Ubiquitous Educational Computing and Learner-Centered Instruction: A Likely Pair

Abstract

Computers are everywhere in contemporary life. Education is no exception. As schools move toward the goal of one computer for every one student, it is important to consider both the effectiveness of these initiatives, and how they create and are fostered by person-centered approaches to learning. A meta-synthesis of the research on ubiquitous computing in educational settings shows that computer literacy, usage, writing, and twenty-first century skills like collaboration, organization, and self-directed long-term project completion are facilitated by ubiquitous computing, at least when accompanied by learner-centered instructional methods. Likewise, learner-centered instructional methods appear more likely to occur in these technology-enhanced environments.

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

—Paulo Freire.