Description

Abstract:
The 21st century is different to the 20th, in part because of the effects of the Digital
Revolution and subsequent developments in mobile, wireless and networked technologies.
Mobile phones and more advanced Smartphones now outsell desktop PCs and have become
essential communication devices, especially for young people, many of whom use them as
their primary way of accessing the Internet. When combined with current and near-future
directions in technology such as the miniaturisation of computing processors, the spread of
wireless technology, and the beginnings of computing delivered as a service over the Internet,
these developments can be seen as leading to an era of Ubiquitous Computing. Education,
which normally would be expected to be preparing students to thrive in this period, has been
slow to adapt to these changes. When integrated into learning however, the opportunities
which connected, always-on technologies present for facilitating rich learning experiences can
be described as providing a uLearning, or ubiquitous learning environment. Guided by the
principles of the new learning paradigm of Connectivism, this combination of advancing
computing capabilities and new theoretical thinking present numerous ways that Education
can adapt. Educators can become designers of learning, and allow students to become active,
collaborative participants in knowledge making. Administrators can implement mobile,
wireless and Cloud Computing-based options to potentially replace todays classrooms. In
these and other ways, 21st century education can begin to more fully represent 21st century
reality.