Choices in language education: principles and policies

The extended editorial provides a general introduction to the individual contributions to this special issue on 'Choices in language education'. Together with the concluding piece by Lid King, it frames the various cases presented, and offers a discussion of the broader socio-political, cultural, economic and conceptual contexts within which they are located and against which they can be read. It examines issues of language choice with reference to recent policy initiatives at the level of the UK and the European Union and it discusses general principles concerning language choice. Finally, it introduces the various contributions to this special issue

Appropriation of mobile cultural resources for learning

Copyright © 2010 IGI Global. This article proposes appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices - as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them - as cultural resources across different cultural practices of use, in everyday life and formal education. The article analyses the interrelationship of users of mobile devices with the structures, agency and practices of, and in relation to what the authors call the "mobile complex". Two examples are presented and some curricular options for the assimilation of mobile devices into settings of formal learning are discussed. Also, a typology of appropriation is presented that serves as an explanatory, analytical frame and starting point for a discussion about attendant issues

The things (we think) we (ought to) do: Ideological processes and practices in teaching

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A Cultural Ecological Frame for Mobility and Learning

Mobile devices and services have achieved a level of critical mass and importance that requires us to take them seriously as new cultural resources. Mobile cultural resources emerge within what we call a ‹mobile complex›, which consists of the inter­play of structures, agency and cultural practices. These new cultural resources also can be considered to be valid learning resources which are ‹complex› because the components of the triangular structuration model, that governs them, interact with each other in intricate ways. They are in a state of perpetual flux, where boundary blurring takes place and where society and culture are experiencing the delimitation of mass communication

Design principles for fostering pedagogical provenance through research in technology supported learning

This paper contributes new critical and theoretical approaches that build the capacity to link research and practice in the field of educational technology. Building on a recent meta-narrative review of the problematic concepts of impact and measurability of educational technologies, we explore the case for methodological design principles that could have the effect of increasing the pedagogical provenance of research into technology supported learning. We extend our previous review by exploring how the design principles we have delineated can contribute to evidence, that increases pedagogical provenance. We also extend this work through critical reflection on how meta-narrative approaches to reviews have the potential to contribute to increased pedagogical provenance in ways that systematic reviews often fall short