Collaborative ubiquitous learning: A 21st century approach for (in)formal scenarios

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social media have had a significant impact on education and teaching practices. A major impact of social media and mobile web-enabled devices is that they enable a ubiquitous learning environment, where learners can access information anywhere at any time, through a medium that suits themselves and how they learn. This chapter investigates the impact of a Collaborative Ubiquitous Learning Environment (CULE) that combines formal and informal learning. Learners use of a CULE dependent on several factors. The findings suggest that mobile ubiquitous learners’ use of multimedia resources was variable in the extent to which it connected with the curriculum designed for their courses. The data collected, however, did not prove if the quality of the resources accessed in formal-informal learning environments, when participating in these two oral tasks, was adequate. Further work needs to be done to highlight the specific impacts of these ubiquitous learning activities.