it’s life: life is informal learning.

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Teemu Arina: Well, it is very hard to define what is informal learning… For some people it is “non formal learning”, which means learning outside school, outside formal structures. For me informal learning is something that is more social, more student-driven and not teacher-driven. Well, it’s life: life is informal learning.

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f you try to support informal learning it easily becomes formal learning. I think you can invest in a sort of structures that support informal learning.

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But you can’t really draw a map or a clear path on how people are going to learn informally.

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building an environment that supports informal interaction.

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Say, you can build piazzas like here in Rome, where people can meet and share informal conversations. But you can’t really draw a map or a clear path on how people are going to learn informally. It’s just about building an environment that supports informal interaction.

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social software, wikis and blogs are very often considered informal learning tools by educational technology experts.

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social software as something that can support informal interaction:

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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. That’s important for building new knowledge, new ideas and understand what to do next.

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Robin Good: What about mobile learning? What is it? Is it coming?

Teemu Arina: Some years ago, Finland was very strong in the mobile side and people where laughing at the idea of mobile learning. But I think it’s coming. I think it’s integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you.

You are not saying things in a classroom out of context, you are not sitting in a formal course within an organization but you are actually there, where you need to be. You need to apply the context to the context itself. I think that’s what mobile learning does: it enables us to utilize the context in a better way.

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But I think it’s coming. I think it’s integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you.

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Teemu Arina: Some years ago, Finland was very strong in the mobile side and people where laughing at the idea of mobile learning. But I think it’s coming. I think it’s integrating with the informal learning space, because being mobile means that the context is around you.

You are not saying things in a classroom out of context, you are not sitting in a formal course within an organization but you are actually there, where you need to be. You need to apply the context to the context itself. I think that’s what mobile learning does: it enables us to utilize the context in a better way.

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You are not saying things in a classroom out of context, you are not sitting in a formal course within an organization but you are actually there, where you need to be.

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The content is just the share object for people to meet.

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mobile technologies enable me to see what other people are thinking and get behind their interests, which creates the opportunity for us to share a conversation.

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not because of the content. The content is just the share object for people to meet.

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connecting the virtual and the physical spaces

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that’s where I think informal learning is currently failing in the educational technology field

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It’s kind of connecting the virtual and the physical spaces, and that’s where I think informal learning is currently failing in the educational technology field: we are not giving enough importance to the meaning of physical spaces and piazzas for meeting. When we see mobile technologies, social technologies and physical spaces intersecting very well, I think that’s when we see what true learning is all about.

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When mobile learning and informal learning intersect it’s like typical life and I think it’s the direction we should go to.

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We are going back to the ancient times of platonic-style conversations, which means having conversations with people who help you come out with ideas by asking the right questions.

That’s what you are doing Robin: you are asking the right questions. When mobile learning and informal learning intersect it’s like typical life and I think it’s the direction we should go to.

The industrial revolution generated the need for structures that were useful: but in the future I think we have gone too far, seeing people – as Max Weber would say – as cogs in machines. People like little cogs trying to get into larger cogs.

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The third place is where you can escape school, the demands of your family and the demands of your manager to share meaningful conversations.

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Teemu Arina: I think there are certain things you need to do. One is to increase serendipity, which is accidental interaction between people, perhaps by creating very effective “third places”. I mean places between the home – which is the first place – and work or school – which are second places. The third place is where you can escape school, the demands of your family and the demands of your manager to share meaningful conversations.

A place which is not connected by technology, in which people meet each other and are able to interact on topics over different fields. If you invest in such environments where you can have such conversations with your employees, that’s when you start to come up with ideas from different mindsets than your own.

It’s very easy to have a tunnel-shaped vision of thinking when you are looking for rational argumentations inside your organization. You have to look for new environments existing outside your organization and let people go there and share different conversations.

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Knowledge can reside in non-human appliances so you can distribute knowledge in different systems.

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Fundamentally, it’s about emphasizing the connection more than the content that goes through the connection. George Siemens would say it’s the pipe that is more important than the content within the pipe.

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school system an interruption of their lives in order to get what they really want.

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So the major shift I want to do is that people could work on what they are interested in and understand the value of it.

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The role of teacher is to show different points of view of the same thing that is important to understand.

You don’t look at the sky from the same point of view all the times in order to understand what’s going on with the planet. The teacher shows different angles to these interconnected constructs around us.

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You don’t lead people by saying what to do and what things to look at.

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You actually light the fire inside them to go towards a direction that is collectively useful.

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They should help people come up with ideas rather than being the source of ideas.

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Managers manage things; leaders lead people. You don’t lead people by saying what to do and what things to look at.

You actually light the fire inside them to go towards a direction that is collectively useful. 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.

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I think it’s like the global warming: we see the problem (e.g. we see the problem of learning and teaching) but sort of, you know, you wake up in the morning and there is no problem with it – not yet – so you don’t do anything about it. One day you wake up and it’s a disaster.

Maybe we should be more proactive than reactive about learning and knowledge.

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