Beneath our eyes? A critique of the relationship between Technology Enhanced Learning and sustainability in visual arts education

This keynote uses published research to explore how Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) can help to sustain learning communities to engage in creative exploration and open investigation. It then draws on this research to ask: How could we use TEL to support pedagogies of socio-ecological sustainability in the Art and Design education community? Three inter-related themes are explored: learning communities - in developing shared values and supporting investigations around issues of concern; learning spaces - in supporting these communities and their dialogue; theory - to illustrate and provide language to understand the values, activities and goals of participants. Theory may help us to link the impact of these community activities, supported by TEL, to global issues. What is required to create pedagogies of socio-ecological sustainability in visual arts education using these themes

Exploring the subjectivities of young people: interdisciplinary visual arts-based practices in virtual spaces [Invited Guest Speaker]

This paper explores the potential of virtual worlds to support the development of young people’s voices using photography and film-making as a means by which to engage young people in sharing their own subjectivities and developing their understanding of active citizenship. Photography and filmmaking were used creatively to share and understand the world and cultural settings in which the young people were living. The virtual world environment also stimulated a wide range of playful behaviours. A recently completed UK funded (ESRC/EPSRC) Research Council Project called Inter-Life developed a ‘Virtual Research Community’ in Second Life™, to investigate how young people can work creatively together to develop their own agency and develop some sense of some sense of ‘ownership’ of their learning. This paper is based upon research undertaken for the Inter-Life project between 2008 and 2012. The ESRC/EPSRC-funded Inter-Life Project (TLRP/TEL Phase; 2008-2011; see http://www.tlrp.org/tel/; Sclater & Lally, 2009) focused on the development of an integrated inter-cultural ‘context’ in a 3D platform (Second Life™), in order to investigate how young people can use it creatively - individually, and collectively - to assist in understanding and navigating their key life transitions. This paper presents findings from the project to illustrate how the Internet can be used to create and sustain a virtual research community of young people, and how this can support their creative endeavours in pursuing their own research agendas. Over time the young people with whom we worked, co-opted the tools and community setting, which were provided, for their own use, and began to articulate their own goals and agendas during a series of workshops. Key to this process was being able to work alongside a group of young people as participant ‘co-researchers’ in a ‘Virtual Research Community’ (VRC) created in our virtual world InterLife Island 2 (ILI2). As a part of this process the research team wanted to encourage young people to express themselves in a variety of creative ways and develop their own ‘voices’ as part of this process. In doing this, the research team encouraged the young people to engage in activities that might help to bring about positive transformation of themselves and their communities. Such possibilities grew out of a process of dialogue and collective exchange between participants, researchers and the wider community – teachers, parents, family and friends. The development of critical understanding by young people through new forms of interaction, as well as issues of expression, control, creativity, and the development of voice, are areas where such research could be valuable. The subjectivities of young people are an important element of understanding youth in the process of transition. The use of virtual worlds and creative practices with young people is, we contest, a powerful combination in this research

The Realities of Researching Learning Transitions in Challenging Settings

This paper presents findings from a recent research project to illustrate how the Internet can be used to create and sustain a virtual research community of young people, and how this can support their creative endeavours in challenging settings. This paper is based upon research undertaken for the Inter-Life project between 2008 and 2012. The ESRC/EPSRC-funded Inter-Life Project (TLRP/TEL Phase; 2008-2011; see http://www.tlrp.org/tel/; Sclater & Lally, 2009) focused on the development of an integrated inter-cultural ‘context’ in a 3D platform (Second Life™), in order to investigate how young people can use it creatively - individually, and collectively - to assist in understanding and navigating their key life transitions, sometimes in challenging settings. The central aim of Inter-Life was to create a community space or ‘youth centre’ in a modern and engaging online environment, where young people could (within the ethical frame of the project and by negotiation with the team) pursue their own research agendas. The team chose to work in a ‘virtual world’. Virtual worlds are avatar-based, and networked, social spaces. Avatars in this context are animated graphic representations of participants that they can move around in the virtual world under their own control. They are often in human form, but can be animals, birds, or other entities. They can be modified and customised by participants at will. Young people’s use and understanding of the Internet is still under-researched. In a very extensive review of media literacy, Buckingham et. al. (Buckingham, Banaji, Carr, Cranmer, & Willett, 2005) concluded that there is still a significant paucity of research about how young people evaluate, interpret, and respond to the Internet. Social class and economic status are well identified as limiters to their access to the Internet, more than to other media such as radio or television. However, less is known about other potential barriers to use, including the role of individual subjectivities and motivations. The Inter-Life Project needed to develop a theoretical framework that would be powerful enough to help us understand and analyse the activities of the young people with whom we worked. Activity Theory was identified as a promising candidate, using an approach to theory selection developed by Halverson (2002). Activity Theory (AT) focuses on the constituent influences on activity, and places the participants and their goals centrally in ‘systems of activity’. These systems include the tools used by young people, their motivations and goals, ideas and values, the community context, and the artifacts that they create. Within this general framework, we focused on creative practices as tools to support reflection on social justice issues, the use of virtual worlds as a community context and the development of young people’s voices through creative practices as goals. The young people with whom we worked co-opted the tools and community setting for their own use, and began to articulate their own goals during the workshops. The research question was: how do young people work creatively to develop their own agency and subjectivities in a virtual research community and apply this agency in challenging real world settings

Creative Practices and Activity Theory: Working alongside virtual youth

This paper presents findings from a recent research project to illustrate how the Internet can be used to create and sustain a virtual research community of young people, and how this can support their creative endeavours in pursuing an agenda that they have developed. Young people’s use and understanding of the Internet is still under researched. In a very extensive review of media literacy, Buckingham et. al. (Buckingham, Banaji, Carr, Cranmer, & Willett, 2005) concluded that there is still a significant paucity of research about how young people evaluate, interpret, and respond to the Internet. Social class and economic status are well identified as limiters to their access to the Internet, more than to other media such as radio or television. However, less is known about other potential barriers to use, including the role of individual subjectivities and motivations.This paper presents findings from a recent research project to illustrate how the Internet can be used to create and sustain a virtual research community of young people, and how this can support their creative endeavours in pursuing an agenda that they have developed. Young people’s use and understanding of the Internet is still under-researched. In a very extensive review of media literacy, Buckingham et. al. (Buckingham, Banaji, Carr, Cranmer, & Willett, 2005) concluded that there is still a significant paucity of research about how young people evaluate, interpret, and respond to the Internet. Social class and economic status are well identified as limiters to their access to the Internet, more than to other media such as radio or television. However, less is known about other potential barriers to use, including the role of individual subjectivities and motivations. This paper is based upon research undertaken for the Inter-Life project between 2008 and 2012. The ESRC/EPSRC-funded Inter-Life Project (TLRP/TEL Phase; 2008-2011; see http://www.tlrp.org/tel/; Sclater & Lally, 2009) focused on the development of an integrated inter-cultural ‘context’ in a 3D platform (Second Life™), in order to investigate how young people can use it creatively - individually, and collectively - to assist in understanding and navigating their key life transitions through specific skills development. The central aim of Inter-Life was to create a community space or ‘youth centre’ in a modern and engaging online environment, where young people could (within the ethical frame of the project and by negotiation with the team) pursue their own research agendas

Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Informal Learning as a key component of co-design practice in a community initiative

This paper outlines PhD research associated with Leapfrog, a three-year funded AHRC project, which aims to analyse the impact of co-design practices in developing ‘engagement tools’ within community development. One challenge in co-design is identifying ways to understand holistically the context. Understanding individual and collective contextual factors simultaneously requires bridging the gap between theory and practice. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) interconnects all the components simultaneously illuminating a holistic approach for understanding such context. The paper focuses on the distribution of power in co-design aiming to illustrate how designers balance power and reflects on the experience of applying CHAT into practice, identifying informal learning as a key component. It elucidates how ethnographic methods can provide a deeper understanding about the context. About this, it can be concluded that a greater awareness of context, understood through the lenses of CHAT, helps designers to reveal the interconnection between individual and collective factors

Challenges to social justice and collective wellbeing in a globalised education system: introduction

Symposium Title: Challenges to social justice and collective wellbeing in a globalised education system Symposium Abstract: (Symposium consisted of 4 papers) Access to educational opportunity is undoubtedly extended by the availability of open learning materials, networked learning communities, and forms of open accreditation. Networked learning has, in that sense, fulfilled many of the promises of its early pioneers. The evidence is weak, however, that access to digital opportunity translates into educational success for those without other forms of educational, social and cultural capital. The distribution of functional access to digital opportunity in fact mirrors other kinds of inequality very closely, so the proliferation of networked learning opportunities can actually amplify inequalities of outcome. Beyond individual cases, an open digital landscape for learning favours globally successful institutions, as shown by the scramble to form ‘gold standard’ open course networks among leading universities. A global market in educational content risks amplifying the hegemony of the languages, educational cultures and knowledge practices of the English-speaking global north. A parallel global market in the most able and motivated students puts further pressure on the local education systems that are most able to support those currently disadvantaged. This symposium examines the globalised educational landscape from a radical, critical perspective. Some of us write from within schools of education with the experience of research and publishing behind us. From this perspective we assert the value of theory-informed research to highlight the contradictions, the political negotiations and the vulnerabilities of hegemonic discourses, to encourage scepticism and to challenge determinist views of our technological future. Some of us write from situations of responsibility in practice and policy settings. From this perspetive we assert that there are no technological solutions to inequality, only political and emancipatory educational actions. What tools of resistance are at our disposal within the academic labour force and in the 'world of work' adjacent to it? Our discussions and the links among our papers represent the hope that the divide can sometimes be bridged, and that theory-based interventions in education are always possible, on the side of social justice and collective wellbeing. Paper Abstract: Critical TEL: The Importance of theory and theorisation Madeleine Sclater and Vic Lally This paper explores the role of theory in Technology Enhanced Learning, and the research community. We consider Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an example, but we strongly feel that our argument has broader application to the use of theory as part of the intellectual ‘self-defence toolkit’ that researchers and practitioners in the critical TEL community need to consider if they are to ‘resist’ the crises arising from educational globalisation. Theory can offer us the language, history, scope, and power that we need to be reflexively aware of both our own interests and those of others who are actors in the settings in which we are working

Inter-Life: a novel, three-dimensional, virtual learning environment for life transition skills learning

This paper presents the findings from one of the first empirical research studies which has investigated the impact of Inter-Life; a novel three-dimensional immersive virtual learning environment, on learning and development of social and educational life transition skills in a group of looked after and accommodated children. Drawing on social constructivism in which meaningful learning is related to context and situated in practice, we report on a series of Inter-Life workshops that enabled young people to work together and through the processes of participation in authentic learning activities contributed to the development of life transition skills such as self-confidence, empathy, negotiation and mediation skills, teamwork and active problem-solving skills. The novel affordances of the Inter-Life virtual world which contributed to the development of the learning community included the ability to personalise learner engagement and activities from the outset along with ‘co-presence’ and ‘immersion’ and the flexibility provided by the innovative, technology-enhanced Inter-Life platform. This study presents some empirical evidence to demonstrate the efficacy of new models of learning that are mediated by innovative malleable technologies that can be shaped by the learner in a participatory manner

Creativity, Transitions and Virtual Worlds: Young People’s Lived Experiences of Inter-Life Island

This paper summarises some of the preliminary findings of the Inter-Life Project, funded by two leading UK research councils (ESRC and EPSRC 2008-2012). Inter-Life Island provided networks of support and various tools and resources to augment the opportunities available to young people in the ‘real world’. The paper presents some qualitative results of an extensive investigation that attempted to illustrate how virtual worlds may be used by young people to scaffold creativity, provide a network of support, and enable the sharing of creative knowledge and skills. The research team used Activity Theory (AT) because we contend that it can provide a way of reconceptualising transition, by focusing on the development of a broad range of skills that young people need to develop in order to cope with increasing and sometimes paradoxical demands, and yet still be able to identify and develop their own goals and motivations in a negotiable way. Our results indicate that ILI-2 became a place that both the research team and the YPs featured here were able to experience as an authentic environment in which to work and socialise. The island came to have a familiarity and a history as it was customised by the participants through the development of working areas, buildings and presentation tools. The young people reported that this created a sense of both ‘place’ and ‘group history’. These findings open up further multiple possibilities for the use of virtual worlds in education

Sustainability and Learning: Aesthetic and creative responses in a digital culture

This keynote paper uses published research to explore how Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) can help to sustain learning communities to engage in creative exploration and open investigation. It then draws on this research to suggest that we use TEL to support pedagogies of socio-ecological sustainability in the Art and Design education community. Two themes are explored: learning communities - in developing shared values and supporting investigations around issues of concern; learning spaces - in supporting these communities and their dialogue. This paper tries to initiate an exploration of the fundamental elements required to create pedagogies of socio-ecological sustainability in higher education, using Art and Design Education

Going Critical: Technology Enhanced Learning and Empowerment in Challenging Times

This invited guest lecture focuses on the application and significance of adopting a critical approach to TEL research and the important role that theory played within a UK Research Council (ESRC/EPSRC) funded project: ‘Inter-Life’. In this project, Activity theory is applied to understand young people’s use of the Internet to develop their own creative practices in support of their navigation of key life transitions. The paper argues for a more critical, robust and integrated use of theory in educational research, particularly in the creative disciplines. Furthermore, I illustrate how theory (in this case, Activity Theory) was used to inform the research design of the Inter-Life project. I contend that Activity Theory also provides researchers with a powerful means by which to approach the analysis of complex activity in educational settings, using the activity system itself as a unit of analysis. In addition, Activity theory takes into account and provides a basis for critiquing the wider socio, political and economic issues and debates that underpin the use of technology in education, about which, I argue, there is presently little critical debate in the literature, particularly within Art and Design Education. I offer some concluding comments on the significance of theory in supporting a more expansive and critical approach to researching Technology Enhanced Learning in challenging times, with particular reference to the domain of Art, Design education