LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Editorial by Kristiina Kumpulainen: Learning with and from technologies in their social and cultural settings

Major national and global initiatives have been proposed in different parts of the world to consider the impact of technology on learning and education. This is demonstrated in a number of documents constructed by European Union, National Science Foundation and UNESCO initiatives. In addition to demonstrating the outcomes of learning with technology, many reports stress the need to increase understanding of the ways in which people learn with technology across and within various social and cultural spaces. The development of understanding of the processes and practices of learning with and from technology requires interdisciplinary development work conducted by educators and members of scientific communities representing different, yet contributing disciplines, cultures and geographic locations.

Recent theories of learning including social constructivism, situated learning and distributed cognition define learning as an active knowledge construction process occurring in socially and physically dynamic contexts. Learning and knowledge construction are seen as being mediated by learners’ active interactions with their social and material environments. The theoretical emphasis on the social and cultural elements of learning and education have also directed educational efforts to focus their attention on the social and cultural practices of learning with technology.

Existing research in the field has examined individuals and their learning within the social spaces of technology. Closer attention has also been paid to the local and virtual interactions created in smaller groups or in bigger learning communities during the use of technology. This research has already evidenced that technologies for learning cannot be conceptualized as simple artifacts that have a causal effect on learning. Instead, technologies for learning should be viewed as part of a larger social and cultural context that can only establish preconditions for learning but not directly determine how and when learning takes place or what the learning outcomes are.

Technologies such as wikis, blogs, instant messaging, SMS, chat as well as virtual games have become widely popular among many learners to interact and socialize with one another. The educational harnessing of these social applications of technology is also constantly developing. These new social technologies provide exciting possibilities for communal knowledge creation, changing the traditional ways of thinking about the ownership of knowledge. Moreover, these new technologies provide learners new ways of collaborating, interacting and making oneself present during learning activities. The new possibilities and challenges made possible by these technological innovations also draw attention to the identity work of the learners in the social spaces they have created for themselves and for others.
While in the past it may have been adequate to examine technology-mediated learning exclusively from the artificial intelligence approach or within an educational psychology perspective, it seems less likely today. We are all learning within the research community that the field is becoming much more complex, dynamic and intertwined. Technological innovations are providing learners and educators with new tools, spaces and possibilities for learning. Learning theories, on the other hand, are also constantly elaborating our understanding of the practice of learning with and from technology.

As this issue demonstrates, there is clearly a need to further theorize technology and its application in and for education and learning. An educational challenge is to harness the power of technological innovations for meaningful and life-long learning. Technology should be more than a communication or entertainment media. In addition to theoretical and educational considerations, there is also a need for theoretical uptakes that view collaboration and interaction from the social and cultural perspective, instead of merely from the individual angle. It is also important that the methodologies that we utilize in our educational practice as well as in our evaluation work provide us with flexible lenses to examine learning practices and outcomes from micro to macro level, highlighting their dynamics also. The texts in this volume have begun to address these questions.

Kristiina Kumpulainen
Editor-in-Chief of LLinE
Director, Information and evaluation services
Finnish National Board of Education