This refereed international conference paper was written at the invitation of the organising committee of the International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Education (ICTE 2002). The paper reported on research undertaken in conjunction with a funded project for the Centre for Education and Learning Technology at Goldsmiths to evaluate theoretical and practical uses of technology in the curriculum through contextual 'shifts' in site. The paper showed how portable technologies (eg Audio Guides, PDAs, mobile phones) allied to innovative pedagogic methods can enhance learning; extending learning from its traditional sites in school to everyday spaces (shopping arcades, streets, etc). The first section of research showed how altering the format of information delivery by using such things as ATGs, PDAs, can enhance student experience within the spatial paradigm of the university. It demonstrated that if human beings are guided by the need to make and mark, plot and plan, situate and sign significant spaces, then more innovative forms of teaching are required to expose how these spaces work to influence our understanding of the world. The second section showed how we could make shifts in the context of delivery by changing learning spaces to transmute 'communication into an original journey' (De Certeau, 1984: xxi). Here handheld technologies were investigated in spatial contexts to move beyond the standardised fields of educational encounter, thus '�shifting' us to embrace new public arenas (e.g. high street, shopping centre, arcade) for educational purposes (Benjamin, 2002). These spaces reveal how (and where) the cultures of consumerism that we need to analyse (whether in anthropology, sociology, politics or design) are enacted. This piece of work provided the basis of consultancy work for Espro Information Technologies Ltd (Israel) [www.espro.com], a leader in the field of software and hardware for international museums
