Seamless content: The Future of Learning Today

This past June I enjoyed participating on two panels at the Alliance for a Media Literate America conference in San Francisco. The primary panel that I enjoyed included Tesa Jolles of the Center for Media Literacy and Ken Kay of Infotech Strategies, and, more importantly, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Part of Ken’s presentation explored the ICT Literacy Maps developed by NCTE, NCTM, NSTA and others. Specifically, Ken noted that the ICT Literacy Map for geography includes knowledge in the use of global positioning devices. Ken says that the crafters of this ICT Literacy Map believe that there will be no geography in the 21st Century without such devices. Later, in a conversation with P. David Pearson, Dean of the College of Education at UC Berkeley, we explored the instructional implications for geography that incorporates historical narratives about specific locations.

While the maps have clear disciplinary boundaries, there is a progressive, interdisciplinary thread running through them that is easily discernable. Enter Hewlett Packard: According to an article in the business section of the October 11 San Francisco Chronicle written by Benjamin Pimentel, HP has advanced this technology in such a way as to create an interdisciplinary tool bridging geography, history, art, and literature. The new device not only tracks your location, but narrates your movement. As you walk and experience new views—parks, murals, buildings or other landmarks—voices of local artists, writers, public servants, or private citizens explain the surroundings. Further, the technology is exploring ways for anyone to upload a narrative about a particular location for others with the device to experience.

How would this change our fieldtrips? Can you imagine having students—at whatever grade level—researching some aspect of a community near the school, walking through the actual location while listening to the device, and later uploading their own narratives that serve as an assessment “product” of their learning about the experience, specific content from multiple subjects or a single subject, and use of the technology ?! I am excited about the possibilities of such a device. Ideally, HP will engage the education community not just for potential pedagogical considerations, but also economics to ensure broad availability of such a tool in schools.