Networked Learning Conference 2004 |
NLC2004 /Proceedings / Symposia / Symposium 13/ Papers
Organised By: Marisa Ponti
INTRODUCTION
This Symposium is part of the work of a Special Interest Group (SIG) in the
EU funded project “EQUEL” – e-quality in e-learning. The
SIG is interested in the application of technology and development of theory
as developed within the research community on networked learning environments.
This research community commonly acknowledges that human interaction and communication
as well as technological tools are key factors to developing an ecology of
collaboration, in which social and communicative processes and mediating technology
integrate into a uniquely situated learning context. Following Nardi and O'Day
(1999), ecology is the evolving environment that supports collaborative learning,
integrates artefacts, technologies, and spaces for acting, and allows for diverse
individual roles and technical functions.
However, in our opinion, a key challenge is that this integration is often
assumed to occur naturally, when in reality the process of arriving at an ecology
that supports collaborative leaning is far from being straightforward.
In the Symposium, we will focus on exploring the following issues:
The impact of network environments in mediating human activity, particularly the development of dialogue, identity and social presence.
The use of the network metaphor as a unifying concept that allows us to theorise the broad context in which learning occurs in a society reliant on computer networks.
The purpose of our Symposium is to develop analysis and reflection upon
the use of the network metaphor in learning technology and the idea that
developing
dialogue, online identities, and social presence is an essential activity
which learners have to undertake to knit the learning network and avoid
the risk
of reducing humans to individual “nodes” or “agents” in
the network.
The symposium will be a highly interactive session and will consist of
three short presentations of key issues from the papers, followed by discussion
with
the conference participants. Discussants may be from the SIG or the wider
EQUEL group.
REFERENCE
Nardi, B. A. & O'Day V. (1999). Information ecologies: Using technology
with heart, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The Metaphor of Networks
in Learning: Communities, Collaboration and Practice
Chris Jones and Liliane Esnault
Identity Construction and
Dialogue Genres – How Notions of Dialogue May Influence Social Presence
in Networked Learning Environments
Jenny Gustafson, Vivien Hodgson and Sue Tickner
Rethinking Virtual Space as
a Place for Sociability: Theory and Design Implications
Marisa Ponti and Thomas Ryberg