Wednesday, 19 March 2014

An interesting article by Steve Walker and Linda Creanor titled 'Towards an ontology of networked learning'.






http://oro.open.ac.uk/33437/1/walker.pdf


In this article Steve Walker and Linda Creanor examine the effects of networked learning on the established pedagogical architecture and social processes.  They suggest a possible ‘ontology of elements of learning technology’ and propose a way of thinking about technology, which locates artefacts in networks of social relations and conceptions of technology, avoiding reductive technological determinism.

According to Fleetwood (2005) it is possible to identify at least four modes or reality (material, ideal, artefactual and social) and entities such as technology (in this case) can straddle two or more modes, e.g. the social and material  /  sociomateriality in the design and use of technology.  Walker and Creanor suggest a fifth mode of reality, the ‘computationally real’, comprised of ideally, socially, materially and computationally real dimensions and being causally efficacious.   

They explore the possible redesign of traditional ‘positioned practices’ in education, examining:




References

Fleetwood, S. (2005) Ontology in Organization and Management Studies: A Critical  Realist Perspective.Organization, 12, 197-222.

                                                         
                                                            (contribution by Gita )



1 comment:

  1. I read this article, and think it is really useful to make links between critical realism and the issue of technology and learning. I think the points they make about actor network theory and their differences, ie. that there is a difference between the human and the technological, is very interesting too. I recommend it to people on our project, so thanks.

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