October 2007 Volume 10 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

affordances of networked learning spaces. DoCTA 1 (1998-1999) and DoCTA NSS (2000-2004) were
interdisciplinary research projects funded by the Network for IT-Research and Competence in Education (ITU)
which is a measure taken by the Ministry of Education to support ICT and learning in the Norwegian Educational
system.
In DoCTA 1 (Wasson, Guribye & Mørch, 2000) we focused on the design and use of technological artefacts to
support collaborative networked learning aimed at teacher training. The research was not limited to only studying
these artefacts per se, but included social, cultural, pedagogical and psychological aspects of the entire process in
which these artefacts are an integral part. This means that we both provided and studied virtual learning
environments that were deployed to students organised in geographically distributed teams. Various scenarios
utilising the Internet were used to engage the students in collaborative learning activities. Through participation, the
students gained experience with not only collaborative learning, but with networked learning through the
collaborative design of a textual (Scenarios IDEELS and Demeter) or visual artefact (Scenario VisArt). Details of
these studies can be found in the ITU DoCTA report (Wasson, Guribye & Mørch, 2000). In this paper, the VisArt
scenario is in focus.
In DoCTA NSS (Wasson & Ludvigsen, 2003) we investigated, through a design experiment, how the pedagogical
design of an ICT-mediated collaborative learning environment enables students to learn complex concepts and how
they can go about discussing these concepts in the broader learning community. Design experiments (Brown, 1992)
can be seen as intervention in educational practice since the researchers, in collaboration with teachers, try to change
the way student’s work (Ludvigsen & Mørch, 2003). In our design experiment we intervened in grade 10 natural
science education by introducing an ICT-mediated collaborative learning scenario in gene technology, gen-etikk,
where students collaborated both in co-located and distributed settings. The aim was to investigate how the
pedagogical design of an ICT-mediated collaborative learning environment enables students to talk science and how
this mediates learning. Augmenting our methodological toolbox with Interaction Analysis (Jordan & Henderson,
1995) we added studies (Arnseth 2004; Arnseth et al. 2002, 2004; Rysjedal & Wasson, 2005) about the interaction
between collaborating students and uncovered how the students make their evolving understanding visible to each
other (Stahl, 2002) and how the artifacts that they use are an integral part of this process. In this paper I focus on
how the underlying theoretical model of learning had implications for the pedagogical and technological design and
for our evaluations.
This paper is organized as follows. The next section looks that the design and use of technology enhanced learning
environments and presents a conceptual model that illustrates the complexity of this relationship. Then the two
scenarios, VisArt and gen-etikk are presented, respectively, with a focus on their design and use. The paper
concludes with a general discussion.
Design and Use of Technology Enhanced Learning Environments
From a socio-cultural perspective on learning the notion of activity is seen as the basic concept for design and
analysis (Ludvigsen & Mørch, 2003). This view, together with the Bannon & Bødker view of designing for future
use situations, implies that when we look at a technology rich learning environment we need to look at activity from
both a design and use perspective. Figure 1 illustrates this tight relationship. The TEL design addresses institutional
(or organisational), pedagogical and technological aspects of the learning environment and the activity that emerges
from implementing the design, that is the TEL environment in use, can been evaluated from an institutional,
pedagogical or technological perspective. This means that when designing a learning scenario, the pedagogical and
technological design is important and it is tightly entwined in an institutional context. It also implies that
understanding the use is a complex relationship between institutional, pedagogical and technological perspectives.
The institutional aspects often set the constraints for a learning scenario and are the aspect on which the designer has
the least impact.
The tight interaction between design and use, as illustrated in figure 1, shows that the design of a technology
enhanced learning scenario requires the design of the institutional (or organizational), the pedagogical and the
technological aspects. A theoretical perspective can influence the design (as illustrated in the section on the gen-etikk
scenario). Implementation of the design can entail aspects such as tailoring or developing technology, intervention in
existing practice (e.g., in a classroom), or pedagogical redesign of existing learning activities. Understanding the use
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