Learning Across Sites: New tools, infrastructures and practices - Earli

Foreword
For EARLI members only.
Not for onward distribution.
This book has its origins in different strategic efforts in Norway and Sweden and
from two major initiatives about learning, innovation and ICT in the European
research area.
First, in 2002, InterMedia at the Faculty of Education, University of Oslo,
was a partner in a major initiative for strengthening our understanding of societal
transformation and the development of learning and ICT. Several research
institutes and faculties have been involved in the strategic program, Competence
and Media Convergence (CMC). The CMC program has been supported with a
grant from the University of Oslo. This grant has given us the financial support
necessary to arrange a series of international seminars and workshops as well as
a special workshop where all the authors in this book met to further develop the
ideas for their contributions to the project.
The second strand of support comes from the University of Gothenburg and two
research initiatives. The first one is LearnIT, the research program on learning and
ICT funded by the Knowledge Foundation in 2000. The second source of support
at the University of Gothenburg is the national center of excellence, the Linnaeus
Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication
in Contemporary Society (LinCS). The founders of the Linnaeus Centre have
collaborated with the Faculty of Education and InterMedia over a long period
of time.
The third strand that must be mentioned is Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence
in the 6th framework in EU (IST program). This program has given us, as
European colleagues, excellent possibilities for international cooperation in the
field of technology- enhanced learning.
The fourth strand is the EU project Knowledge Practices Laboratory (KP- LAB)
(2005–2010, integrated project in the Sixth Framework, IST program), which
adds new possibilities to such collaborations. Several of the chapters in this book
address directly key issues in the KP- LAB project.
These different strategic efforts, centers, projects and networks collaborate at
the personal as well as institutional levels, and this creates productive- structuring
mechanisms for advancing our knowledge in order to promote a more complete
understanding of learning in the 21st century. The projects and centers