In reviewing my thesis, it strikes me that any aims of research I discuss should be those of the future, rather than past work. In looking backwards, we do get a better sense of where we can go, and it’s particularly important that research does move our understanding forward. The aims of my doctoral research were very specific and focussed on getting the PhD, but my aims now are more broad and encompass a range of technologies in learning and a specific focus on adult learning. There are still parts of the aim from my thesis that are applicable, so I’ll build on them to elaborate where I can go from here. Read more of Aiming Research Forward
12
Jan
Previous Research
This section really needs updating as it only deals with research up to 2004. There’s a bit of my own research that I possibly should mention (see Research), plus a plethora of new forms of media interaction for social learning. Revisiting my thesis has helped to focus what my work entails, what I am – a social learning theorist (definitely NOT a social media guru).
I will intersperse this with some comments from experience and a small bit of recent research. Read more of Previous Research
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05
Jan
Online learning environments
This section of my thesis started to elaborate some of the issues of working online via a computer. I have deleted a section, indicated below, because I’m not convinced it was completely right. Nevertheless, the conceptualisation of interaction with a computer is here. I should stress at this point, that I view interaction as a term to be between people, unless otherwise noted. Later in the thesis, I elaborate this. Read more of Online learning environments
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Part of the set up to my thesis was establishing the shift towards Internet enabled education and the shifts toward using technology. The rapid growth of connections has had a huge impact on the ways we interact with one another. Also, as noted below, broadband access was not commonly available while I was doing my research. This needs to be accounted for within some of my assumptions. But the rapidity with which these changes have occurred and the effects of them are telling. Read more of How the Internet became central to education
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03
Jan
Learning and interactions
In an effort to review my research focus, and to update what I know, I’m blogging my thesis. It’s more a reblogging exercise, if you think of the thesis as a huge blog, which it’s not. But the things I learnt while doing it are very important and in the 5 years since its completion, I’ve barely touched it. In some ways, I think it has become more important because we are much more engaged in many more forms of interaction. I collected my data nearly a decade ago and my concern was that we weren’t really sure what learners were doing while engaged in ‘online learning’. I’m still not convinced that ‘online’ is different from face-to-face but I’m also not convinced that it’s the same. There are different affordances available through each, and how this plays out in learning is still not well understood. There’s an insidious pedagogy (Lane, 2009) implied with their use, but that is also true of face-to-face. I’ll come to that later.
This is the beginning of my thesis – the background, the set-up. I don’t think there is much changed since I wrote this, but there is a broadening of issues. Read more of Learning and interactions
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