The Future Of Learning Is Informal And Mobile: A Video Interview With Teemu Arina - Robin Good's Latest News

Joel Liu's personal annotations on this page

Joel bookmarked on 2008-10-15 learning mobile

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

This link has been bookmarked by 27 people . It was first bookmarked on 12 Apr 2007, by noreason.

20 Sep 09

Lambrina Kolioussi
Herramientas digitales
18 Jul 09

Jose Asuncion
PLE interview
- What does the future of learning look like?
- " informal learning" and " mobile learning"
- 19 more annotations...
- - 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.
  - 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.
  - But you can’t really draw a map or a clear path on how people are going to learn informally.
  - building an environment that supports informal interaction.
  - social software, wikis and blogs are very often considered informal learning tools by educational technology experts.
  - social software as something that can support informal interaction:
  - 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.
  - not because of the content. The content is just the share object for people to meet.
  - connecting the virtual and the physical spaces
  - that’s where I think informal learning is currently failing in the educational technology field
  - When mobile learning and informal learning intersect it’s like typical life and I think it’s the direction we should go to.
  - The third place is where you can escape school, the demands of your family and the demands of your manager to share meaningful conversations.
  - Knowledge can reside in non-human appliances so you can distribute knowledge in different systems.
  - school system an interruption of their lives in order to get what they really want.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - They should help people come up with ideas rather than being the source of ideas.
09 May 09

ralfhilg
08 Jan 09

John Kellden
Blog
11 Dec 08

Martin Lindner
famous interview (Robin Good)

informal_learning _wlernpost deli
03 Nov 08

stvalentine stvalentine
An interview with Teemu Arina, a young Finnish educational scholar, with lots of good ideas, a fully working brain and a vision for the future as only a few are able to crystallize.

learning e-learning informal teaching mobile arina future
Rob Jacklin
e-learning informal mobile arina learning
- 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.
- The content is just the share object for people to meet.
- 1 more annotations...
- - 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.
02 Nov 08

Ulrich Schrader
learning teaching informal eLearning trends future
01 Nov 08

Jo McLeay
An interview with Teemu Arina, a young Finnish educational scholar, with lots of good ideas, a fully working brain and a vision for the future as only a few are able to crystallize.

learning e-learning informal teaching mobile arina future
15 Oct 08

Joel Liu
learning mobile
- 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.
- 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.
- 9 more annotations...
- - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
  - 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.
14 Oct 08

Dwayne Harapnuik
e-learning learning teaching informal
01 May 08

Silvia Andreoli
Teemu_Arina 21st_Century_Skills
26 Feb 08

Kristen Kozloski
future learning of
17 Feb 08

Gabriela Grosseck
e-learning m-learning education education2.0 elearning2.0 educatie_clip twitter
30 Oct 07

Fernando S
conectivismo e-learning educaci futuro informal learning mobile movil software_social teaching tecnologías web2.0
06 Jun 07

elderbob brannan
connectivism e-learning education teaching video
30 Apr 07

Mike Nall
2007 e-learning development communication
16 Apr 07

lauren pressley
Good interview piece on informal learning.

informal learning mobile.learning ambient
15 Apr 07

Concepción Abraira Fernández
futuro learning e-learning web2.0 conectivismo software_social educaci movil mobile teaching tecnologías informal
14 Apr 07

Ton Zijlstra
teemuarin robingood informallearning learning mobile socialsoftware Connectivism
Howard Rheingold
Our interaction focus, in this first part of our video interview, is on the future of learning, and on the relevance that terms like "informal learning" and "mobile learning" will come to have in the near future. To my engaging questions Teemu Arina repli

education educational_technology mobile
13 Apr 07

Clive McGoun
Informal
maarten cannaerts
- 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.
- 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.
12 Apr 07

noreason
e-learning future interview