Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
are essential components. We propose that this is similar to Pandora's Box, or a
Calder mobile, in which every level is related and mutually dependent with the
other levels. Thus, the complexity of implementation may be reduced with common
goals and share vision between the levels of decision making, resource allocation,
and expected outcomes. Unfortunately, this is not always known or explicated.
Further Research—an Invitation
We have to deal with the fact that communication plays a key role in the construc-
tion of knowledge, and that it will be productive to reflect on and rethink teaching
environments in the light of the presented theoretical framework. This includes
rethinking and explicating teacher and student roles, in that each specific teaching
environment has some, often implicit, expectations regarding teacher and student
roles and related functions (Mathiasen, 2007).
If the presupposition is that different communication forums including digital
and nondigital learning resources can be fruitful for knowledge constructions, the
challenge is then to empower teachers to rethink their ways of organizing teaching
including the use of ICT in the light of the premise of communication, complexity,
contingency, and the risk involved. As a consequence of the presented theoretical
frame and the research findings we suggest the following research questions as a
part of the research agenda:
•
Which communication forums facilitate which kind of knowledge construction
and development of special and social competences, and what could be the
repertoire of teacher and student roles?
•
How can the use of different types of teaching environments, commonly seen as
communication forums, facilitate each other?
•
How can different learning resources, digital as well as nondigital, facilitate each
students' learning and knowledge construction?
We invite the conversation around these topics and encourage research to explore
the issues raised in this chapter. The voices that must be considered include those
of the teachers, the learners, and the school leaders who help implement ICT
in an effort to promote the goals of all educational systems. The educational
community, and in particular the current and future learners, will all benefit from
this collaborative conversation.
References
Barron., B. (2004). Learning ecologies for technological fluency: Gender and experience differ-
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(4), 1-36.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). The problem of speech genres (V. McGee, Trans.). In C. Emerson &
M. Holquist (Eds.),
Speech genres and other late essays
(pp. 60-102). Austin: University of
Texas Press.
