bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Everyone already has their community beyond the screen
Authors: Lee Kyungmee
Published: October 2024

Under a prominent recent regime of online education, often represented in the scholarship as a “social constructive learning paradigm”, learning is defined as a social practice that involves a group of students actively participating in collaborative knowledge construction processes. Pedagogical theories and strategies developed and utilised in that regime focus extensively on enabling student-to-student interaction and building communities of learners in online learning environments. In this context, where the notions of “collaborative” learning and learning “community” have gained substantial legitimacy from relevant theoretical traditions, other beliefs about meaningful learning are likely to be harshly criticised or, at best, simply neglected. However, it is not at all difficult to notice a gap between the accepted theoretical ideas of effective online learning and actual pedagogical practices in most online education institutions. Here, I aim to reduce that theory-practice gap by reconceptualising online learning using a double-layered Community of Practice (CoP) model. That module conceptualises online learning as interlinked processes of participation and socialisation in multiple communities across internal and external or online and offline “layers” of learners’ lives. The model helps online course designers and instructors to expand the boundaries of their course environments or designs to reach out to students’ personal and professional lives and to make sense of online learning experiences that are shaped by their interactions with other members of different communities outside the course environments. Using data, three students’ narratives, collected from a series of case studies on learners’ learning experiences in three different types of online courses (or programmes), this article effectively demonstrates how difficult it is to develop a strong CoP nested and sustained within online learning environments, which usually have a close finish. The article further argues that it may be useful for instructional designers to expend their view on learning environment to include distance learners’ life situations beyond their computer screens. Everyone has their own community in which they naturally learn, develop, and live with other members outside the courses. Thus, rather than putting so much effort to form a community inside our learning environment, we may want to think about more effectively support our students to form a stronger and more sustainable community in their lives through being engaged in learning activities in our course.
A ‘Social Identity Approach’ as a Theory for the Design of Learning with Educational Technology
Authors: Bowskill Nicholas , Lally Vic
Published: October 2024

This article explores learning design initially focussing upon clickers, a polling technology used largely in the classroom. We develop that to consider learning design focused at the level of the whole-group. We then apply this to education technologies in general.
One distinctive contribution made here is to conceptualise clickers as a technology for groups to work as a group (collectively). To explore this, we consider two popular models for using clickers. One of these is Peer Instruction (Mazur) which is by far the most used and well-known model. The other is SharedThinking (Bowskill) which is a more recent addition. We go on from there to explore group-relevant theory and seek to widen this to consider theory for learning design using many technologies.
Clickers are an under-theorised set of technologies and here is our second distinctive contribution in this paper. Researchers have called for ‘empirical work to develop theory’ (Boscardin and Penuel, 2012) for this technology. An additional concern is that ‘existing research does not connect to larger research on education or psychology’ (Penuel, Roschelle et al, 2004). We explore the possibility of a social identity approach (Bliuc et al., 2011, Haslam, 2004) as a theoretical tool for learning design in way which might address these concerns. We suggest learning design may benefit from a focus on the group-level of thinking as part of a technology-supported identity-mediated practice.
Interestingly, other researchers have argued for different mediators of learning to be considered when designing pedagogical practice. Technology and networks (Siemens, 2005), language (Wertsch, 1980, Vygotsky, 1978), activities and tools (Engeström, 2007) and communities (Wenger, 1998, Lave and Wenger, 1991, Roschelle et al., 2004) have all been used to inform pedagogy. This paper proposes the addition of ‘identity-mediated group learning’ (Bowskill, 2017b) in which the situated group-identity provides the basis for development using a social identity approach.
Finally, one researcher describes the use of clickers as having a ‘catalytic’ effect (Draper, 2009). Another notes the ’sense of community’ as an affective outcome arising from the use of this technology (Simon et al., 2013). In this paper, the suggestion is the ‘catalytic’ effect may be the moment of social identification when the group is made salient and deindividuation occurs. From this, we affirm the view elsewhere in the literature that ‘reference to peers has more influence than reference to facts’ (Goldstein et al., 2008).
Social media analytics dashboard for academics and the decision-making process
Authors: Christensen Line Lisberg , Khalid Md Saifuddin
Published: October 2024

Our worlds have changed since the social media exploded, and it affects not only our social, everyday lives but also our academic endeavours. Now, academics can disseminate knowledge through social media platforms, created specifically for academics and for the public. Uses of social media are now analyzed for providing an overview of the impact of academic dissemination, might be termed as social media analytics for academics — a non-traditional statistical dashboard that include both citation impact metrics and webometrics of scientific publications. The analytics have potential to change the way researchers disseminate, choose study focus, research fields, and much more. Readers also could rely on the analytics in the selection process. However, along with the social media analytics, comes a need for new terminology and use of metrics to evaluate the impact of research articles. Online interaction metrics have evolved to become alternative bibliometric matrices, that view downloads, likes, shares, comments, and other similar online engagements as the indicators of impact. The impact evaluation no longer solely depends on citations, but on the various forms of engagement and activity surrounding an article. This systematic literature review attempts to uncover whether literature about dashboards on social media for academics exists. Also, whether any study has been conducted on the decision-making process that comes with the recent social media dashboards for academics. The literature review uncovered 11 texts of relevance to the topic, along with five pre-determined texts. In order to create a legible overview of the literature, a qualitative content analysis was conducted, coded with 21 themes, and merged into three categories: (1) Bibliometrics, social media analytics and alternative metrics for the reputation of academics, (2) Academics’ strategy for- and impact of dissemination and (3) Dashboard for Academics’ knowledge dissemination analytics. The study shows that no study exists about dashboards for social media for academics, nor is there a focus on the decision-making process. Thereby, a need to study dashboards on social media exist, because, not only will altmetrics on the dashboards provide authors with critical numerical information, but also create an opportunity for the readers to make decisions regarding academic work and academics. Authors will, at the same time, be able to make decisions on what to further investigate/study and how to make greater impact in the broader society than just readers of the bibliographic databases.
Knowledge and learning in virtual communities of practice (VCoPs)
Authors: Liashenko Maria
Published: October 2024

The aim of the paper is to revisit the concepts of knowledge and learning in virtual communities of practice (VCoPs). Despite a great variety of approaches and successful examples of deployment of VCoPs, little research attention is paid to developing models or frameworks conceptualizing knowledge and learning in VCoPs. The review of the selected literature has enabled to propose a multi metaphorical framework of knowledge and a conceptual model of learning in VCoPs. The author uses a metaphoric approach to address the idea of paradigm shift and suggests a non-linear perspective on knowledge evolution affected by technological innovations. The multi metaphorical framework under consideration shows the shifts from behavioral learning to networked learning where VCoPs are located. The definition of VCoPs and their features are paid special attention to in the research. VCoPs are viewed from three overlapping dimensions: Community of practice, virtual domain of technology enhanced learning and discipline-based learning community of practice. Such a view represents a conceptual idea of discipline-based VCoPs which arises when three main components interplay: domain (virtual environment where teacher-student social interaction takes place); the community (the principles of apprenticeship as a learning model); the practice (developing the repertoire to solve problems within the discipline context). Also, the suggested multi metaphorical framework enables viewing learning within VCoP from knowledge- creation metaphor which leads to examination of learning from the perspectives of activity theory. Activity theory is used not as an analytical tool in the research but mainly as a descriptive approach to delineate learning within VCops as a technology mediated activity. The knowledge is constructed within the community, but the interaction and learning are mediated via digital artifacts. Applying principles of activity theory, VCoPs can be analyzed as complex systems where subjects interact with the community using technologies. Systems approach is applied to work out a logical model of learning activity in VCoPs consisting of axiological, cognitive, professional-educational, technological, communicative, reflexive components. The proposed model should be considered as a schematically descriptive model of learning within VCoPs because complex systems cannot be perceived using one approach due to their multidimensional and complex nature.The paper concludes by the discussion of the findings and recommendations for further research. The topic is of interest because better understanding of the concepts of knowledge and subsystems of learning concept in the era of technologies is sure to enhance teaching practice.
Analysing learning designs of 'learning through practice' as Networked Learning
Authors: Hansen Jens Jørgen , Dohn Nina Bonderup
Published: October 2024

Our aim in this paper is to analyse a set of well-known pedagogical approaches based on 'learning through practice' by viewing them as forms of networked learning. Following earlier work by the second author, we understand networked learning as learners' connecting of contexts in which they participate and as their resituation of knowledge, perspectives, and ways of acting across these contexts (Dohn, 2014). Learning designs of 'learning through practice' are distinguished by engaging practices outside the formal educational system as ways of developing curricular understanding and, reciprocally, as providing grounds for concretisation of curricular content through its enactment in practice. By viewing these learning designs as networked learning we highlight their potential for supporting certain connection forms between learners' experiences in target practice and educational practice. In particular, we look at the learning designs of 1) case-based learning, 2) design-based learning, and 3) simulation-based learning. We understand a learning design in accordance with Mor, Mellar, Warburton, & Winters (2014) as an educational pattern that supports specific actions in typical situations and, in compact form, collects the central part of a practice that can be communicated to others (2014). We understand a learning design to have four primary dimensions: 1) purpose, 2) content, 3) methods, and 4) underlying learning-theoretical basis. The four dimensions reflect basic functions of an educational practice: its purpose (its why), its content (its what), its method (its how), and its theoretical basis (its reason for the why, what and how). We argue that case-based learning establishes a relationship of inquiry between learner and target practice with the aim to support the learners in gaining understanding through participating in a sense-making process. The relationship established in design-based learning is one of innovation with the aim to support learners in developing understanding of practice through changing it. Finally, in simulation-based learning, relationships of imitation of target practice and engagement in ‘as-if’ practice are established with the aim of supporting learners in developing situated skills and knowledge.
The Epistemic Practice of Networked Learning
Authors: Hodgson Vivien , McConnell David
Published: October 2024

This paper has two aims; first to understand how networked learning has developed as a field and educational approach in the last 20 years; and second to consider the contribution the Networked Learning Conference has had to the development of the field. To achieve this we conducted a survey of people who have regularly presented or published papers from the Networked Learning Conference (NLC) since its inception in 1998.  The purpose of the survey was to understand the role the conference has played for them in the development of their thinking and ideas over time, and what this means for the theory, pedagogy and practice of networked learning.In order to provide a context in which to examine respondents’ experiences of networked learning, we situate the paper in the current definition of the term. Since the first conference in 1998, the definition of networked learning has come to be defined as involving the key characteristics of learning community; connections; reflexivity; criticality; collaboration; and relational dialogue.Our survey involved sending an email to 30 NLC participants in which we asked them to respond to five questions about their experience of the conference. 21 responses were returned. In general, many people felt that networked learning gives a frame of reference where the conference enacts the values of networked learning as a research community. We thus argue in the paper that a closer examination of the NLC offers an interesting opportunity to re-evaluate key characteristics and values associated with networked learning, which informs us of networked learning as a social practice.To achieve this, we focus in depth on four areas that figured particularly strongly in the analysis and which we believe are worthy of further discussion. They are critical space, community, scholarship, and developing practice. We found there was a degree of overlap and interaction between these areas, and that together these four areas constitute key aspects to the way way the networked learning conference 'institutionalises' networked learning as a practical accomplishment.
Symposium 2: Networked learning & the challenges for Higher Education: Linking today with the future
Authors: Burkle Martha
Published: October 2024

The possibility of connectivity that digital technologies and the Internet have brought for students and their peers, and for faculty and their colleagues, is analysed in this paper from 3 perspectives: Impact on knowledge access, impact on instructional design, impact on teaching and learning. Papers presented in this symposium suggest that digital technologies have contributed to the radical transformation of these areas, particularly in the last decade. An emphasis is made by the authors in this panel with regard to the importance of focusing on the role that networked learning plays when defining content, design, and learner-faculty interactions inside and outside the classroom.Participants in the symposium will be invited to reflect on the research and policy analysis presented by the authors in the symposium and will be then invited to participate in the discussion by sharing their experiences on the topic. Paths for further examination will be discussed and a panorama for future exploration will be determined.
Symposium 2: Virtual networks and the new definition of Knowledge
Authors: Burkle Martha , Duart Josep M.
Published: October 2024

The radical transformation of knowledge access and knowledge production for teaching and learning that higher education institutions around the world are currently experimenting due to the use of technologies and virtual networks, constitutes a platform from which to build new networked learning and new academic interactions. The possibility of instant access to multiple resources of information is transforming the way users around the world access, produce and learn knowledge. However, this significant transformation has not always been echoed by a formal policy agenda at the institutional level. There is still a big gap between technology applications in higher education, and the creation and application of policy strategies to enhance and to regulate these interactions.  This paper explores the impact of the Internet in teaching and learning processes at the start of the 21st century and examines the opportunities to stimulate discussion towards policy creation. A discussion about Internet access and differences between Universities in Europe and Africa is introduced. The authors examine the connectivity between users, contents and technologies, and provide a platform for reflection from which to examine the role of the Internet and the creation of virtual environments as important participants of this transformation. Complex processes of knowledge access and knowledge transformation are explored in the framework of policy analysis within higher education institutions around the world.
Designing, deploying, and studying internationally networked collaboration
Authors: Arnó Elisabet , Duin Ann Hill , Maylath Bruce , Mousten Birthe , Palumbo Giuseppe , Vandepitte Sonia , Goetz Greta
Published: October 2024

Members of today’s diverse and global workforce increasingly perform their work as part of cross-cultural virtual teams (CCVTs). CCVTs are those teams connected via technology and comprised of people in various locations around the globe whose primary objective of virtual collaboration is to launch, develop, and complete its assigned task. In addition to discipline and technical knowledge, today’s working professionals need cross-cultural competence. As the majority of students will be expected to work effectively on CCVTs, it is imperative to include collaborative work on realistic projects as a means to develop language skills, project management skills, application of specialized skills and knowledge, and intercultural competence.
Over the past 18 years, the Trans-Atlantic & Pacific Project (TAPP) has connected 29 universities in 16 countries on four continents, linking writing classes to usability testing and translation studies classes in collaborative projects. TAPP’s main aim is to share insights into collaborative writing across borders and cultures, and, in the course of this work, to gain intercultural competence. The network of partners participating in TAPP establishes links between students in different countries so that each learns from the other. In so doing, students become aware of the diversity of the world community in which their documents travel.
The purpose of this workshop is to guide attendees in learning how to join TAPP or to design and run collaborative global virtual collaborative projects on their own. Presenters will share research and practice that addresses the structural, relational, interactional, and technological components of TAPP projects, with emphasis on the study of intercultural competence developed as a result of student global virtual collaboration. Participants will design an international collaborative project based on the TAPP model; this will include how to run and gain support for international collaborative projects in a political environment of rising nationalism.
Pathways to Openness in NWL Research
Authors: Raffaghelli Juliana Elisa
Published: October 2024

Open Science is an approach promoted by the European Commission that has been developing internationally for about ten years. In the field of research on NWL, however, the difficulties for opening up research have led to intrinsic, ongoing debates. A subtle aspect of this situation relates the poor appropriation and utilisation of scientific research products in the pedagogical field by potential users (stakeholders in the education and training system). As a matter of fact, educational data extracted from Learning Management Systems and Social Networks pose ethical problems as well as data literacy challenges both for the researchers (making data readable and usable) and  the end users (reading and using data). Therefore, the specific case of Open Data (a relevant and innovative part of the Open Science scheme) should be discussed as a resource for NWL research. Data produced in this field is not limited to educational data-mining procedures, but encompasses a variety of research methodologies that yield diversified types of data, which in time implicates diversified ways of treating, sharing, and using them. Learning some of these principles and tools, and discussing them in the context of our current practices as researchers in the field of NWL, could be a starting point toward unraveling problems and coordinating efforts for further action.
Leadership in Learning Networks
Authors: Boerma Sebo , Coenders Marc , Veeneman-Aukema Anna , Luimstra Simon Henk
Published: October 2024

In this workshop we introduce the social discipline of learning, we investigate the relational part of learning networks and in that light want to discuss the way conveners can play a role in improving these learning networks. We are especially interested in the way networked learning can be used for convening learning networks. We will present cases of recent research we performed or are performing on influences of elements of learning networks, especially the common knowledge agenda and the identity of the network. Next to that we will present research we performed and are performing on the role conveners play in these networks.
A practice-grounded approach to 'engagement' and 'motivation' in networked learning
Authors: Dohn Nina Bonderup
Published: October 2024

The aim of this paper is to clarify and challenge contemporary views of motivation and engagement as they appear within the networked learning literature and to suggest an approach which takes into account the insights of the prevailing individualist-cognitivist and socio-cultural views whilst accommodating better to seemingly well-known everyday cases. This approach supplies a more adequate instrument for analysing networked learning activities in that it highlights the complex interplay of the socially negotiated and the self-directedly chosen in the determination of a person's motivation and engagement. I identify two different metaphors of context - as 'container' and as 'rope' - drawn on by the individualist approach and the socio-culturalist approach, respectively, and argue that we need both metaphors to analyse motivation and engagement in networked learning activities. Drawing on the concept of primary contexts, I argue for a practice-grounded intermediary position which makes it possible to investigate empirically how different practices take on the significance of 'rope' or 'container' to a person at different points in his/her life. The phenomena of motivation and engagement are characterised as a complex set of states and processes, anchored in the individual, but partly co-constituted through positioning and negotiation in social space. I illustrate how complexly these phenomena relate to practices regarded as 'ropes'/'containers'. Distinguishing between a level of discrimination between practices and a level of concrete actions, I pinpoint important questions to investigate when analysing networked learning. By way of concluding, I briefly consider some implications for the design of networked learning.
Nurturing information landscapes
Authors: Whitworth Andrew
Published: October 2024

The aim of this paper is to explore theoretical developments in the field of information literacy (IL), and their relevance to networked learning. The paper is a work of theory, but the implications for practice are not only explored, but are essential to the theoretical point being made. This is that although the promotion of information literacy are essential elements of networked learning, as they are what permit members of the network to create and sustain their own information landscapes, in an autonomous way, there exists in this field a damaging theory-practice gap. Different forms of information literacy exist, which reflect different forms of thinking and approaches to knowledge formation. At the present time, the exploration of variation in IL has best been done by scholars influenced by phenomenography, but this paper argues that this work, valuable though it is, has not as yet dealt properly with the question of authority and how this can be used to retard learning, as well as promote it. The network is identified as a location for learning in which the experience of variation can be best undertaken, but what is required is a critical phenomenography, and concomitant methods for learning that are attuned to the nature of authority and how this can be manifested in information exchanges. This would counter the tendency of modernity to separate intellectual capital from the communities that have created it, imposing the negative effects of cognitive work upon the network while draining off the positive benefits of this work.
Crossing Professional Thresholds with Networked Learning?
Authors: Arnold Patricia , Kumar Swapna
Published: October 2024

Investigations in networked learning often focus on specific educational designs, questions of appropriate supporting technologies, community building issues or social network analysis. In this paper we look at networked learning from a different angle: Students who are working professionals in the social field and who study for a BA degree in social work via networked learning enter the program with a professional background in social work. Faculty in these programs often estimate that these students benefit a lot in their professional development during the course of their studies but so far there is little evidence for this assessment. Also, there is a lot of skepticism as to whether it is possible to integrate scientific knowledge and interweave it with professional experience via networked learning. In our study we use the threshold concept perspective to develop a methodology to analyze whether students do "cross professional thresholds" in the study program. The purpose of this pilot study, therefore, is twofold: Firstly, we want to gain evidence whether or not students are crossing thresholds in the course of the program via networked learning. Such evidence could in the long-term provide important arguments for setting up similar study programs via networked learning for non-traditional student groups. Secondly, we want to describe a methodology that can be used for regular impact studies. We use the case of a distance education BA-program in social work in Germany, delivered via networked learning. We look at students' e-portfolios created to document and reflect on their learning journeys in an online module that comprises the second half of the study program. In addition, we report on our approach to find indicators for "crossing thresholds" in this rich empirical data. Results of the analysis show some relevant examples of students' threshold crossings in the field of social work. Finally, we reflect critically upon the methodology used in order to refine and further develop it. The results of this study will be relevant for higher education stakeholders such as university management, faculty, and students themselves as well as for researchers involved with impact studies of networked learning.
Promoting a Community of Practice Online
Authors: Carson Maggie
Published: October 2024

Encouraging interpersonal exchanges to support collaborative learning which require an element of self-disclosure can be problematic particularly in online environment. It can take time for a diverse group of distance learners to bond with each other sufficiently to ensure meaningful relationships are formed which promote trust and give the students confidence to share their experiences. Often this time is not available.
Using an innovative approach to support students, which has been used successfully face-to-face but never before online, we explore how students undertaking an online asynchronous leadership course as part of their MSc or as a stand-alone CPD module, felt supported by a ‘tool' more commonly used as an icebreaker, and often referred to as the ‘Jelly Baby Tree' (JBT). We have adapted this tool so that it can be used online to foster a sense of community.
This paper attempts to answer a number of questions, including: How do students develop social presence and connect with each other on an asynchronous distance learning course? What contributes to the formation of positive relationships that promote successful interactions and encourages them to work collaboratively to enhance their learning in an online environment?
Preliminary analysis suggests the students have found the JBT to be a much valued aspect of the course. They report that "the Jelly Baby Tree is the best bit of this course" giving it "the ‘human touch'", that "best of all is the Jelly Baby Tree - my stress relief and where I found so much support" while others "come away inspired every time I read someone else's jelly baby posting".
Arguably, the JBT has allowed and encouraged students to be reflective and to feel able to disclose personal information about themselves and their leadership style in a safe and supportive environment. Significantly, in a diverse cultural group the JBT appears to have been perceived as a neutral, safe and non-threatening means through which students could connect with each other without misunderstanding. There has been a clear correlation between the students' interactions with the JBT, the degree of social presence and their active participation throughout the course.
A framework for analysing research types and practices
Authors: Czerniewicz Laura , Kell Cathy
Published: October 2024

In this paper we present a framework for examining the changes that are taking place in the research communication practices of academics from four Southern African universities in the wider context of global moves towards open access. We argue that changes in research activity in higher education systems globally, accompanied by the communicative affordances offered by web 2.0 technologies, are having effects on the ways in which scholars are communicating their research. We assess the extent of change on the scholars in the four universities, drawing on data from the Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) in which 23 academics were interviewed about three recent pieces of research. We therefore developed an overview of 70 pieces of research work, from scholars working in universities in Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius and South African. Traditionally scholars have focused on communicating their research through journal articles or monographs and current rewards and incentives systems at universities continue to emphasise this form of scholar-to-scholar communication. However, growing numbers of academics now communicate their work to governments, to industry and to civil society. Developing a systematic picture of the changing practices of scholars in communicating their work is not easy, given the variety of research projects undertaken across disciplines and contexts. Our framework starts off with identifying five types of research projects, which cut across disciplines and the pure/applied distinction. We then examine these in the light of the scholarly communication cycle and its six stages of conceptualization, data collection and analysis, articulation of findings, and translation and engagement. At each stage we argue the importance of considering social relations, audiences and genres. Finally, we consider these along a continuum of degrees of openness.
An fMRI study exploring cognitive processing during computer-based discovery learning
Authors: Dalgarno Barney , Kennedy Gregor , Bennett Sue
Published: October 2024

Discovery-based learning designs incorporating active exploration are common within computer-based instructional simulations, supported by constructivist theories of learning focussing on active individual knowledge construction. On the other hand, researchers have highlighted empirical evidence showing that ‘pure' discovery learning is of limited value and that combinations of explicit instruction and guided discovery learning are more effective. Little is known, however, about differences in the cognitive processing that occurs when a learner undertakes active discovery learning using a computer-based simulation compared to when they are guided through observation of simulation output. A better understanding of the cognitive processing occurring when learners interact with on-line materials in the context of specific learning designs is important both for networked learning researchers and for on-line teachers.
This paper reports on a study in which the brain activations from two learning conditions using computer-based simulations were compared using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). One condition allowed exploration through manipulation of simulation parameters, while the other allowed observation of simulation output from preset parameters. Drawing on constructivist theories of learning, it was hypothesised that the active exploration condition would lead to greater activation of brain areas associated with working memory organisation and long term memory formation. The study also set out to explore the broader feasibility of using fMRI to explore learners' cognitive processing while undertaking holistic learning activities using on-line learning materials.
Results of the study were somewhat equivocal about differences in brain activation with no consistent differences in activation between the two conditions able to be measured. Consistent with our related research which suggests that discovery learning strategies vary substantially across individuals, results of this study suggest that the cognitive processing during the two conditions varied across participants. Integrated analysis of the exploration processes, learning outcomes and measured brain activations of individuals shows promise in better understanding the relationship between learning strategy, interaction and cognition when using instructional simulations. Approaches like this that draw on an analysis of data on learning process and outcome along with an analysis of physiological measures (in this case blood flow as an indicator of brain activation) are expected to be at the leading edge of learning analytics research in coming years. The study also highlighted challenges associated with the use of fMRI to explore learners' cognition while undertaking learning activities allowing significant learner control and involving extensive computer-based interaction.
Following hushtag (#)MOOC
Authors: Enriquez-Gibson Judith
Published: October 2024

Electronic posts in social media sites have led to an interpersonal shift that allows discourse-search through the use of hashtags resulting in the emergence of ‘searchable talk' (Zappanigna, 2011) and the rise of database culture (Miller, 2008). The hashtags have referred to ‘trending topics' and have become linguistic markers for ‘findability' towards a new form of sociality that is not based on reciprocity or notion of virtual community. What connects users is not who or an ego-centric node, but what is pass along in a ‘stream' (ie. the movement of ideas, information and sentiments) of re-tweets (RT's) and mentions (@) about some hashtagged (#) topics. This streaming sociality is the focus of this paper. To understand streaming sociality as an opportunity to expand social science research, this paper focuses on small talk about ‘massive' and trendy topics on education-related ideas and initiatives, namely, mooc, coursera and futurelearn, on Twitter. First, it examines how Twitter as a social technology could be performed differently in simultaneous ways as context, tool and data set of social science research. At the level of theory, a ‘new' form of networked sociality is considered outside the ‘big data' slogan and extreme reactions on topics related to particular political events, campaigns, disasters, disease outbreaks, brand marketing or self-promotion.
Then, this paper asks how the streaming sociality of Twitter may transform the content, movement and geographical trends of online courses associated with #coursera and #futurelearn by tagging and performing the circulation of a different kind of mooc - mobility of online courses ((#)mooc). It will venture into unfamiliar territories and spaces mostly at an interface hoping to follow (#)mooc through hashtags, re-tweets and mentions of education-related tweets. At the point of data collection and analysis, free trial versions of social media analytics and visualisation softwares are used to attempt an alternative way of following the movement of online courses without ‘going big' or ‘being massive'. To follow and tag what is happening to online courses through the ‘code/space' (Kitchen & Dodge, 2011) of Twitter, it is necessary to attend to ‘hushtag' bondings. ‘Hushtag' refers to all those posts or news and events not explicitly tagged or mentioned by users. These muted tags give room for analytical moves that could potentially bridge the methodological divide between qualitative and quantitative epistemologies as social science researchers are confronted with the power of algorithms and monumentally detailed by-product data (Beer, 2012).
Mobile Learning Field Activity
Authors: Gallagher Michael Sean , Ihanainen Pekka
Published: October 2024

Mobile learning field activities are presented in this paper as a mechanism for enacting learning in the ‘open’, either in response to formal disciplinary learning activities or to support those moored in informal learning practices. Field activity represents a disciplinary model found across the (field) sciences and throughout the humanities. It has traditionally involved using disciplinary process (observation, data collection, analysis, dissemination) to research social or biological phenomena. Mobile technology has accelerated the process and potential for “coming to know” in the field by allowing the learner to engage multiple layers of meaning, social presence, time, and place simultaneously. These mobile learning field activities represent an authentic application of both informal and formal learning, and include, by way of example, learning walks, geocaching, and urban exploration. Examples presented in this paper include a mobile learning field activity presented in Helsinki, Finland.However, the context, content, and social interactions of this learning can be incredibly complex. This complexity requires a pedagogical response that acknowledges this complexity, identifies the layers of engagement and simultaneous activity taking place, and proposes strategies that maximizes the potential of learning in the open (or in the field). This paper identifies three continuums in which this simultaneous activity is taking place: the serendipity-intentionality of learner orientation, the informal-formal activity structure and the initiative-seduction-sense of intervals continuum of human presence. All three speak to the variety of learner engagements that occur as a result of mobile learning and field activity.This paper advances the belief that new pedagogical approaches are needed to account and make use of these continuums of activity. These layers overlap and are simultaneously engaged in by the learner to generate context and understanding in fluid mobile spaces. The Pedagogy of Simultaneity is proposed to account for these layers of overlap and simultaneity. It advances a pedagogical response by emphasizing human methods. These methods are enacted through trust, discussion, and collage (or composition). Teachers can generate field activities that emphasize this layered reality for learning. This pedagogy addresses the complexity and simultaneity present in mobile learning field activities and we are cautiously optimistic that it also applicable to open learning and elearning.
Research methods are made by questioning
Authors: Jandri´ć Petar
Published: October 2024

This paper describes development of networked learning using Fraser's powerful analogy between human migration and scientific research. It recognises that most contributions to the field are developed in diverse and often mutually incommensurable research traditions from education to engineering, and identifies dialogue across different conceptual frameworks as the main challenge in their interpretation. It explores the rise of disciplinarity, and exposes its dialectical relationships with education and class. Based on wide body of research developed by members of Frankfurt School of Social Science and their successors, it analyses the relationships between technologies, society and human beings and asserts that the rise of technoscience is dialectically intertwined with the rise of disciplinarity. Moving on to the present, the paper shows that exponential rise in complexity of our tools, characteristic for the network society, has transformed disciplinarity into the new normality. During the process, it has reinforced the existing power relationships and supported further social stratification. In the network society, disciplinarity bears exactly the same consequences as in earlier historic periods. However, the stakes are much higher. Contemporary disciplinarity has significantly reduced blue-skies research to applied research, caused rapid commodification of education, and actively contributed to various environmental crises. On such basis, the paper proposes that networked learning should be analysed beyond traditional disciplinarity. It acknowledges epistemological consequences of such fundamental changes in scientific understanding of the world, and evokes a new postdisciplinary intellectual universe based on the ruins of traditional disciplinary structures. Finally, the paper briefly outlines the main postdisciplinary approaches: multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and antidisciplinarity. It warns that the outlined approaches are currently still in flux, briefly analyses their mutual relationships, and links them to issues pertaining to networked learning. On such basis, the paper proposes that postdisciplinary approaches might transcend methodological restrictions inherent to disciplinary research methodologies and provide the field of networked learning with a unified explanatory framework. Recognising that validity and verifiability of our research methods are still grounded in various disciplinary frameworks, it concludes that there is a long way from this modest proposal to its full realisation and calls for further investigation of postdisciplinary research methods for networked learning.
The politics of networked learning in an age of austerity
Authors: Jones Chris
Published: October 2024

Networked learning has always had a connection to a set of pedagogic values and it has defined itself as linked to the development of information and communication technologies. These values and the technologies which allow for the development of contemporary networked learning mean that the field has an implicit politics. In an age of austerity what are the implications for networked learning? The development of networked learning largely coincided with the development of neo-liberal politics in advanced industrial countries and the technologies deployed to enable networked learning are largely the outcome of design and development carried out by large multi-national US based corporations. This backdrop of neo-liberal corporatism was called into question by the banking crisis of 2008 and the conversion of a private debt crisis into a sovereign debt crisis. In this process public austerity has become a dominant consideration in policy for higher education. Government has changed its relationship to higher education, most notably in the UK (focused on England), and is generally trying to both reduce overall expenditure and at the same time ensure either equivalent outputs or improved levels of output. The drive for productivity gains, a motivation for ‘more for less', informs the hype and policy drive behind xMOOCs because they seem to offer a way to enable cheaper and wider access to higher education. This paper takes a critical look at the way austerity politics are revising the values and affecting the development of technologies for networked learning and suggests ways that researchers will need to engage with resistance to aspects of austerity politics.
Embodied learning on the network
Authors: Kehrwald Benjamin A.
Published: October 2024

For many, if not most, professions, practice is embodied. Embodied learning associated with embodied professional practice poses a number of challenges for networked educators working in professional degree programs. The consideration of embodied learning forces a shift from a focus on cognitive, 'in the head' learning, to a more holistic view which includes whole body experiences, embodied practice and embodied cognition. This shift calls into question the ways learning is defined and the means by which learning is structured, facilitated, supported and assessed within educational programs. These questions can be difficult to address in networked learning situations where the physical has been supplemented or replaced with the virtual, where participant experiences are mediated by technology and in which good practices in learning design and facilitation are less well established.The purpose of this paper is to provide a basis for understanding embodied learning and the ways in which it may be supported and facilitated in networked learning situations. This paper provides the conceptual foundations of a continuing project on the design and development of networked courses which support embodied learning. The paper is structured in three parts. The first part provides background through a description of embodied learning and its links to professional practice. The case in point is an initial (pre-service) teacher education program at the University of South Australia. The second part identifies commonalities between networked learning and embodied learning with reference Goodyear's (2002) framework for understanding ‘good learning' as active, cumulative, individual, self-regulated and goal-oriented. The third part draws upon recent experiences designing and developing networked courses within a teacher education program at The University of South Australia. The discussion identifies challenges associated with practical work to design, develop and implement embodied learning including a) explicitly identifying intended learning outcomes associated with embodied learning; b) the relationship between ‘real' (embodied, physical) and ‘virtual' aspects of the learning experience; c) identifying appropriate learning environments for embodied learning; d) providing access to necessary physical artefacts to support embodied learning and e) creating records of performance as part of the learning (and assessment process). The discussion includes in-context responses to those challenges and a list of tentative conclusions which guide ongoing work related to these challenges.