In a glass darkly; identity, agency and the role of the learning technologist in shaping the learning environment
| Type of publication: | Misc |
| Citation: | 149 |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Month: | 2 |
| Note: | Ellaway, Begg et al. 23-25 February 2005 - In a glass darkly js, 27.05.2007 |
| URL: | http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/ice2... |
| Abstract: | Rachel Ellaway University of Edinburgh, UK Michael Begg University of Edinburgh, UK David Dewhurst University of Edinburgh, UK Hamish Macleod University of Edinburgh, UK In a glass darkly; identity, agency and the role of the learning technologist in shaping the learning environment The mass adoption of integrated educational systems such as VLEs is having significant effects on the degrees and forms of devolution, control and coupling between the components and participants of learning environments as a whole (Brown and Duguid 1995). Authorship, organisation and activity and content are increasingly either open to individual user's interpretation or highly constrained (Cornford and Pollock 2003). The role of the Learning Technologist can be similarly emergent, shaped very much by the organisational and social contexts in which they are working at any given time. Despite recent initiatives to establish professional accreditation criteria for learning technologists (Oliver et al, 2004), the role remains open to wide differences in individual, institutional and other contextual interpretations. Individuals may 'be' learning technologists, but their perception of role, agency and responsibility are shaped by the constraints and affordances accorded them by their working context and by the emergent interactions between the individual and other agents within or affecting them over time, rather than any abstracted definition of a learning technologist (DEVIL Project, 2003). In the same way that the role of a learning technologist is created by the environment in which they work, the learning technologist potentially has great agency in recreating that very same environment that recreates them. To an extent this is true of any participant, but for the learning technologist there are two notable additional factors; the novelty of the role and the extent of learning technology's influence upon the general learning environment. As a general rule then learning technology is not cheap, it is not neutral and it can have pervasive and unlooked for impacts upon its context of use (Graham 1999). Conversely, a learning technologist's environment is neither neutral nor static and it can have an equally significant impact on their interpretation of their own professional role and agency. This paper will explore the ways that learning technologists are created and shaped by their environment and how they influence and change that environment in turn. Drawing upon research evidence and the practical and personal experiences of the presenters, the paper will develop ways of looking at the role and the influence of the learning technologist in situated contexts and it will provide means by which these can be represented for the evaluation of all concerned. References Brown, J. S. and P. Duguid (1995). Universities in the Digital Age, accessed 18 Jan 2004 Cornford, J. and N. Pollock (2003). Putting the university online: information, technology and organizational change. UK, Open University Press. DEVIL Project, (2003) 'Ways of Working' project report (pdf), accessed 16 Nov 2004 Graham, G. (1999). The Internet: a philosophical enquiry, Routledge. Oliver, M. et al (2004) The development of an accreditation framework for learning technologists, accessed 16 Nov 2004 |
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| Added by: | [ADM] |
| Total mark: | 0 |
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