(1583) INCLUDING THE SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE TO A UBIQUOUS LEARNING ENVIRONMENT MODEL

摘要

Ubiquitous informatics blurs educational spaces and times, creates new learning resources andopportunities. The learning process is not exclusive to the room but goes beyond its limits.In this context arises a new way of learning, the u-learning, characterized by a set of formativeactivities, accessible anywhere and from any device, stimulating the development of the competenciesthe present world demands.This paper aims to present the analysis of the results obtained from applying a model of ubiquitouslearning adjusted to the university context as a guide for designing teacher training proposals and toshow the improvement of the model out of the inclusion of a socio-cultural perspective.Framed within the “Ubiquitous informatics: its application in the university context” Research Projectdeveloped in the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Technologies of the National University of Santiagodel Estero, a ubiquitous learning environment model adjusted to the university context was designedfrom a systemic approach.In the model the characteristics of u-learning, i.e. permanency, accessibility, immediacy, interactivity,and context-awareness are considered.In a ubiquitous learning environment, mediation among the participants of the process occurs throughthe pedagogical dialogue supported by ubiquitous informatics.The model was used as a guide for designing teacher training courses. Their implementation wasassessed by surveys among the participants and the analysis and observation of the pedagogicproposals presented as their final works.The end of course work consisted of designing a proposal for a subject matter using the so-calledLearning through Projects Teaching Strategy that is related to “learning within and outside the room,all the time”, that is, to ubiquitous learning. In this stage, drawbacks appeared, for example, in positingproblematic situations, in the switch of the teaching role, in the collaborative working, in theachievement of innovating proposals instead of mere technological ones among others. This unveiledthat teachers should also be ubiquitous students and that the model needed to be adjusted.The ubiquitous learning is situated, contextual, and incorporated to daily life as much the same it isposited by social constructivism. The Zone of Proximal Development concept is incorporated to thecore element of the model, the “student”, and to the relationships among the various elementscomprising the ubiquitous learning environment. Additionally, the design of activities that conjugateresearch, discussion, practice, collaboration and production along the learning process is proposed.First the original ubiquitous learning environment model utilized as guide for designing training isintroduced. Then the results that give rise to the proposal are analyzed. Later the main concepts of theVigotsky's theory, in particular the zone of proximal development, guiding the preliminary adjustmentof the model are established. At last, the conclusions highlighting the convenience of considering thesocio-cultural perspective within a ubiquitous learning model supported by ubiquitous informatics thatgoes beyond the mere technological issue are stated and the future working lines of work aresuggested as well.