The second chapter of my thesis started focusing on the research in mediated learning.  When I wrote it, the central idea was that online learning environments needed to foster interaction between people.  There seems to some assumptions (that are still floating around, although not so strongly) that putting things online would be cheaper, easier and able to do more with fewer resources (most likely the teacher’s time).  These assumptions are not borne out by experience or the research.  Teaching online is very intensive and takes much practice to get right.  The biggest difference between now and when I wrote my thesis is that I believe all teaching (face-to-face, online and blended) is very intensive and takes much practice to get right.

The quote by Suchman still holds but I’d expand it to include all interactions, between people and machines and between people.  I don’t think it yet holds for interactions between machines, but I can’t say that that will remain the case.  I’ve highlighted the part of the quote that holds particularly for interactions between people – the tension between the writer’s intent and the reader’s intent.

First, that the problem of mutual intelligibility between humans and machines recommends a research agenda aimed less at the creation of interactive machines, than at the writing of dynamic artefacts intended to be legible, or intelligible to their users.  This shift brings a rich set of resources from recent reconceptualizations of what writing and reading involve, including the inevitable uncertainties in relations of writer’s intentions to readers’ interpretations, and the active role of the reader in giving life and meaning to the text.  And this approach encourages us to explore and articulate the particular dynamics of computational artefacts, and what new possibilities those dynamics afford. (Suchman, 1997, italics added)

There are many interpretations of any text which gives rise to the need to explore the dynamics of people interacting, because we do not yet completely understand that, particularly with the interaction of different cultures across the globe.  The direction of my research remains the same – how do we mediate learning and how can we understand those processes.  There’s a series of posts coming up on those ideas based mainly on my theoretical chapter, but also looking toward the future. Read more of Interactions in learning

Related posts

Tags:
, ,

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

Related posts

Tags:
, ,

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

Related posts

Tags:
,

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

Related posts

Tags:
, ,

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

Related posts

Tags:
, ,

Theme by RoseCityGardens.com
Modified by Me!