bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Actor Network, Ontic Structural Realism and the Ontological Status of Actants
Authors: Matta Corrado
Published: October 2024

In this paper I discuss the ontological status of actants. Actants are argued as being the basic constituting entities of networks in the framework of Actor Network Theory (Latour, 2007). I introduce two problems concerning actants that have been pointed out by Collin (2010). The first problem concerns the explanatory role of actants. According to Collin, actants cannot play the role of explanans of networks and products of the same newtork at the same time, at pain of circularity. The second problem is that if actants are, as suggested by Latour, fundamentally propertyless, then it is unclear how they combine into networks. This makes the nature of actants inexplicable.
I suggest that both problems rest on the assumption of a form of object ontology, i.e. the assumption that the ontological basis of reality consists in discrete individual entities that have intrinsic properties. I argue that the solution to this problem consists in the assumption of an ontology of relations, as suggested within the framework of Ontic Structural Realism (Ladyman & Ross, 2007). Ontic Structural Realism is a theory concerning the ontology of science that claims that scientific theories represent a reality consisting on only relation, and no individual entities.
Furthermore I argue that the employment of OSR can, at the price of little modification for both theories, solve both of the two problems identified by Collin concerning ANT.
Throughout the text I seek support for my claims by referring to examples of application of ANT to the context of networked learning. As I argue, the complexity of the phenomenon of networked learning gives us a convenient vantage point from which we can clearly understand many important aspects of both ANT and OSR.
While my proposal can be considered as an attempt to solve Collin's problems, it is also an experiment of reconciliation between analytic and constructivist philosophy of science.
In fact I point out that on the one hand Actor Network Theory and Ontic Structural Realism show an interesting number of points of agreement, such as the naturalistic character and the focus on relationality. On the other hand, I argue that all the intuitive discrepancies that originates from the Science and Technology Studies’ criticism against analytic philosophy of science are at a closer look only apparent.
The digitisation of knowledge produces hybrids
Authors: Perrotta Carlo
Published: October 2024

This paper offers a conceptual analysis of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) that draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT). MOOCs are viewed as part of a hybrid collection of events, technologies, networks and interests: an "assemblage" where discourse, materiality and sociality are bound up in each other. The ANT-derived notion of ontological politics is used as a broad framework to discuss the negotiations and performances that confer reality to the MOOC assemblage. In particular, the paper focuses on those features of the MOOC phenomenon that relate to, and stem from, the sociotechnical apparatus of digitisation technology. Digitisation is viewed as a "black box" that seemingly operates as a unity, but in fact is a multifaceted, messy, networked phenomenon in its own right that encompasses a wide range of actors, relationships and practices. Exploring the internal workings of such black box uncovers interesting ramifications and taken-for-granted assumptions that can shed light on the MOOC phenomenon. In particular, the paper argues that digitisation technology is associated with the emergence of a hybrid actant: the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) Teacher. A parallel is drawn between the "interactive affordances" of digital instruction and the playback and cataloguing options that have contributed to massive shifts in TV viewing habits: pause, rewind, fast-forward, download, indexing, collecting, organising, uncommitted viewing. The paper's chief contention is as follows: the properties of digitisation technology, and the related economic dealings, have contributed to the assimilation of academic instruction into the ontological space of digital TV watching, with its HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) apparatus.  Discussing the nature of MOOC attendance, the paper suggests that Digitisation technology (software platforms and algorithms) contributes to the creation of an "entity" (the DVR Teacher) that encapsulates "interactive high quality academic content in a high-production quality presentation". The DVR teacher is further described as an artefact in the service of a neoliberal project of commoditised, pick-and-mix self-improvement, which recruits digitisation to meet a growing demand for "upgrades to the self". Discussing patterns of MOOC attendance, the paper argues that a new breed of "academic content watcher" may be on the rise - one for whom the existential rewards of browsing and tinkering with MOOCs overshadow whatever use value the original, "certifiable" content knowledge may have possessed. In this respect, the real “innovation” of MOOCs lies solely in the offer of (relatively) novel opportunities to enlist the consumption of knowledge for the production of subjectivities.
“Remember to hand out medals”
Authors: Ponti Marisa
Published: October 2024

Rating systems are popular in recommender systems and ecommerce websites, but recently there have been some implementations in online educational settings as well. This paper presents an exploratory qualitative study of the way a peer rating system influences value creation within a large, teacherless online open study group where the participants connect to and help each other in their process of learning Python, a programming language. In this study group, the participants ask questions and receive answers from their peers. The participants are strongly encouraged to acknowledge good answers from their peers by rewarding them with medals. Using a combination of preexisting and inductive codes, qualitative content analysis was used to examine instances of the value provided by good answers, which were rated as “best responses” and awarded medals. The analysis focused on 108 closed questions asked by a homogeneous sample of participants whose title indicated the status of beginners. Closed questions are threads including a top-level question about a topic, followed by one or more answers and/or other questions. Turning attention on the materiality of the rating system, this study attempts to bring into focus how this device contributes to value creation. The analysis suggests that the peer rating system makes visible what the participants find immediately valuable. By making good responses recognizable, the rating system makes more visible what the participants can gain from each other and what they can achieve by helping each other. The medals awarded to participants giving good responses act as “tokens of appreciation” and partake of a mechanism aimed at supporting motivation, engagement, and commitment to participation in the study group. The rating system contributes to a rank measured in capacity to be committed to the study group, help others and solve problems.
“Would you ever say that to me in class?”
Authors: Rose Ellen
Published: October 2024

Despite years of study and theorizing, we know very little about students’ and instructors’ experiences of relationality in online courses. This paper reports on a two-university qualitative study that sought insight into the nature and experience of relationality in asynchronous, text-based courses in which teacher and students do not come face to face. Interviews with 20 instructors and 20 students from a variety of disciplines revealed that their experiences of connection with, or disconnection from, each other were profoundly influenced by the phenomenon of online disinhibition. The online disinhibition effect is defined as the tendency of people to behave in unrestrained ways when interacting with others online. These behaviours have been classified as “benign” or “toxic.” Disinhibition has long been identified and recognized by psychologists as a factor in computer-mediated communications, but there is little research illuminating the role it plays in online teaching and learning, and what there is tends to be inconclusive. While several studies show that students do tend to behave in unrestrained ways when interacting online, students in the online course studied by Conrad (2002a and 2002b) demonstrated increased inhibition. Both students and instructors in the current study reported on many instances of benign and toxic disinhibition, although stories about the latter were more prevalent. Benign disinhibition was manifested in stories of shy students who participated more freely online, and in stories of students who disclosed more about themselves than they would face-to-face. Toxic disinhibition was manifested in stories about angry and abusive emails and posts. Students also indicated that their awareness of the possibility of anger erupting easily through miscommunication resulted in an “excessive niceness.” Thus inhibition may be a paradoxical response to the increased possibility of disinhibited behaviour in online learning environments. This study found that disinhibited behaviour, whether in its benign or toxic form, is a factor that powerfully affects the nature of student-student and student-teacher relationships in online courses.
Investigating the social configuration of a community to understand how networked learning activities take place
Authors: Schreurs Bieke , Van den Beemt Antoine , Prinsen Fleur , De Laat Maarten , Witthaus Gabi , Conole Gráinne
Published: October 2024

Examining how OER (Open Educational Resources) communities come to live, function or learn can support in empowering educators in the use of open educational resources. In this paper we investigate how an OER community functions through its networked learning activities. Networked learning activities enable the development of a space (a social configuration) for shared activity, in which learning by participants is situated. Following existing research on the social configuration of learning communities, we operationalize this space into four superordinate dimensions: (1) domain and value creation, (2) practice (3) collective identity and (4) organisation. We argue that these dimensions add to an understanding of the functionality of learning communities, in this case OER communities.
An in-depth case study was conducted of the OER university (OERu) (www.wikieducator.org/oeru). The OERu is a virtual collaboration of institutions committed to creating flexible pathways for OER learners to gain formal academic credit (WikiEducator, 2013). A mixed-methods approach was used combining data from social network analysis, content analysis, and contextual analysis. Both volunteers and academic contributors from the 26 partner institutions were involved in the study.
The results show how networked learning activities are associated with the social configuration (domain - identity - practice - organisation) of the community and that, through the investigation of this configuration, valuable insights can be gained into why networked learning activities are occurring. We see for example that shared domain could provide a solid ground for networked learning activities within a community and that different identities within the community can result in different networked learning activities. By analysing the organisation of the community, different social configurations were unravelled with different roles, goals and learning platforms. These insights may support the OERu community and other OER communities to develop their networked learning activities further in a sustainable way.
Damaged and refractive teaching and learning practices in international developing university contexts
Authors: Shah Uzair , Hodgson Vivien
Published: October 2024

While research is available that explores teachers' use of learning technology within western contexts, there is less research that provides insights into teachers' use of learning technology within non-western contexts. Currently we know little about higher education within developing contexts in terms of the prevailing pedagogical understandings and practices, the use of learning technology, and the contexts within which these practices are embedded. Similarly although there is evidence available on potential barriers faced by teachers in using learning technology within western contexts, we know little about the nature, scope, scale and influence of potential barriers teacher may face when teaching in less developed contexts.  We do however know that there is within the field of networked learning an increased recognition that contextual aspects both influence and effect pedagogical practices.
This paper consequently aims to shed light on teachers' experience of using learning technology in less developed countries and, more specifically, elaborates on the influences contextual realities have on the use of learning technology and pedagogical practices. It builds on previously reported work that examined the variation in pedagogical understandings of using learning technology in a public university in South Asia. In that study five different ways of teachers' understandings of using learning technology were identified. Further analysis and review of the data identified an additional aspect influencing the ways teachers understood and experienced the use of learning technology which is ‘response to contextual limitations'. This aspect is associated and related to the socio-economic and technical context within which the teachers operated. In the paper we examine the teachers' different responses to contextual limitations within their pedagogical practices in more detail. The teachers' descriptions of experiences suggested their response to the contextual limitations varied from passive to active. Further some participants described their teaching experiences as ‘damaged' as the contextual limitations prevented them from using learning technology and teaching students according to what we describe as their embodied pedagogical understandings. In the paper we argue that due to these contextual limitations, the teachers' actual practices are refractive practices, as their actual practices seem to bend away from their pedagogic understanding and intentions. The paper elaborates on the two notions of damaged teaching experiences and refractive practices and concludes with potential implications for networked learning in universities located in less developed countries.
'It’s almost like talking to a person'
Authors: Tombs Gemma , Bhakta Roy , Savin-Baden Maggi
Published: October 2024

It would seem that emerging communication technologies are disrupting and changing societal norms and conventions. The literature suggests central to making sense of the unique qualities of cyberspace are understandings of such social networks, veracity and the differences between online and offline behaviour. We propose that as pedagogical agents are seen to help support and even improve the level of interactive learning on a programme or course, it is essential that these societal norms and behaviours are considered within pedagogical agent learning situations. Pedagogical agents are characters on the computer screen with embodied life-like behaviours such as speech, emotions, locomotion, gestures, and movements of the head, the eye, or other parts of the body. This paper presents findings of a pilot study that used pedagogical agents to examine disclosure in educational settings. The study used responsive evaluation to explore how the use of pedagogical agents might affect students’ truthfulness and disclosure by asking them to respond to a lifestyle choices survey delivered by a web-based pedagogical agent. The findings of this study suggest that 3 key issues are important; firstly the pedagogical appearance of the agent, secondly, the issue of choice and finally that of disclosure. Data also suggested that body language is critical to the learning effectiveness of pedagogical agents. The appearance of the pedagogical agent and the images it invoked, determined partially by students’ ability to choose their own pedagogical agent, were found to play a role in students’ willingness to disclose information. Qualitative findings from users also suggested that they may feel comfortable disclosing more sensitive information to pedagogical agents than to the interviewer. Our findings support the growing body of literature which suggests that the social environment of cyberspace is characterised by more open, straightforward and candid interpersonal communication, and that a pedagogical agent can support this. Findings indicate that emotional connection with pedagogical agents were intrinsic to the user’s sense of trust and therefore likely to affect levels of truthfulness and engagement. The implications of this study are that truthfulness, personalisation and emotional engagement are all vital components in using pedagogical agents to enhance online learning.
Examining hybrid digital/material resources in networked learning
Authors: Walker Steve , Davies Sarah
Published: October 2024

'Sociomateriality' refers to a range of perspectives on the problematic relationship between people and technology that has recently gained traction in the learning technology literature. Sociomaterialists typically draw on actor network or agential realist approaches to the understanding of technology. The ways these approaches understand the world, we argue, have limitations and we propose an alternative approach to conceptualising the complex relationship between people, artefacts and organisation drawing on critical realist perspectives on technology. This approach accepts that our understandings of a particular technology are mediated by our theories both of a technology's inherent material and nonmaterial properties and of its social situation. It also recognises that aspects of the natural world are autonomous from our understandings and that these are inherent in our technologies. We suggest a similar autonomy for the underlying mathematics which structure the possibilities of the digital world.
Hybrid artefacts are comprised both of a digital component, as is typical of networked learning technologies, but also important and distinctive physically material aspects. Many examples of the remote control of experimental devices can be found in the engineering and science education literatures where physical experimental devices incorporate digital control, sensor and other informational components in physical equipment such as telescopes or nuclear reactors. With the emergence of the 'internet of things' we expect to see increasing experimentation in the use of hybrid technologies in learning contexts.
The distinctive materiality of these hybrid devices offers an interesting context in which to develop a theory of the relationship between the social and the material in (learning) technology. We elaborate a framework for thinking about 'hybrid' digital/material artefacts in networked learning drawing on contributions from the critical realist literature and illustrate how this may be used through the example of a remote student experiment to measure biochemical oxygen demand, as part of a practical distance learning Level 2 environmental science module at the Open University. The experiment is a relatively simple example of a remote experiment, requiring students to observe digital pressure sensors on samples of water and wastewater as a measure of biological activity.
We conclude with a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of our approach.
Synchronous or Asynchronous? That is the Question
Authors: Basquill Jacqui
Published: October 2024

As distance and blended learning becomes more popular with both students and Higher Education Institutes (HEI), methods of developing student engagement and experience are becoming increasingly more important. This investigation examines a case study of three programmes delivered at one HEI. The programmes were part of a pilot project employing an online classroom to develop synchronous communication. This study examined the development of a Networked Learning Community using both synchronous and asynchronous communication. The findings highlighted a variety of issues such as the importance of tutor experience of online teaching, positive experiences using the online classroom which develops social capital, enhances students’ self motivation and the importance of preparing students to engage with online programmes before they begin.
Distance learning is growing rapidly, increasing the need for effective communication strategies (Allen & Seaman, 2011; Durrington et al 2006). As there is little or no face-to-face interaction, it is important for online instructors to establish their presence in the course to ensure students feel there is a familiar presence with whom they can relate to. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, through communicating with students on a regular basis, sharing course content, and building a sense of community within the class (Palloff & Pratt, 2003). Using web 2.0 tools can enhance instructor presence through a wide array of collaborative learning experiences (Solomon & Schrum,  2010), one way of addressing this issue is to use an online classroom.  There are a many on line classrooms available to Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and there is a lot of evidence to support their use in blended/distance programmes (MacDonald, 2008). Studying the current module has developed my interest in methods of communication and student engagement in order to develop a Networked Learning Community (NLC). Improving student engagement in an online programme is an on-going issue that many researchers are trying to find the answer to.  This paper investigates the findings from a project using an online classroom involving fifteen programmes which have used synchronous communication to support the online students' experience.  The findings highlight the importance of tutors understanding the different needs of online students and how traditional pedagogy must be adapted to meet these needs in an online environment. Use of a combination of synchronous and asynchronous approaches was found to have the most success, however tutor presence was the essential element in ensuring student satisfaction and achievement.
Taming social media in higher education classrooms
Authors: Freeman Wendy
Published: October 2024

Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have become a part of our everyday communication networks. As new communication technologies become integrated into our routine practices, higher education is called upon to accommodate these platforms in order to ensure that students are prepared as skilled digital citizens. Studies of social media use in higher education classrooms are finding that these same technologies that are transforming our socio-technical communication channels outside the boundaries of the classroom are failing to live up to that same potential in educational contexts. Technology domestication describes a process by which individuals or groups encounter and appropriate a new technology into their everyday routines by focusing on the social and political meanings that people ascribe to technology as they use it. This study explores the domestication of social media by university faculty who use these tools for their teaching. This paper reports preliminary findings from interviews with six university instructors who report integrating social media tools into their classroom teaching.
Semi-structured interviews were analysed according to the elements of the domestication process proposed by Silverstone (2006). Preliminary findings suggest the following themes as social media is appropriated for teaching in higher education classrooms: (1) faculty use social media alongside other more traditional educational technologies such as learning management systems; (2) appropriation of social media relies on a pre-existing technological infrastructure that includes ubiquitous access to the internet; (3) the incorporation of social media was considered carefully as part of a fundamentally student-centred, participatory orientation to teaching; and, (4) faculty in the study used social media extensively in their personal lives first before bringing it into their classrooms.
Domestication theory provides a useful lens for exploring how technologies become tamed through use. This notion of taming suggests that not only are technologies shaped through use, but they also shape action. Through interviews, faculty revealed that although social media technologies had become domesticated in their everyday lives, these same technologies were far from tamed in their educational uses. This paper explores the steps faculty are taking with their students to domesticate social media in their higher education classrooms.
Designing for mobile participation in blended higher educational settings
Authors: Jaldemark Jimmy , Lindberg Ola
Published: October 2024

As society is increasingly dependent on mobile technological solutions, higher education needs to be prepared for changing behaviours in terms of increasingly emerging mobile communication patterns of students and teachers. Therefore, projects that explore models of mobile participation in blended higher education settings are needed. This paper concerns the design for participation in mobile learning and in particular how participation could be designed into educational settings. Focus in the paper is the design of a university project aimed at exploring models of participation in blended learning through the use of mobile learning. The project "Mid Sweden University and Mobile Learning (MUML)" is used in the paper as an example of such design. This is argued to be of strategic value for institutions of higher education, the need to be up-to-date with the development within the mobile society. A wide range of learning about mobile learning in higher education settings were built into the project, including conducting research reviews and diverse experiences from teachers. The project included trials that were conducted in four different first-cycle programs, which then informed the planning and conducting of further trials in courses. These trials included approaches to mobile applications and devices that embraced the deployment of university-owned equipment as well as bring-your-own-device scenarios. Cumulative features were included in the design of the project with the purpose of informing the performance of features in later stages of the project. Iterations were included to create loops of different features that could help participants recycle and share their experiences. In this way the project had the intentions to explore different forms of participation.
Professional Learning through Massive Open Online Courses
Authors: Milligan Colin , Littlejohn Allison , Ukadike Obiageli
Published: October 2024

This study explores the role of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in supporting and enabling professional learning, or learning for work. The research examines how professionals self-regulate their learning in MOOCs. The study is informed by contemporary theories of professional learning, that argue that conventional forms of learning are no longer effective in knowledge intensive domains. As work roles evolve and learning for work becomes continual and personalised, self-regulation is becoming a critical element of professional learning. Yet, established forms of professional learning generally have not taken advantage of the affordances of social, semantic technologies to support self-regulated learning. MOOCs present a potentially useful approach to professional learning that may be designed to encourage self-regulated learning. The study is contextualised within ‘Fundamentals of clinical trials', a MOOC for health professionals designed and run by the Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Catalyst, the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, and offered by edX. The research design builds on the authors' previous studies in the areas of Technology Enhanced Learning and Professional Learning and in particular, research which explored the learning behaviours of education professionals in the Change 11 MOOC. The previous studies demonstrated a link between individual learners SRL profile and their goal setting behaviour in the Change 11 MOOC as well as uncovering other factors which influenced their engagement with the MOOC environment. The present study extends the original study by further focusing on specific aspects of self-regulation identified by the Change11 studies and our parallel studies of self-regulated learning in knowledge workers. The analysis of learner behaviour in the Fundamentals of Clinical Trials is complemented by additional exploration of the design considerations of the MOOC, to determine the extent to which course design can support or inhibit self-regulation of learning. The study poses three research questions: How are Massive Open Online Courses currently designed to support self-regulated learning? What self-regulated learning strategies and behaviours do professionals adopt? and How can MOOCs be designed to encourage professionals to self-regulate their learning? Validated methods and instruments from the original study will be adapted and employed. The research is unique in providing evidence around two critical aspects of MOOCs that are not well understood: the skills and dispositions necessary for self-regulated learning in MOOC environments, and how MOOCs can be designed to encourage the development and emergence of SRL behaviours.
Networked Scaffolding
Authors: Santos Patricia , Cook John , Treasure-Jones Tamsin , Kerr Micky , Colley Joanna
Published: October 2024

The overall objective of WP2 (work-package of Learning Layers, the European research project in Technology Enhanced Learning) is one of designing solutions for scaffolding learning in networks. Specifically, this means developing designs and tools to scaffold help seeking learning in a networked workplace context. This paper presents the conceptual research of the 1st year (WP2). We provide a theoretical discussion around the concept 'Networked Scaffolding', and illustrate our research ideas through a specific case study 'Seeking Support' in the Healthcare context. Social Network Technologies, the focus of this paper, scale personal interactions by extending and augmenting the reach of personal networks, and form a central part of the Learning Layers integrated systems view on scaffolding informal learning at the workplace. In this context, semantic technologies are used to scale the representation and generation of meaning. In particular, we focus our study on an illustrative case of the Healthcare context in UK. Specifically, we are interested in studying how professional exchange trusted learning opinions, becoming more the norm in professional settings, developed around intentional networks that are constantly managed and reconstituted as Personal Learning Networks. The significance of mobile technology to enable and support these processes is an important aspect of this research. Indeed, there is still a lack of research in this field (i.e. scaffolding networked learning on a large scale for work-based learning). However, some authors such as Sandars, Langlois, & Waterman (2007) provide some very useful insights into online collaborative learning within Healthcare that is particularly helpful for developing theory around mobile technologies that healthcare professionals will be using within this research. Regarding the topic of Social Network Sites (SNS), we elaborate the concept of "Networked Scaffolding" with the aim of understanding how scaffolding has to be applied in SNSs with a work-based context. For this reason, in this paper we review how technology is currently being used in work-based learning contexts and the main related approaches. In the next section we present and discuss the theoretical and technological foundations related to the Networked Scaffolding concept proposed. Then, we show the application of our ideas through a design team called PANDORA which aims to scaffold seeking support in the Healthcare context. A summary of the co-design activities and the preliminary outputs are presented. Finally, we conclude with next steps to be done in future work
Small Projects as Winners in the Organizational Learning Network
Authors: Sihvonen Mika , Sipilä Miikka
Published: October 2024

In this paper we argue that small development projects can be seen as the key actors in a large formal network of projects. The reason for this study were the observations made during the joint seminars and face-to-face meetings held for the overarching project network. The small projects or small teams of participatory projects remarked that learning experiences on those occasions were versatile and that there were a lot of possibilities for collaboration with other projects. At the same time, the people in the large projects considered themselves as information providers rather than as actual learners. The study focuses on the network of projects in a large national ESF development programme. One of the main goals of the development programme was to achieve a proper level of information sharing between its projects. The programme supervisors envisioned that, since all the projects had the same the target group of adult citizens, there had to be information to share during the programme's run. In the right circumstances that could lead to organizational learning experiences and a sense of community. This research was conducted using a mixed approach involving qualitative and quantitative methods. The data was collected from an online survey and an interview round covering all development projects.
Even though the resources for networking are usually limited in a small project or a project team, the dynamics and flexibility of small actors make information sharing easier. Small teams can implement learnt practices more easily, because there is no large scale sub-network to consider. A large project tends to work as an isolated unit and for each of its participatory projects the need of networking with their peer projects is lower. In this research learning is aimed at good or promising practices, which can be seen as artefacts that are disseminated and developed by the participating projects. As a conclusion we suggest that the teams or projects in a network should be equal in size if the network requires interaction for information sharing and learning. A large, network-type project could also participate, however it would need personnel who are in charge of information sharing.
Symposium 1: Networked Learning and Identity development in open online spaces
Authors: Cronin Catherine
Published: October 2024

Higher education is responding to multiple challenges in the current context of mobile networking, openness, and participatory culture. This paper explores emerging open education practices in higher education. The affordances of open online spaces are compared with those of physical classrooms and bounded online spaces. It is argued that open online spaces can be considered a Third Space in which students can construct their identities and develop their networks, integrating formal and informal learning, and developing literacies for lifelong learning.
Symposium 2: The uncodings of ANT
Authors: Thompson Terrie Lynn
Published: October 2024

One of the basic tenets of Actor Network Theory (ANT) is to “follow the actors”. However, coded materialities (the digital in all its forms, including software, devices, networks, artefacts, and algorithms) are notoriously fickle. Digital things are often described as unbounded, evasive, distributed, and constantly mutating (Kallinikos, Aaltonen & Marton, 2010). Indeed, the web, as portrayed by Czerski (2012), seems to simply exist as flow. So how do networked learning researchers reckon with these mobilities and multiplicities? As a form of posthumanist theorizing, ANT-inspired researchers attend to how the assemblings of “thingly gatherings” co-constitute enactments of everyday practices with, in, around, and through human actors. Therefore, ANT seems to offer an ontological questioning and framing that can engage with the fluidity of the digital. In this short paper (and Pecha Kucha presentation), I call on ANT to explore how the digital interposes data within the research process—freezing, thawing, excluding, including—beckoning researchers to attend to the sociality of data. The discussion that follows the presentation will draw on real-time examples from the other papers in this symposium to explore the mobilities of digital data. In moving to a posthuman framing, data—a blackboxed materiality of research projects—becomes much more complex. A sociomaterial reading of data suggests it is a relational effect: becoming in a particular moment because of juxtapositions of multiple networks. Such a conceptualization of data raises several questions. First, how does one theorize the role of the digital in the production of social data and the research process? Second, the encoding of data has amplified its mobility and performativity: it is distributed, often public, fragmented, and entangled in multiple recursive circulations. It takes on new forms and energies. Tensions become apparent, for example as dynamic digital data, at home in the wilderness of the web, is translated to the archived (or frozen) data that appears in screen captures or pdf journal articles. Here, the mobility and fluidity of data (the state of always becoming and creating ongoing movements in understanding) wrestles with practices of solidifying data (freezing or tethering: settling down and settling into a particular locality). This tension provides one entry point for examining the mobilities and socialities of data.
Symposium 2: Looking for black cats and lessons from Charlie
Authors: Bigum Chris , Rowan Leonie , Hamilton Mary , Wright Steve , Haxell Ailsa
Published: October 2024

This paper is about a slow hunch. A hunch that a modest interference in networked learning, that we have called public click pedagogy (PCP), may, in some instances, usefully open up a side of networked learning that is often glossed. Learning new material, developing new skills, making new discoveries can be complicated, and messy. Few of us go from inexperienced to skilled or novice to master in anything like a simple, tidy or routine manner. We often learn more from our mistakes than our successes. We sometimes find ourselves in blind alleys or chasing down rabbit holes that appear to take us nowhere.What learners actually do when they try to come to terms with a new domain via formal or informal means, tends to be secret learner business. What is commonly made visible is how successful they are in coming to terms with the domain, something which is judged by people who have demonstrated knowledge and expertise in the domain. Our hunch is that a modest exploration of secret learner business by making public the fuzzy, pragmatic and messy business of learning may work as a useful complement to those elements of learning already made public. The label PCP draws attention to three characteristics of this work: that it is made public, that ‘aha’ or click moments which in a glossed account masquerade as the product of acute insight are traced carefully, and that accounts of these practices may operate pedagogically, for the learner, and perhaps, other learners.To explore the doing of networked learning we draw parallels with the doing of science as it has been studied by scholars in the field of science, technology, and society (STS). Looking at how scientists actually do science, STS scholars came to see that accounts of science as products of the scientific method glossed the messiness, noncoherence and fuzziness of what went on in the laboratory. To Bruno Latour, in the early days of STS, science was Janus-like, with two contradictory faces: science in the making and ready made science. More recently, John Law with others have extended this line of argument to examine the performativity of noncoherence.Drawing on this work, we examine three empirical cases, one of which is the preparation of this paper. We trace the negotiation of the ideas and arguments, our learning in the making, and the noncoherences which we partially domesticate through dialogue.
Symposium 2: Assembling university learning technologies for an open world
Authors: Hannon John , Riddle Matthew , Ryberg Thomas
Published: October 2024

This paper considers the emergence of social media in university teaching and learning and the capacity or universities – as complex organisations with disparate interacting parts – to respond to the shift of pedagogies and practices to open networks. Institutional learning technology environments reflect a legacy of prescriptive, hierarchical arrangements associated with enterprise systems, and are a poor fit with the heterarchical and self-organised potential for learning associated with social media and open education practices. In this paper we focus on the tensions that arise from the juxtaposition of these two orientations to learning technologies, and focus on how an emerging online sociality can destabilise established boundaries of learning and connect to other domains of practice. To do this, we examined data from three separate case studies in which participants - both teaching staff and students - reported on student engagement in learning involving social networking activity. We draw on empirical data on student practices that challenge institutional arrangements for learning, and offer insights into the assembly of extended connections for networked learning, in particular the pedagogies of collaboration, knowledge co-construction, and informal social learning. From these instances we draw attention to the interplay of competing metaphors and practices in the organisation as it encounters the potential of more open pedagogies over social and digital networks. Drawing on spatial descriptions of networked learning, we apply Callon’s (1998) notions of framing and overflows to this interplay in order to ask how learning environments were assembled and ordered: what pre-existing configurations were brought to frame and set boundaries for these networks of formal learning; and what activities overflow those boundaries and destabilise these framings. We argue that the adoption of social media by students requires a challenge to the institutional metaphors of containment that implement a default bounded environment. This involves a reappraisal of established learning environments for their pedagogical metaphors and spatial orderings that frame learning, followed by different organisational approaches to account for and enact learning that emerges from the connections, mobilities and flows of social networks. We propose a less integrated, “assembly” approach to institutional learning that attends to the open, fluid connections of networked learning. A spatial articulation of networked learning that bridges both institutional and social networks can equip the university to meet the critical challenges of emerging hybrid learning environments and the potential of more open learning environments.
Symposium 3: Analysing and supporting the process of co-designing inquiry-based and technology-enhanced learning scenarios in higher education
Authors: Garcia Iolanda , Barberá Elena , Gros Begoña , Escofet Anna , Fuertes Marc , Noguera Ingrid , López Marta , Cortada Meritxell , Marimón Marta
Published: October 2024

This paper is framed within a research project on the co-design of learning scenarios in higher education. Co-design is understood as a creative process developed collaboratively by teachers, students and researchers to design inquiry-based and technology-enhanced and networked learning scenarios. In this process, methods and instruments from the field of participatory design and learning design are used. Among other things, the co-design process involves discussing and negotiating the design principles to be used on a shared basis in order to devise the learning scenarios. These design principles are based on recent approaches to the model of inquiry-based and networked learning.The study applies the methodology of design-based research. The object of study is therefore the very process of co-designing, taking as key agents both the teachers and the students to whom those practices are addressed. A mixed approach is used for data collection, analysis and interpretation.It is the purpose of the research to develop instruments that support the co-design process and products through its representation and explanation. Several design tools and conceptual artefacts are used to guide practitioners in the creation of a common “language” and help them to reflect and to represent practice during the co-design process. Furthermore, a co-design methodology is proposed and applied in a cycle starting from the problematisation of the learning practice towards the creative envisioning of multiple solutions and the operationalisation of one of these solutions as a learning scenario.In particular the paper reports the first phase of the research which analyses the co-design work developed with a group of teachers from universities with two different models, one of them blended and the other virtual. Firstly, the theoretical framework is developed to highlight the theoretical and practical interactions between participatory design methods and tools and the domain of learning design. Secondly, the research design is described and a model is proposed for the analysis of the co-design process of inquiry-based and technology-enhanced and networked learning scenarios. To conclude, we discuss the major implications and challenges of this approach.