Analysing technology mediated learning in social context

Michael Paskevicius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUfIO9F8

Mediated learning

Image from Ng'ambi, D. (2010) Mobile Learning in Africa: a case of anonymous SMS http://www.slideshare.net/Ngambi1MLearning/

spider-Web-Luc_Viatour | from -http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc_viatour/4247957432/Author: Luc Viatour https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

A sociocultural view of learning

• A conscious attempt to avoid seeing knowledge either as purely mental (idealist/rationalist tradition) or as physical and independent of human activities (realist perspective)

• Learning has to do with how people appropriate and master tools for thinking and acting that exist in a given culture or society

Wertsch (1991) quoted in Saljo, 1999

Mediating artifacts

Adult

talks to

Child

Text

World

Scaffolding (Lave & Wenger, 1991)Assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore, 1998)

Mediating artifacts

Adult

Communicates online

Child

Text

World

Scaffolding (Lave & Wenger, 1991)Assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore, 1998)

Moving this educational episode

online: • child and student can still speak

with one another• adult can still use meditational

means employing scaffolding and assisted performance strategies to mediate the reading of the text

• two humans are no longer sharing the same physical space

• physical cues and body language are lost

• basic rules and dynamics of conversation are different

• way in which they share the text is different

• both subject to technical glitches • distractions no longer shared

Activity Theory

Engestrom, 1987

Adapted from Murphy & Manzanares, 2008

Contradictions within activity systems

• Historically accumulating structural tensions within and between activity systems

• Potential sources of transformation and development

PSYSC613 - Gibson : taken from -http://psysc613.wikispaces.com/Gibsonhttp://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0

Contradictions within activity systems

The teachers' absence in the [online] discussion conflicted with learners' expectations in two ways: their learning process was severely inhibited on the net and both their individual and group work was seriously impaired. Since there was no interlocutor for student questions, no discussion partner or any online guidance, etc., the students felt abandoned by their teacher and this led to a loss of confidence in them. (Dippe, 2006)

“The introduction of the computer as a tool has required a new division of labour due in part to the novelty of the tool but also due to the fact that the teacher is unable to assist all students with the computer tasks. Hence, students have become teachers of other students.” (Hardman, 2005)

Discussion

• Activity theory as a potential lens of inquiry for investigating new technologies in educational settings

• Views technology as mediating artifact • Frames technology

use in the context of human activities

Droplets | from -

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References

• Bellamy, R. K. (1996). Designing educational technology: Computer-mediated change. In Context and consciousness: Activity theory and human-computer interaction, 123-146.

• Cole, M. (1998). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Harvard University Press.• Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M., & Seale, J. (2004). Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective

learning design. Computers & Education, 43(1), 17-33.• Dippe, G. (2006). The missing teacher: Contradictions and conflicts in the experience of

online learners. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Networked Learning 2006. Lancaster: Lancaster University.

• Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.

• Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive Learning at Work: Toward an Activity-theoretical Conceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), pp. 133-156.

• Hardman, J. (2005). An exploratory case study of computer use in a primary school mathematics classroom: New technology, new pedagogy? Perspectives in Education, 23(4), 99-111.

• Jonassen, D. H., & Rohrer-Murphy, L. (1999). Activity theory as a framework for designing constructivist learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47(1), 61-79.

• Kaptelinin, V. (2006). Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design. Mit Press.

References

• Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge university press.

• Murphy, E., & Manzanares, M. A. R. (2008). Contradictions between the virtual and physical high school classroom: A third‐generation Activity Theory perspective. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(6), 1061-1072.

• Murphy, E., & Rodriguez-Manzanares, M. A. (2008). Using activity theory and its principle of contradictions to guide research in educational technology. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(4), 442-457.

• Norman, D. A. (2002). The design of everyday things. Basic books.• Rieber, R. W., Robinson, D. K., Bruner, J. E., Cole, M. E., Glick, J. E., Ratner, C. E., & Stetsenko,

A. E. (2004). The essential Vygotsky. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.• Saljo, R. (1999). A sociocultural perspective on the human-technology link. Learning with

computers: Analysing productive interaction, 144.• Tharp, R.G. & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing Minds to Life: Schooling in Social Context. New

York: Cambridge University Press • Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind In Society: The Development Of Higher Psychological Processes.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press. • Wertsch, J. V. (1991). Voices of the Mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.