Sociology and Philosophy of educational technology

A number of researchers at the Lab use sociological and philosophical perspectives to examine the `wider pictureí of education and technology. The sociology of educational technology reminds us that digital technologies are social and historical products carrying constraints on how they are used. Sociologists within the Lab examine how the social relationships, structural arrangements and cultural norms that surround the educational uses of technology shape, influence and bound individual action. The philosophy of educational technology makes explicit the presuppositions that inform the design, use and application of technologies for learning. This in turn reveals significant areas for research ¨ not least the relationships between knowledge, pedagogy, technology and learning.

Philosophy of Technology Enhanced Learning Print

derry

Project Leader
Dr Jan Derry

Steering Committee
Dr Jan Derry
Dr Zsuzsanna Kondor
Professor KristÛf NyÌri
Dr Don Peterson
Professor Mike Sharples

Project Details
Start: January 2004

Keywords
philosophy,
epistemology,
e-learning,
user interface,
ubiquitous computing

 

Philosophy of Technology Enhanced Learning

The aim of this philosophical Special Interest Group (SIG) is essentially practical: to develop understanding of the significance which new technologies have for knowledge and learning and in so doing, to explore the nature of knowledge and learning in the e-society.

One focus of the SIG, therefore, is in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in formal education. Of equal interest, however, are questions arising from a broad conception of ICT (including the new wave of technologies: ambient, ubiquitous, semantic, adaptive and agent systems), and a broad conception of learning (including informal and mobile scenarios, work, leisure, tourism and public information) as affected by these technologies.†

Core participants
Professor KristÛf NyÌri, Dr Zsuzsanna Kondor, Istvan Danka, Viktor Bedo - Institute for Philosophical Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary;
Dr Jan Derry, Dr Don Peterson, Dr Sara Price, Professor Michael Young - London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, UK;
Professor Bruno Bachimont - University of Technology of Compiegne, France;
Professor Mike Sharples, Dr Tony Hall, Dr Charles Crook - Learning Sciences Research Institute, University of Nottingham, UK;
Dr Russell Beale, - University of Birmingham, UK;
Dr. Giuliana Dettori, Dr. Tania Giannetti, - ITD-CNR, Italy
Professor Leif Lahn, Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo, Norway.

SIG Symposiums
The Mediated Mind: Re-thinking Representation was held in May 2005 at the London Knowledge Lab, UK.
The 2007 Symposium was on the theme of†Knowledge and Context.

†philosophy_image

Mike Sharples, Jan Derry and Don Peterson

References
NyÌri, K. (2003) Pictorial Meaning and Mobile Communication in NyÌri, K. (ed.) Mobile Communication: Essays on Cognition and Community, Vienna: Passagen Verlag.

Cole, M., Derry, J. (2005) We Have Met Technology and It Is Us. In Sternberg, R. and Preiss, D. (eds.) Intelligence and Technology, The Impact of Tools on the Nature and Development of Human Abilities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Project Website
www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/ptel/

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 June 2008 )
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]

Current Research Projects