The 4th Way For Education

If you haven’t seen the Nokia video on YouTube , you really should take a look. In the video Nokia shares the idea they call the “Fourth Screen.”

The First Screen was the movie screen. People gathered in the public space of the movie theater to see the world presented to them through the lens of the movie camera. History and entertainment were all brought to the big screen. People, together in public, were able to laugh, cry, cringe, cheer, and share emotions together.

by Roloff

Just as moviegoers watch together, so too, do students learn together in the classroom. But the First Screen and the classroom share some flaws. Both require the people it serves to come to it. Both function off a set schedule. A both limit their offerings. Choice, time, and location are the limitations of the First Screen and the classroom.

The Second Screen was the television screen. People were connected to the outside world through a menu of television programs. People could learn about the world around them and talk about what they were watching. Television was able to reach more people. Those people required a greater variety of programming. But, instead of sharing the screen with the public, the Second Screen was shared in privacy of the home alone or with family and friends. Strangers were not part of the Second Screen experience like it was in the First Screen experience.

by allhails

The Second Screen and the classroom still shared some limitations. The participant was required to be in front of the television in a fixed location, just as the student is required to be in fixed classroom. While television increased the choice and variety of its offerings compared to the movie screen, the content was still decided upon by others. Just as the variety of subjects students are required to learn has increased, those subjects are still decided upon by someone other than the student. So called experts controlled programming just as so-called experts control curriculum.

The Third Screen was the computer screen. The computer screen changed the way we work and play. The Internet allowed people from all over the world to pursue their particular interests and to form virtual communities on-line. The Third Screen allowed people access to more information than they could have imagined. It opened up access to new types of media and allowed people to participate in creating, sharing, and talking about all types of media. But, though they belonged to “communities” they were still virtual communities. Choice had never been greater and the ability to participate in the creation, consumption, commenting on, or collection of information and media was available to many.

by Yves Janse

The Third Screen seemed to be the penultimate in screen evolution. However, the Third Screen and the current model of 21st Century Education still share some limitations and flaws. Participants of on-line communities and students are still limited to access to the Internet access, either hard-wired or wireless. The Third Screen is limiting in that much of the community is virtual. No true person-to-person interaction. Virtual space will never match touch space in the most powerful aspect of human interaction. In education, the technology that exists for students is still limited by access for all, the need for the majority of students to be present in the classroom to use the technology, and for education to focus the technology on the individual instead of creating communities.

The Fourth Screen, according to Nokia, is the screen that you take with you. The Fourth Screen allows the user to leave the virtual community behind and take the technology out into their actual community. The Fourth Screen allows the user to take advantage of the ability to create, share, collect, and comment, with their virtual or real community. It takes the user back in the realm of the First Screen, back out into the public. Fixed location, limited choice, being virtual, or being forced to create at a certain location unbinds users. POD's (Personally Owned Devices) as David Truss would call them.

The Fourth Screen is the Open Model of Education . Users and students can be in public, interacting with the world or their communities. They can be both can exist in both virtual space and touch space. They can introduce their virtual community to their touch space community. And it can happen anywhere, at anytime. Choice, unbound by time and geography, accomplished with portable technology. Information and knowledge unfiltered by experts and content created, consumed, collected, and discussed without limitations. This is the Fourth Screen and this is the Open Model of Education . Learning at anytime, from anyone, in anyplace, and is meaningful to the student. It’s the fusion of the in person and in public First Screen, with the at home in private Second Screen, and the virtual space of the Third Screen. The Open Model of Education and the Fourth Screen are the future and it’s going to change everything.

It is the 4th way of education. The remix of the previous 3. The 4th way is the power of the remix, the blend, the fusion of all elements.

I found this great picture from David Armano's amazing blog , Logic+Emotion. His is one site I cant' do without. David asks Have We Come Full Circle?

This picture touches nicely on this evolution of education. People using all of the tools of technology and networks is the 4th way, the Open Model of Education.

That is most definitely Education Innovation .