<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Not all of you may not know me as I am relatively new to the list. My<br>name is Ismael Peña-López.<br>Many thanks to Trebor Scholz for inviting me to share my thoughts on<br>learning on the iDC!!</p>
<p>I am a lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia in Spain where I<br>work about the digital divide, specifically questions of empowerment. My<br>research asks how educational institutions change because of digital<br>
media.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/">http://ictlogy.net</a></p>
<p>Along those lines, I would like to introduce some topics on the<br>de-institutionalization of learning that have been enabled by ICTs. How<br>is this de-institutionalization being used to reach collectives that<br>dropped out of the educational system or actually never even entered it?</p>
<p>Some of my reflections will be based on the "2010 Horizon Report:<br>Iberoamerican Edition" (<a href="http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/8050">http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/8050</a>), which I<br>co-authored with Cristóbal Cobo (<a href="http://ergonomic.wordpress.com/">http://ergonomic.wordpress.com/</a>) and<br>
Diego Leal (<a href="http://www.diegoleal.org/">http://www.diegoleal.org/</a>) who will join me in this iDC<br>discussion.</p>
<p>Let's start like this:</p>
<p>In many places of the world (especially in rural areas and in lower<br>income countries, but not only) the educational system is deficient.<br>Today, many claim against the industrialization of education, the<br>"Fordization" of learning, the failure of one-size-fits-all, the<br>
devaluation of knowledge, or the creation of workers instead of<br>citizens.</p>
<p>But the truth is that, in most cases, the industrialization of education<br>democratized access to knowledge, even at the risk of a certain level of<br>commodification. The problem is that education, especially quality<br>
education is increasingly difficult to scale<br>(<a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3405">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3405</a>).</p>
<p>Notwithstanding, digitization of content and communications have caused<br>a dire "revolution" that is transforming our society into an Information<br>Society. This digital revolution has lowered the costs of creating,<br>
accessing and distributing knowledge-based goods and services, and has<br>also lowered the costs of interaction, intermediation and transaction.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=640">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=640</a><br>
<a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=1332">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects.php?idp=1332</a></p>
<p>Some find this revolution a threat to educational institutions -- it<br>will now be easier to circumvent them to access knowledge and experts<br>around the globe at lowest costs. Some think that it can be leveraged to<br>
reach the unreached, to bring education to those that, because of time,<br>space or financial constraints, could not attend formal education in an<br>educational institution (ie. schools, universities...).</p>
<p>Open educational resources allow for that quality content to reach<br>people everywhere in the world. The MIT's OpenCourseWare project has,<br>for instance, been replicated for the Spanish speaking community at<br>
Universia OCW (<a href="http://ocw.universia.net/">http://ocw.universia.net</a>), in Chinese by CORE<br>(<a href="http://www.core.org.cn/cn/opencou/">http://www.core.org.cn/cn/opencou/</a>), in Japanese by the Japan OCW<br>
Consortium (<a href="http://www.jocw.jp/">http://www.jocw.jp/</a>) or the ParisTech OpenCourseWare project<br>for French.</p>
<p>The good news is that not only institutions can produce such materials<br>as Khan Academy has shown.<br><a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">http://www.khanacademy.org</a></p>
<p>Mobility solutions have also enabled people to learn anywhere anytime<br>and with the most simple devices. The Tecnológico de Monterrey or the<br>Open of Catalonia are mobile devices. And cellphones (mind you: not<br>
smartphones) are being used<br>for many learning purposes and stand for mobile and immersive learning<br>for literacy in emerging economies (ie. Sub-Saharan Africa).<br><a href="http://www.ccm.itesm.mx/tecmovil/">http://www.ccm.itesm.mx/tecmovil/</a><br>
<a href="http://myway.blogs.uoc.edu/">http://myway.blogs.uoc.edu/</a><br>MILLEE <a href="http://www.millee.org/">http://www.millee.org/</a><br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3556">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3556</a></p>
<p>The m4lit project in South Africa Kenya is also worth mentioning<br>(<a href="http://m4lit.wordpress.com/">http://m4lit.wordpress.com</a>).</p>
<p>Peer to peer learning has been definitely boosted by the Internet, that<br>has been able to create communities of practice and communities of<br>learning despite their members being scattered on wide geographic areas.<br>
Red Social UIMP 2.0 (<a href="http://redsocial.uimp20.es/">http://redsocial.uimp20.es/</a>) to explore the new<br>potentials of ICTs in Education in SpainSpanish speaking countries, Stephen Downes' page (<a href="http://www.downes.ca/">http://www.downes.ca</a>)<br>
on education, based in Canada but with participants all over the world,<br>or the community around Uruguay's Plan Ceibal<br>(<a href="http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/">http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/</a>) are just some examples of social networks<br>
empowered by ICTs.</p>
<p>Even autonomous learning has its chance after the development of<br>Personal Learning Environments, a combination of the aforementioned<br>approaches centered on and managed by the learner.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=ple">http://ictlogy.net/bibciter/reports/projects_list.php?filter_tag_project=ple</a></p>
<p>And augmented reality, artificial intelligence and the semantic web<br>will, in a near future, add up to the toolbox learners can use outside<br>of educational institutions for their own benefit and learning.</p>
<p>There are, of course, some dichotomies that need being addressed but the<br>gates are wide open and the possibilities many.<br><a href="http://ictlogy.net/?p=3430">http://ictlogy.net/?p=3430</a></p>
<p>best,<br>Ismael</p>
<p>-- <br>Ismael Peña-López<br>Department of Law and Political Science<br>Open University of Catalonia</p>
<p><a href="http://ictlogy.net/">http://ictlogy.net</a><br>Av. Tibidabo 39-43<br>08035 Barcelona</p>