Editorial: Relationships with technology

Abstract

Learning technologists and educational technology researchers will be familiar with scenarios where technologies are not taken up and used in the ways we expect them to be. From telephones to texting, to the web itself, there are ample examples from history of technology being appropriated in unexpected ways. This is one of the reasons why Cook and Noss (2010), in their foreword to a review of the evidence for technology enhanced learning, start out by stating that ‘it really is somewhat fruitless to ask what is the impact of technology-in-general’ (p. 4). Rather what we should be asking is how can we design technologies and the contexts into which they are inserted? Previously, design has been conceptualized as a process of understanding the media properties or affordances of technologies and the act of placing them appropriately within contexts where they could be used to facilitate particular interactions or educational practices (Conole & Dyke, 2004; Laurillard, 2002). As the papers in this journal seem to be increasingly concerned with the people and processes involved in educational technology, it seems insufficient to think of design without a consideration of the relationships between people and technology.

(Published: 25 April 2012)

Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 18531 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.18531