Saturday 14 April 2012

'Learning technology' - an outmoded term?

In an email conversation with Lawrie Phipps and David Baume from SEDA's Digital Literacy project, we were looking at the term 'learning technology'.

I suggested that the term comes from a time when institutional LTA systems were being developed and implemented for the first time. Important because one of the great powers of digital technology is interoperability, and making information easily shared among all the people and processes involved in learning. But since the emergence of VLEs, I think different strengths of digital technology have come to the fore, especially portability and ubiquity. Networks, tools and services that happen to be useful for learning have become much more available, disappearing at one end into disciplinary practices (GIS are hardly 'learning technologies' but 'technologies of geographical practice'), and at the other end into learners' personal and social habits (blogs, wikis, social networks, digital media…). So it has become less useful to talk about 'learning technologies', which implies that the learning is in the system, and more important to talk about specifically educational practices (LTA and research/scholarship) in a digital environment - an environment in which activity is always already infused with digital information and communication options, and in which this fundamentally changes the meaning of the activity.

I do think that in all this we must give ourselves the means to describe the material, social, cultural effects of the digital as distinct from other human technologies such as print, writing, picture-making etc. In part just because these effects are becoming harder and harder to see - particularly for younger students who have been surrounded by them from birth and have them, so to speak, pressed up against their eyes. As educators and developers we need to open up spaces in which it is possible to critique these effects, to reflect on how they act in our own lives/learning, and to adopt critical stances towards the ways they act on us collectively - I mean specifically, materially, historically etc and not imagining digital technologies to have some magical powers that other technologies do not. This space can't be opened if we adopt the position that 'it's all just technology' or 'the kids don't see the difference so it doesn't exist'.

As a further complication of terms, I've grown quite keen on the word 'educational' for all its baggage. Teaching/educating others is a different set of activities to learning, or at least a radically different 'set towards' those activities (a 'set towards' the learning of the other person). All animals learn but only social animals teach, and I dislike the over-valuing of informal learning if what that means is the basic human aspiration to help others to learn is side-lined. There are enough people gunning for the teaching profession. And again in the interests of making visible, learning/teaching that takes place in institutions/settings specifically designed for those activities is different from learning/teaching that takes place in other settings. That's not to say new relationships should not be developed between formal educational settings and other places of learning, and in fact digital technology is critical in mediating those new relationships. But if we lose sight of what is different and special about times/places of formal learning it becomes very difficult to bring those relationships into being, or indeed to pursue the aim of equal access to those special times and places which has been the driving force behind educational thinking for much of the last two centuries.

So I think we are talking about educational practice in a digital society. Not as neat as learning technology, but for me it puts the emphasis of the current political/social/educational project in the right places. Defending formal education. Defending the right to formal education. Placing it in its proper social context. Understanding that the social context has been changed beyond recognition by the ubiquitous use of digital forms of information and communication, and that this would change the whole meaning of educational practice even if those social changes had not in many cases originated in the educational sphere.

23 comments:

Pat Parslow said...

Thought provoking. I agree on the broader aspects but differ on some of the fine detail, I think.

The use of digital is, I think, inadvisable. We happen to use digital technology for computation, but we could use analogue instead. It just so happens that we figured out binary logic system hardware and lowered the cost of manufacture through scale. Of course, digital is, in this sense, a misnomer anyway, and I am sure it will continue to be used even if we switch to other computational substrates. But I can't help but think 'technology' is a better term - "The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes," as Google currently tells me the definition is.

The other area I am having trouble with is the idea that informal learning may undermine the natural tendency of people to want to help each other. I would say it not only bolsters that desire, but comes about because of it - very little informal learning seems to come about without contributions from other people. I would say this, actually, is by far the greater threat to the 'teaching profession' as (digital) communication and collaboration technologies enable faster, wider reaching connections to be made, and result in people being able to indulge their passion for teaching others, and learning from others.

The threat, I think, to the teaching professionals and to the traditional teaching spaces is that they may no longer be relevant; there may no longer be a need for a 'teaching elite'.

amberthomas said...

Thought-provoking!

This is one of those ideas that doesn't look very contraversial from the outside but when you've been working in the field as long as we have, we know the implications that such a stance would have.

Some linked thoughts from me ...

there is no such thing as "a learning technology" unless you define it only as technology which is developed by educational technologists. Which rules out most of what is used in education, and relegates learning technologist to a niche of journals and specialist conferences that live in their own bubble. Unfortunately that does seem to be the direction of travel, and I welcome people resisting the narrowing of the field.

I agree that "education" is not just a word swappable with "learning". I too believe in an education system / process / institution, and I see that being compared to learning outside of education as if formal and informal are choices. I haven't quite articulated to myself what my problem is with that, but it bothers me.

I'll think on, but I think I agree with you, and I suspect that although some will nod in agreement they might not actually realise the radical implications!

Mike Johnson said...

Dear Helen, 1st, sorry for the 'nose tweek' on twitter the other day about the title of your blog... I do need to better learn to resist teasing. I have preferred 'Learning Technology' as a fairly neatly neutral term to describe the field I'm often standing in... Although of course it is still nuanced :( We have the conflation of two complex concepts into a 'something' and that something doesn't get simpler in the process. 'E-learning' is also disadvantaged through all the baggage of being a 'buzz word'. If there's ever to be a mumbo-jumbo firing squad, 'e-learning', and anything else with 'e-' at the front of it actually, would be first against the wall come my revolution. Since we all know that's not going to happen, it leads me on to think about two debates which happened at the recent Networked Learning Conference (missed you, by the way) in Maastricht. 1. Disciplinarity, 2. Ontology vs. Epistemology. At this point I'm clearly digressing so I'll pop the rest of what I was going to say on my own e-blog and e-leave the e-floor for others.

Anonymous said...

Your articles make complete sense out of each topic.
e-learning arbejdsmiljø

Unknown said...

Wonderful learning guys I’m a fan of your website.
lung cancer treatment

Anonymous said...

I don’t think many of websites provide this type of information.

PDF iphone

Unknown said...

Hey great stuff nice info your passing onpharmacy affiliate

Unknown said...

i like this blog...
Banking Jobs | Careers & Recruitment at Jobscharger.com
http://www.jobscharger.com/JobIndustry/Banking-5-.html

jojopig.com said...

really impressive stuff. thanks for the posts.

charlesgraves said...

Online degree are a good choice in planning to take up a course that will open many doors of employment opportunities for you in the future, for more information visit website for more details.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wonderful learning guys I’m a fan of your blog.
jobs in Pakistan

Anonymous said...

ur blog is awesome

jobs in Pakistan

Anonymous said...

Thats great. love it.

Free Software Download

Software said...

Great Post.Experts Solutions | Get Your Answers | Field of Information Technology

Welcome To Experts Solution: We are giving you experts solutions releated to the field of Information Technology.Here you can get your answers!..

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Free Online Computer Learning By Experts Solutions
We are giving you experts solutions related to the field of information technology.Free online computer learning by experts solutions..

Anonymous said...

What are the main effects of outmoded cultural practices on the society. Let s hear it for the digital pioneers education others rely on sophisticated technology platforms to outmoded corporate these are the foundation for annual reviews and long-term planning that closely. by HRM 531 Week 2

John Traxler said...

thanks for the teaching/learning = altruism/curiosity nugget

Unknown said...

It is very useful information to read.Reachabove media is the best website designers in new york.

stephen said...

That is sole interesting Giggle My partner and i little girls illuminate vias My business is constantly searching for academic information player this. That is hit what exactly My partner and i was ready for. Blesss pertaining to expressing this huge discourse. That was an interesting hellfire and brimstone to associated with information on screenplay research. Sate expedition numerous with this interesting cook. Website Los Angeles

malaysiaexcelr01 said...

I see some amazingly important and kept up to length of your strength searching for in your on the site












Data Science Course malaysia

Frankielinker said...

Amazing Article, thank you!. I am very glad to read your informative & practical blog. Kindly keep updating your blog i am working at Digital Marketing Agency in Dublin after my job i am reading this kind of blogs.