Pedagogical mediation and digital technologies on pervasive learning among university students

Introduction

“ICTs are a phenomenon that has revolutionized human activities in all its dimensions, they have become a substantial and indispensable element of the new knowledge society, providing communication and information” (Arias et al., 2020), a situation that demands educational institutions of all existing levels, a constant process of continuous change, that allows them to adapt to the new characteristics of scientific, technological, social and even pedagogical order, that characterize this new emerging society, which explicitly demands lifelong learning (León-León and Zúñiga-Meléndez, 2019). Bringing classroom classes to the new remote mode has not been an easy task, especially since it has been implemented with very little preparation time and advance. However, this has been an opportunity for both teachers and students to explore the different tools that information and communication technologies can offer them (Macazana Fernández et al., 2021).

In this context of change driven by the digitalization of information and knowledge, the notion of ubiquity, which characterizes new technologies, poses new ways of access to the virtual environment, which implies new forms of relationship and interaction between the subjects themselves, as well as between these and technologies, which generates a range of contexts, situations and possibilities, but, above all, multiple opportunities for learning, where the learner is the architect and builder of his own learning process (Bailey et al., 2021). In this way, a new language based on technology, digital and informational is being built and reconfigured, where each subject, from the position that corresponds to him, assumes his role in a singular, active, creative and even innovative way (Barrizonte, 2020), which imprints a new dynamic to the educational process, turning, for the first time, the student into the promoter and director of his own learning process, as it gives him the possibility to decide at what time, with what resources and with what pace he builds his knowledge (Novoa Castillo et al., 2020).

This new distributed scenario of ubiquitous learning reconceptualises the teaching-learning process in students, since it transcends the formality of the educational institution, by focusing communication in another space, making it more open and flexible and thus facilitating the processes of information and knowledge management, which open the doors to a new type education, a new way of focusing pedagogical processes and even didactic processes, which must be centered on achieving new learnings in students (Flores Ortiz and García Martínezi, 2017). In this way, each subject fulfils a dual role within the new society, because it can choose to be only a consumer of information or simply a promoter of its own change, to assume an active role of transformation and producer of information and knowledge (Riofrío-Orozco et al., 2018). Therefore, an adequate, relevant and timely response is needed to establish an educational work path, from an institutional position, that is able to integrate new technologies with ubiquitous scenarios to favour learning management (Cerdas-Montano et al., 2020).

Considering these new characteristics, which define and frame this new form of learning mediated by information and communication technologies, education professionals must be able to build an educational proposal that articulates the didactic and pedagogical processes to the new characteristics of their students in their diverse personal, cultural and social manifestations (Velázquez Gatica and López Martínez, 2021), which means that teachers must, along with students, reorient their educational conceptions to the new dynamics of change (Fuentes Leiva, 2019) which involves transforming their educational practices, to incorporate the wealth of these new knowledge that students might have acquired in non-formal contexts, but which nevertheless have transcendence, because it is part of their experiences; and provide them with the tools of understanding, but above all, with a critical attitude, which allows them to take a position in the face of the enormous amount of information with which they have contact and which, in many cases, may end up creating conceptual, personal, cultural and even ethical confusion (Beltrami, 2018).

Therefore, a process of pedagogical mediation is justified, based on a humanist position, that translates the pedagogical attitude of the teacher and allows him to rediscover himself, making him aware of his real position and function in the educational field, in order to achieve, in this way, overcome the limitations of academic verbalism and development of contents converted into absolute truths in the light of a traditional curriculum, which does not respond to the demands of the knowledge society (Alzate-Ortiz and Castañeda-Patiño, 2020), to overcome this “too academic perspective of learning, which marginalizes the knowledge acquired by young people in their free time, in digital platforms and in peer-to-peer communication” (Pereira et al., 2019), even more so, at the present time, where the amount of information available, which is mobilized through digital technologies at the level of the network, exceeds the capacity of assimilation by students (Fernández Espinosa and Villavicencio Aguilar, 2016).

Therefore, authors believe that pedagogical mediation, through information and communication technologies, should constitute a process of interaction between the personal, disciplinary, didactic, and instrumental components of the teacher to promote, in their students, the development of cognitive, metacognitive, and psychosocial tools, which allows them to manage their learning, their emotions, but above all to assume a critical, flexible and adaptive attitude to different contexts and emerging situations, in constant change and transformation, that define and characterize distributed ubiquitous learning environments.

The study had two central aims: first, to determine the strength of the relationship between overall pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies and ubiquitous learning among university students. Second, to establish the strength of the relationship between particular dimensions of pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies (personal, disciplinary, didactic, instrumental) and ubiquitous learning among university students.

The assumptions made are as follows. The first hypothesis, pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies is directly and significantly related to ubiquitous learning in university students. The second hypothesis is that the dimensions of pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies are directly and significantly related to ubiquitous learning in university students.

Materials and methods

The research developed is based on the quantitative approach, since it is part of a concrete situation, where the symptoms and causes of the problem are identified and from which the later stages of the process are established, with special emphasis on the measurement of the variables, as well as the organization, processing, analysis and interpretation of the data with the aim of testing the hypotheses and extracting the conclusions of the study (Hernández and Mendoza, 2018). Likewise; It is considered basic because it starts from the purpose of obtaining new knowledge, from analysing the characteristics and properties of the variables pedagogical mediation and ubiquitous learning from the perception of the sampled students, as well as establishing the existing relationships with the aim of proposing recommendations on the results found. The design used is non-experimental, cross-sectional, correlational, since the variables investigated have been observed, defined and measured in the context of the problem situation identified, without intervention, or manipulation, at a single time and time, with the sole objective of establishing the level of association or correlation between the variables (Valderrama-Mendoza, 2013).

The work sample was probabilistic, stratified with a total of 246 students belonging to the professional school of education of the National University Major of San Marcos, of which 76 (28%) are students of initial education, 96 (39%) belong to primary education and 82 (33%) are students of secondary education. The development of fieldwork was carried out in person during the month of June 2018, which corresponds to the academic semester 208 I, for which the corresponding permission was requested from the director of the professional academic school, as well as the teachers of the corresponding subjects. Prior to the application of the questionnaires, the participating students were informed about the objectives of the research, as well as its anonymous nature. Finally, the application of the questionnaires was developed during the first academic hours, respecting the technical and methodological conditions, as well as the voluntary participation of the students in the present study. For the interpretation of the data, the technique of baremation was used according to the structure of the instrument which is presented below (Table 1).

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Table 1.

Establishment of levels and ranges for the interpretation of variable scores and their dimensions.

Levels	Variable	Dimensions
Poor	32–74	8–18
Poor	75–117	19–29
Optimal	118–160	30–40

As for the design and construction of the collection instruments, two instruments were developed, the first adapted from Pérez-Granados (2012), evaluating the pedagogical mediation through 32 items and four dimensions: personal mediation, disciplinary mediation, didactic mediation and instrumental mediation, the second instrument was designed to measure and evaluate ubiquitous learning through 32 questions and four dimensions: virtual learning environment, collaborative learning environment, collaborative reflection and cultural context, each question from both instruments presents five possibilities of response. Never (1); Almost never (2); Sometimes (3); Almost always (4); always (5).

The validation of the instruments was carried out through the content validity, for which five master teachers experts in the area of university teaching were consulted, which after reviewing the consistency matrix, the instruments, as well as the written questions, issued a cumulative assessment of 0.92 and 0.89, respectively; The result indicates that both instruments have very good validity, for obtaining the reliability both instruments were applied to a pilot sample of 30 students, results that were analysed in their internal consistency through Cronbach’s Alpha, finding a result of 0.954 for the pedagogical mediation instrument and 0.904 for the ubiquitous learning instrument, scores that indicate that both instruments have excellent reliability.

Results

In the modern world, radical changes in paradigms are taking place, which is caused by the spread of the globalization process. It should be noted that these transformations affect not only people’s lives but also the education system in society. These changes mean that the rules of educational activity, in which the main participants – curriculum developers, instructors, and students – struggle for the opportunity to understand the “real” educational context based on their everyday experience and modernity, are in a state of rethinking. Based on this, it can be noted that the process of education becomes mutually beneficial, where not only those who study but also those who teach benefit. Teachers are able to improve their competence thanks to communication with their students at the university. Pedagogical mediation in this case turns out to be a useful tool that helps participants in the educational process interpret their own experience and use it in modern realities.

The transformation of the ways of expression of various educational topics for the implementation of the educational process within the educational horizon is perceived as creativity, expressiveness, and rationality. Educational activities in today’s conditions should be characterized by a high level of interactivity, with the help of which each student can acquire knowledge through games or dynamic activities. In this way, student imagination, creativity, and spontaneity are involved. It should be noted that pedagogical mediation in this case allows the teacher to teach the educational material in a non-standard way. On this basis, students enjoy the educational process and at the same time acquire skills necessary for real life. It is important to note that there are different, possible, and real ways of mediating the educational process through which learning can be carried out without limitations in space, time, distance, or resources.

One of them is pedagogical mediation, which ensures the development of learning communities at the university. Its characteristic feature is that the process of teaching, as well as learning, can be implemented outside the university. It can happen anywhere, for example: at home, in a park, in a cafe. This shows that the location is not of great importance for the organization of pedagogical mediation. The main place in this process is occupied by the practice of learning. It is on this basis that the educational communities mentioned above can solve the problems faced by modern society in the context of a new educational culture. Usually, this approach is based on the basis of complexity and transformation, which provide for the development of collective consciousness through the joint and creative work of students and teachers. In this case, it should be emphasized that the effectiveness of these learning communities can be increased with the help of the integration of digital technologies.

One of the advantages of using information and communication technologies in university teaching is that they can more broadly cover the needs and interests of students. This indicates that the study of algorithms for creating and reproducing information with the help of available digital resources is an important component of the competence of a modern teacher. Thus, with the help of computers and programs aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the learning process, it is possible to endow educational materials with signs of interactivity. In this case, the teacher has a new duty, namely the creation of artistic educational materials. During the implementation of this process, he must express his ideas and views so that students can understand and reproduce them. It is important to emphasize that this process should bring satisfaction to the teacher in order to stimulate his high creative productivity. Such enthusiasm makes it possible to provide a sense of satisfaction not only to the creator (teacher), but also to those who evaluate this creativity (students).

It is worth emphasizing that the teaching process based on enthusiasm provokes a dynamic exchange of creative ideas between educational subjects. In addition, it allows you to develop unique approaches to solving not only educational but also everyday issues. Thus, pedagogical mediation is aimed at providing students with the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings during educational and professional training. This is the basis of education. Pedagogical representation ensures the holistic development of each individual who can express his essence and views. Culture and art are also introduced into the educational process, which allows to demonstration various educational objects based on them.

Based on the above, it can be established that the process of pedagogical mediation covers the interaction between a teacher and a student during the latter’s education at the university and is aimed at their acquisition of new knowledge and skills. It should be noted that the described activity is implemented on the basis of critical analysis, common experience, as well as active cooperation with other educational entities. In this case, the teacher acquires the status of a facilitator or motivator of educational activity. He uses his own experience and competence in the course of joint work with students, in order to achieve the educational goals defined by the latter. For the successful implementation of pedagogical mediation, it is important to create appropriate conditions for high-quality communication and interaction between the teacher and students. As a result, there is a proportional development of students’ independence, as well as an expansion of their professional competence. They also acquire the necessary skills for students to implement independent actions and decisions. Thus, pedagogical mediation is characterized by a positive impact not only on the activity of the teacher, but also on the development of mental functions of students, and their awareness of responsibility for their own actions.

Separately, authors should emphasize the specificity of universal education, the relevance of which is also due to the spread of information and communication technologies in the educational environment. Under this category should be understood education that is available to students in any place and at any time. The implementation of ubiquitous learning occurs through the use of digital devices. On their basis, exchange, transfer, and editing of educational resources take place. Thus, students can carry out continuous training, proactively respond to changes in the educational process, and increase the effectiveness of their own professional training. Ubiquitous learning encompasses the process of integrating electronic and mobile learning, as it involves the involvement of additional resources and tools, namely: Internet connection, cloud environments, and information and communication technology tools. It should be noted that as a result, all these elements are able to ensure the spread of interactive and context-oriented educational programs within universities.

In order to express the practical aspect of the research question, the paper processed, analysed and interpreted the data obtained during the experiment. The processing of the results was carried out using descriptive statistics, the purpose of which was to characterize and evaluate the variables of learning and pedagogical mediation with the help of information and communication technologies and ubiquitous learning according to the perception of vocational school students education National University Major San Marcos. Before inferential analysis, the Kolmogorov Smirnov normality test was used, which revealed that the distribution of the data did not meet the assumption of normality, so the use of the non-parametric Rho de Spearman statistic at the 0.05 significance level was justified to develop a hypothesis test (Caballero-Cifuentes et al., 2016).

Data analysis to evaluate pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies was carried out through four dimensions: personal mediation, disciplinary mediation, didactic mediation and instrumental mediation. Table 2 shows the scores obtained from the measurement of the pedagogical mediation variable, where it is observed that 62.6% of the students participating in the study perceive it between the regular and deficient level (2%; 60.6%), remaining 37.4% at the optimal level. Likewise, the median value shows that 50% of the scores obtained from the measurement of the variable evaluate it below the optimal level (me = 111.5; S = 17.58).

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Table 2.

Results of the measurement of the pedagogical mediation variable according to the perception of the participating students.

Levels	Personal mediation	Disciplinary mediation	Didactic mediation	Instrumental mediation	Pedagogical mediation
Poor	5.3%	2.8%	4.1%	5.7%	2%
Regular	53.3%	62.2%	62.6%	56.5%	60.6%
Optimal	41.5%	35%	33.3%	37.8%	37.4%
Me/s	28/5.33	28/4.91	27/5.05	27/5.89	111.5/17.58

Regarding the scores obtained from the measurement of the dimensions of pedagogical mediation authors have:

(1) Regarding personal mediation, it is observed that 58.6% evaluate this dimension between the regular and deficient level (53.3%; 5.3%), leaving the optimal level with a score of 41.5%.

Table 3 shows the results of ubiquitous learning, where it is observed that 51.2% of the scores are between the regular and deficient level (49.6%; 1.6%), remaining 48.8% at the optimal level. Likewise, the median value shows that 50% of the scores obtained from the measurement of the variable evaluate it below the optimal level (me = 116; S = 6.64).

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Table 3.

Results of the measurement of the ubiquitous learning variable according to the perception of the participating students.

Levels	Environment virtual	Collaborative environment	Collaborative reflection	Cultural context	Ubiquitous learning
Poor	5.7%	2.8%	3.3%	2%	1.6%
Regular	48.4%	65.9%	52%	44.7%	49.6%
Optimal	45.9%	31.3%	44.7%	53.3%	48.8%
Me/s	29/5.56	27/4.62	29/5.17	30/5.26	116/6.64

Regarding the scores obtained from the measurement of the ubiquitous learning dimensions authors have:

(1) Regarding the virtual environment dimension, 54.16% evaluated this dimension between the regular and deficient level (48.4%; 5.7%), leaving the optimal level with a score of 45.9%.

Table 4 shows the results of the correlation between pedagogical mediation and ubiquitous learning (Rho = 0.637; p < .01), a result indicating a direct, moderate and statistically significant correlation.

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Table 4.

Results of correlation between scores of the pedagogical mediation and ubiquitous learning variable.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
1. Personal mediation	1	0.67**	0.539**	0.441**	0.795**	0.522**	0.32**	0.373**	0.406**	0.505**
2. Disciplinary mediation		1	0.659**	0.487**	0.843**	0.473**	0.379**	0.356**	0.455**	0.516**
3. Didactic mediation			1	0.562**	0.831**	0.44**	0.429**	0.372**	0.459**	0.507**
4. Instrumental mediation				1	0.773**	0.549**	0.302**	0.503**	0.55**	0.596**
5. Pedagogical mediation					1	0.596**	0.417**	0.483**	0.556**	0.637**
6. Virtual environment						1	0.407**	0.616**	0.653**	0.861**
7. Collaborative environment							1	0.339**	0.424**	0.639**
8. Collaborative reflection								1	0.638**	0.805**
9. Cultural context									1	0.844**
10. Ubiquitous learning										1

Regarding the results of the correlation between the dimensions of pedagogical mediation and ubiquitous learning: personal mediation and ubiquitous learning (Rho = 0.505; p < .01); disciplinary mediation and ubiquitous learning (Rho = 0.516; p < .01); didactic mediation and ubiquitous learning (Rho = 0.507; p < .01); instrumental mediation and ubiquitous learning (Rho = 0.596; p < .01).

Discussion

“The unstoppable explosion and expansion of knowledge, as well as its obsolescence, generates great instability both at a particular and institutional level, and calls for the need for lifelong learning as a basic requirement for personal and professional development” (González-Sanmamed et al., 2020), an aspect that has forced university institutions to set aside outdated and anachronistic positions based on traditional education to adapt to new educational scenarios mediated by ubiquitous technologies (Morales Torres et al., 2021a). This has raised the need to strengthen the digital and informational skills of teachers as part of the process of adaptation of the university to the challenges of education virtualization (Morales Torres et al., 2021b).

Likewise, this aspect has consolidated the communicational processes that take place in the learning contexts mediated by ubiquitous technologies, where teachers and students share spaces of dialogic reflection that influence the achievement of learning objectives (Bravo Alvarado, 2021), especially for the multiple opportunities that the implementation of ubiquitous technologies in the development of non-classroom education, both in the level of its versatility, accessibility, connectivity, temporality and timeliness, which is manifested in a synchronous and asynchronous interaction adapting to the conditions, rhythms and learning motivations of students (Lagos Reinoso et al., 2018). This raises the need to develop a profile of the university teacher according to the new expectations of education virtualization, a proposal that should be based on the analysis and reflection of the experiences developed to articulate an educational project that strengthens the achievement of learning (Morales Torres et al., 2021a). Thus, the integration of information and communication technologies into the educational process aims to improve teaching-learning processes, for which the teacher must be digitally literate in the knowledge and management of technological tools to improve their application in virtual learning environments (Sandoval, 2020).

In relation to the main objective of this study, the relationship between pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies and ubiquitous learning in students of the professional school of education was analysed in its three mentions: initial education, primary education and secondary education belonging to the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, where the statistical analysis performed through the non-parametric statistical Rho de Spearman shows a result of (Rho = 0.637; p < .01), which shows that pedagogical mediation is directly, moderately and statistically significant related to ubiquitous learning. Furthermore, according to the evaluation of pedagogical mediation, only 37.4% perceive it at the optimal level, a situation that reflects, according to the students’ perception, a limited mastery and updating regarding the use and use of technological resources in the process of pedagogical mediation, which is evidenced in the development of pedagogical and didactic processes in a traditional way, because they have incorporated information and communication technologies to their pedagogical practice only as a means of presenting the contents developed and in some cases as a means to store the teaching resources used, an aspect that is reflected in the performance of students, who consider information and communication technologies as an educational opportunity, however, their scarce academic interest focused on the fulfillment of academic activities, evidences their difficulties and limitations to learn to learn, both at individual and group level, constituting a serious difficulty to adapt to contexts and situations of ubiquitous learning, limitations that are reflected in the evaluation they perform where only 48.8% perceive ubiquitous learning at the optimal level.

These results coincide with the findings of Berrocal Villegas et al. (2021), where it points out that students do not use the potential of information technologies as learning tools, finding 81.4% that limits the opportunity to consult specialized information on the web, to literally transcribe the information recovered for the purpose of fulfilling their academic activities, likewise, 84.4% points out that they do not care to quote the author or Web site from which used the information. Similarly, López Flamarique et al. (2019) states that although students are interested in the use of the Internet, their motivations and interests are not focused on the development of their academic activities, but rather on personal, social and even recreational issues. Similarly, Díaz-Vicario et al. (2019) verified through interviews, at the level of focus groups, the excessive and uncontrolled use of technologies by students, who misuse their free time trapped in some application or some mobile device. In this way, it is verified that technologies alone do not constitute a guarantee of learning, there must be an educational intention directed towards concrete objectives, where the student intentionally participates in their encounter with ubiquitous technologies and that materializes in a personal effort of knowledge construction through virtual learning environments (Urquidí Martin et al., 2019). In this way, all learning, even more through distributed environments, implies a mediation process in which the cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, negotiation of meanings and shared construction processes are constituted, integrated and dynamized through the ubiquitous space (García-Chitiva, 2021).

This raises the need to dose the contents and resources that are made available to students for the development of their academic activities, avoiding overburdening them with unnecessary jobs and tasks that contribute little to their learning process (Cano et al., 2020). Likewise, generate spaces where ubiquitous technologies transcend the formality of the educational, incorporating scenarios that intermix the playful component favouring socialization and exchange of experiences, as well as the incorporation of mosaic knowledge into the educational plane (Peña-Azpiri and Escudero-Nahón, 2020).

But above all generate educational situations where students have the opportunity to interact with the proposed activities, analyze the learning objectives, reflect on the conditions and resources that demand the fulfillment of the academic activities, make explicit the techniques and strategies with which it has, but above all evaluate the development of its own learning process (Ferreira et al., 2019). This also means guiding the process of building his own knowledge, making him understand the unique conditions that characterize him as a rational, emotional, social subject, who feels, who thinks, but above all who is able to respond to the demands imposed on him by the academic, social, cultural context and from that understanding of himself to be an architect and builder of his own personal, collective knowledge and to participate actively in the collective construction of knowledge (Obando-Arias, 2021). The second objective of the research: To establish the relationship between the dimensions of pedagogical mediation through information and communication technologies with ubiquitous learning in students of the professional school of education of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the result obtained through the non-parametric statistical Rho de Spearman shows that the dimensions of pedagogical mediation are directly, moderately and statistically significant related to ubiquitous learning. Likewise, the median value shows that 50% of students perceive the dimensions of pedagogical mediation as ubiquitous learning below the optimal level, except for the ubiquitous learning cultural component where more than 50% evaluate this component at the optimal level.

These results show that students use information and communication technologies as an opportunity that allows them access to information, educational and non-educational resources, as well as computer applications that transcend academic formality, but mainly because it allows them to relate in other geographical spaces and cultural realities, however, in the academic environment they use scarcely databases such as e-books, scientific journals or web pages, participating sparsely in communities and virtual learning spaces, which limits and hinders the formation and development of learning networks, as well as the construction of distributed learning experiences due to their scarce academic interest. This aspect is related to some extent to the fact that teachers have not managed to articulate the personal, disciplinary, didactic and instrumental dimensions to the contexts and situations of synchronous and asynchronous learning that are formed, developed and built through technological mediation, mainly because their pedagogical performance is framed, defined and characterized from a traditional educational proposal that does not respond to the new emerging, dynamic, timeless and distributed demands that characterize the digital contexts of ubiquitous learning.

These results are consistent with those found by Lagos Reinoso et al. (2018) that in its research finds that while 41% of research participants use mobile devices in their academic activities, however, 53% predominantly use it for their personal and social activities. Similarly, Morales Salas et al. (2019) expresses that 34% of students emphatically reply that the management of learning does not respond to their characteristics, empathies or personal or group interests. Thus, “it is difficult for the educational technology used today to generate knowledge on its own, hence the need for pedagogical mediation to be immersed in this field together with ICT” (Ramírez Hernández et al., 2020). The presence of the teacher is therefore necessary to foster spaces for reflection and critical analysis from the discussion and debate of significant situations that favour the activation of cognitive and metacognitive processes of knowledge construction in young students (León-León and Zúñiga-Meléndez, 2019). This raises the need to develop digital competences in teachers that allow them to articulate their academic activities to the context of digital environments, favouring the diversification of their performance to the characteristics of the technologies that they employ, to the rhythm and dynamics of learning of their students, in accordance with the expectations and learning challenges of their students (Centeno-Camal, 2021).

An important place in the analysis of the researched issue is occupied by the characteristic of universal education. For example, Aljawarneh (2020) noted that the main features of this type of education are: planning educational activities; mobility of the educational process; effective interaction of education subjects in the learning process. It should be noted that these properties were also mentioned within the framework of this article. Such features as: situational learning activity and integration of learning content are also common. In contrast to this position, Pishtari et al. (2020) presented their own characterization of universal learning, based on five key factors. They attributed to them: accessibility, immediacy, interactivity, permanence and learning. It is worth noting that in their essence they coincide with those that were named above. This indicates the unity of approaches and conclusions in both works in the context of research on ubiquitous learning.

It is worth noting separately the results obtained by Suartama et al. (2020) in their research. They established that self-regulation, adaptability and the ability to work in groups affect the effectiveness of the implementation of ubiquitous learning. Common to the results of this study is that they cover the personal qualities of students. This shows that the development of professional competence is closely related to the personal development of the future specialist. Considering the results obtained in this article, as well as the conclusions of this researcher, it is possible to combine the principles of ubiquitous learning and highlight them in a system. The latter consists of: availability; spontaneity; interactivity and permanence. In the course of determining the effectiveness of general education, an important place is occupied by the analysis of its structural elements and sources. Hwang et al. (2020) in their work indicated that this type of learning is an integrated educational model used by teachers in their professional activities. They singled out such learning methods as mixed; remote; official; socio-emotional and situational. The specified list coincides with the results obtained in this article. This testifies to the commonality of approaches to defining the essence of general education, in the context of its means and goals.

Finally, authors can conclude by pointing out that every educational process presents limitations, difficulties and even barriers in the communicative process, although these occur in the synchronous and asynchronous plane (Orozco, 2020), in this way it is impossible to move from a traditional paradigm of instruction to educational conceptions centered on learning through distributed ubiquitous learning environments, which implies the adoption of a digital theory, as well as a curricular design that is based on the formative and sociocultural practices proper to the society of information and knowledge (Padilla Vargas and Mullo Romero, 2020).

Conclusions

As a result of the research, it was established that with the help of information and communication technologies, it is possible to ensure the effective implementation of pedagogical mediation. In addition, it was pointed out that the spread of universal learning among university students is also due to the advantages of digital technologies. In the course of the research, the theoretical and practical components of the research question were determined. As for the first, it was revealed in the article by highlighting the essence of pedagogical mediation. It is indicated that this category should be understood as the process of communication between the teacher’s personal, disciplinary, didactic, and instrumental resources in the course of exercising his professional powers. This mediation has been shown to improve the cognitive, metacognitive, and psychosocial performance of university students. It was emphasized in the work that the quality organization of educational and professional training contributes to the formation of critical and flexible thinking skills in students. This is a necessary condition during the implementation of constant changes and transformations in the educational environment.

The article revealed the specifics of the relationship between pedagogical mediation and universal education, taking into account the advantages of information and communication technologies. Also, as a result of the research, the stability of the connection between various forms of pedagogical mediation was characterized. On the basis of information and communication technologies, the principles of personal, disciplinary, didactic, and instrumental provision of the educational process at the university were described. In the course of the conducted pedagogical experiment, a positive statistically significant correlation between general pedagogical mediation and universal learning was proved (Rho = 0.637; p < .01). In addition, the effectiveness of mediation in each type of training was revealed: personal (Rho = 0.505; p < .01), disciplinary (Rho = 0.516; p < .01), didactic (Rho = 0.507; p < .01) and instrumental (Rho = 0.596; p < .01). Within the scope of the following scientific studies, it is worth focusing attention on the risks of involving artificial intelligence in the process of educational and professional training of specialists in universities.