The Smartphone Achieved Escape Velocity - Can Education?

Image: Computerandyou.net   http://goo.gl/xXBP6m 

A typical smartphone has considerably more computer power than Deep Blue that beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 - back then IBM's Deep Blue was the the 259th most powerful computer in the world with 11.38 GFLOPS...  the Samsung Galaxy S6 with its Exynos 7420 GPU measures 210 GFLOPS!

Not only has a smartphone got orders of magnitude more computer power than the computers that got us to the moon back in 1969 but a typical smartphone has a faster CPU and more memory than the average satellite today. Bristling with sensors and communications and benefiting from significant research and development efforts and economies of scale today's smartphones are extremely capable devices and cost effective devices that have caught the attention of NASA. PhoneSat is a NASA project that uses unmodified consumer-grade off-the-shelf smartphones and Arduino platform to build nanosatelites and launch them into Low Earth Orbit. 

2014 was the year in which the smartphone achieved "escape velocity" - breaking free and moving away forever from the gravitational attraction of the previous generation. 2014 was   “a tipping point for Internet” and when mobile users exceeded PC users for the first time. In 2015 Ofcom reported that smartphones are the UK’s most popular device for getting online and Google confirmed that there are now more searches on mobile than on desktop. 

The smartphone is a technology paradigm shift and herein lies the problem - many haven't recognised it yet and attempt to assimilate it into preconceived modes of use.

I remember the computing - telecommunications merger narratives of the early noughties. Back then - in one corner we had Pocket PC style devices mostly from the computer industry and in the other corner the mobile phone devices mostly from the telecommunications industry. And then, along came the iPhone - although it was from the computing corner Apple put all the pieces together and created something new and different. Charles Arthur describes the iPhone like a cold shower - a shock to pretty much everyone and something so dramatically different from what has gone before it upended our expectations. More than just a computer, more than just a telephone  - the smartphone is more than the sum of its parts - the smartphone is a new generation of technology.

Thomas Kuhn used the duck-rabbit optical illusion to demonstrate the way in which a paradigm shift could cause one to see the same information in an entirely different way. 

"The Phone that works like your PC" - Microsoft advertising for Lumia with Windows 10

Its clear that many still see the smartphone in old ways. During the 1980s Microsoft helped bring about the last paradigm change from mainframe computers to personal computers but appear stuck and incapable of going with the shift to see smartphones as a new generation of device. Microsoft still see the smartphone as a combination of phone and computer and present the new Microsoft Lumia as "The Phone that works like your PC".

The iPhone was released in 2007 - this blog post is almost a decade out of date but the issues with understanding the smartphone today are as pertinent for some today as they were in 2007. Perceptual blindness causes many to fail to see objects or stimuli that are unexpected and quite often salient and almost a decade on the ships are not unseen the smartphone is treated as if its a computer or a phone in the same old way or ignored completely.

Its clear that the education system has perceptual blindness when it comes to information technology and like Microsoft still sees the smartphone as a "phone that works like your PC" - seeing it as just another content delivery device or as John Traxler puts it in What killed the mobile learning dream? 

"we've ended up with mobile access to virtual learning environments that are being used as repositories. So, in practice, students reading their notes on the bus."

I suspect that the education system's perceptual blindness to the smartphone may be permanent rather than temporary and may in fact indicate a more serious and systemic problem in adapting to change.

While the smartphone may have achieved escape velocity - can the education system and what will it take for it to do so?

For the education system "What got you here won't get you there" - John Traxler sees this in What killed the mobile learning dream? 

"Mobile learning has stalled. It has spent quite some time barking up the wrong tree, looking backwards and inwards"

"The way in which institutions have traditionally provided desktops cannot simply be extended to laptops, mobiles and tablets"

John suggests the education system needs to open up and open out - enabling students to use their own equipment. However, if students bring and use their own technology this shifts and challenges traditional dynamic of control:

When students bring their own devices, they also bring their own services and connectivity, and whereas we used to make the rules by which they could use the desktops or by which they could access the network – because it was ours - in future it will be their network and their devices.

Suddenly, students are bringing all of their habits and expectations with them about who and how and what they learn – and that isn’t necessarily limited merely to accessing whatever stuff the lecturer puts on the VLE. That's quite challenging in terms of the lecturer identity.

Education technology has a crisis of relevance and needs to stop fearing our young learners and to connect with them in ways that are meaningful to them rather than the institution? 

The education system has to open the box and race with the machines if it is to have any chance of remaining relevant and achieving escape velocity.

But its not just about technology "We need 21st century pedagogy matched with 21st century technology!"

Smartwatch: The Education and Technology Arms Race

Image: "First Watch For Easy Studying" 24kupi.com 

I started teaching during the microcomputer revolution of the early 1980s. Before the revolution computers were large, expensive, inflexible, rare and centralised - they needed a room. After the revolution computers were small, cheap, flexible, common and personal - they needed a desk.

The microcomputer revolution gave the education system the personal computer and a paradox - on the one hand we have technology intended to be personal but on the other hand to be used in a setting intended to be shared and controlled - this "monster mash" created the education technology arms race that education has been locked into ever since.

I've experienced the education technology arms race first hand over 35 years from all angles - as an IT manager trying to "defend" educational systems and policies and as teacher and learner trying to use the software, systems and technologies I want.

"Don't press this button" ... as an It manager I'm familiar with the technology arms race - with students a restriction becomes a challenge! If you block or filter something students will find a way around it, if you lock something down students will find a way to unlock it.

Creativity through necessity precipitates learning of course but its debatable how interested the education system is in creativity or learning - its certainly interested in content delivery and testing in a managed learning environment and this type of student creativity detracts from that and increases the education system's arms budget as we have to spend more time and money securing and defending what is essentially personal technology but used for institutional purposes.

The education system appropriated the microcomputer revolution for management and turned personal computers into terminals for managed learning environments - the diversity of the revolution became standardised, monopolised and mundane.

I've watched each successive wave of personal computing be corrupted by the education system. The latest being tablets and the use of tablet management systems to lock down and provision devices for students - in many cases turning tablets into books for  content delivery and consumption.

Education technology is big business - just consider the amount of technology in all its forms that goes into the education system every year - computers, data projectors eBoards, software, network cabling, switches, firewalls, routers, servers, backup systems, UPS systems, licences, support, maintenance, consultancy etc etc etc. Technology is a major cost in education today and its been a nice little earner for the education technology industry.

Each wave of personal computing has provided the education technology industry with opportunities and they have responded to promote whatever is "the next big thing" and package it as "the next big solution" for the education system.

Personal computing has become more personal as it evolved through a continuum of forms from desktops through laptops, pockets (smartphones) and now wearables. Where once students main access to computers was at a college controlled desktop these days nearly every student is packing their own computer and bringing in their own laptop, tablet, smartphone or smartwatch (and any combination of all of these) - computing has become a whole lot more personal.

The personalisation of computing has created a crisis of relevance in education technology. On the one hand the education system is still offering educational IT as terminals to big, expensive, inflexible, complicated, centralised and controlled institutional systems while on the other hand students are using personal consumer technology that is small, cheap, flexible, easy and convenient.

The personalisation of computing has opened a new front in the education technology arms race ..... students are bypassing education controlled systems - students are arming themselves and bringing in and using their own devices, networks and resources.

The technology industry is arming both sides - on the one hand the large corporate suppliers and the others that you can find at the ever expanding BETT show who have been selling technology solutions for education to the education establishment for decades while on the other hand those such as 24kupi who have recently been selling technology solutions for education to students.

Wearable tech like the 24kupi smartwatch are the first ripples of a technology mediated tsunami of problems for the education system as it is today. On the one hand the smartwatch offers an excellent device for easy studying - It has 4 Gigabytes of integrated memory and can store text, pictures, video and audio for easy access on a zoomable display that can be set to scroll. What's more, the watch can record audio and has a wireless earpiece so you can set the watch to play back recorded or uploaded audio. With features like this I would have expected the education system to embrace personal computing like smartphones and smartwatches but this is not the case - far from embracing student personal computing the education system has from the outset sought to block and ban it - from the decade old calls to block Facebook to the current controversy  and calls to ban "cheating" smartwatches - the reason being that students can use them to look up facts and notes on theor writs rather than remember them in exams.

The education system knew that wearables were coming and the usual battle lines were being formed between "education technology evangelists" and "education technology conservatives" about using them in teaching and learning. The difference this time round is that the issue with smartphones is being taken up by students rather than the system - students are entering the education technology debate and rather than being talked about they are talking ... in fact rather than talking they are doing and it is the education system that is having to respond. Student personal computing is shifting the power dynamic in education - while the education system finds this challenging to say the least - I find this exiting.

Of course, the technology development continues and already the "cheating watch" has progressed. The 24upi watch has exam use enhancement so that the watch appears black unless you are using special glasses. As is the case with technology new generations of personal computing are only going to get cheaper, smaller, more powerful and more pervasive - new waves of personal technology are going to flood the education sector - images of Canute can't help coming to mind but rather than attempting to stop the tide smartwtaches show its time to examine the education system and for the education system to accommodate rather than assimilate student personal computing.