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

Interdisciplinarity and technology-enhanced learning: reflections from art and design and educational perspectives

The main focus of this article is our project of reimagining higher education for ourselves and our students using the central theme of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), which is inextricably linked to education in the present and in the future in many contexts. We argue that interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary working are central and essential features of TEL and, yet, they are largely invisible in the TEL literature. TEL itself is still largely invisible in the sociology of education literature and, hence, suffers ‘dual invisibility’. We suggest that this may be connected to the crisis that has beset TEL research and pedagogy. We examine the power of theory in TEL work, citing the use of cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT) in our own TEL work. A detailed account of an interdisciplinary, theory-informed TEL project is provided, and this is analysed to explore how the weave between disciplines, particularly art and design, and education, and interdisciplinary project working can be mutually beneficial in our project of reimagining higher education for work and study

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

Technologies, learning and culture: some emerging themes

This paper reflects on some of the themes emerging from a consideration of recent research at the nexus of technologies, learning and culture. The authors comment on the expansive nature of the concept of learning spaces in papers featuring an investigation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and communication design studios in the UK and Australia, the use of interdisciplinary research collaborations to develop novel implementations of TEL learning spaces, and the challenges of developing an e-university in Malawi. They also examine a comparative study focused on classroom-based learning spaces augmented by computer-based assessment technologies, and the role of TEL both within and in response to protests at universities in South Africa. Massive open online courses are then considered as distinctive educational designs that may offer diverse student experiences, either formal or informal. The next emerging theme considers the sources of tension and richness arising from the widely divergent values that can be embedded in TEL. This is followed by consideration of infrastructural issues and the technologies–learning–culture nexus, followed by the use of theory in TEL work, leading to interdisciplinary theory-informed TEL projects that may be beneficial in the wider project of reimagining higher education for work and study. Finally, the paper examines the theme of mobile TEL and the hegemonic issues surrounding the building of sustainable and authentic foundations for learning with mobiles in the globalised South. The theme points to the methodologically challenging and problematic aspects of this hegemonic analysis and considers how the arguments may be further developed

Co-design for social Innovation and organisational change:Developing horizontal relationships in a social enterprise through walking

Although an emerging body of literature identifies co-design as a promising approach to addressing the most urgent social challenges, little research has been undertaken about how co-design can support social change within the communities and organisations with which they collaborate. This is important because behavioural and organisational change is usually associated with the emergence of social innovations. These pressing socio-cultural challenges require interdisciplinary expertise, and we argue that the practice of co-design is an approach that provides such expertise. Co-design by its nature is collaborative and can respond to the cultural demands of a society eager to participate. These demands require significant research to better understand how the practice of co-design can be a catalyst for social change and social innovation. In this paper, we explore what is meant by co-creation, social design, and co-design within the theoretical context of this study. We present a case study that focuses on a social enterprise committed to sustainability operating within the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Here we examine the transformative process - associated with co-design - that the social enterprise and its members encountered. Participatory Action Research (PAR) was implemented as the research approach to this study informed by ethnographic and co-design methods. The analysis suggests that the co-design process empowered the social enterprise and its members, enabling them to co-develop responsive and empathetic attitudes among themselves. Codesign supported organisational changes by nurturing collaborative attitudes, expanding perspectives about social issues and releasing latent human abilities and assets

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

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