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

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Intersecting trajectories of participation 111
because they actualise aspects concerning time, temporality and sequential ordering
in learning in different ways. Analysis of the empirical material will illustrate how
different timescales are made relevant through the knowledge and the artifacts in
use, and how this mediates learning. The first example, from a peer support group
related to a health condition, introduces the topic of time in intersecting trajectories
of participation and illustrates central aspects in the concept of heterochrony. In
this case heterochrony concerns how patients reinterpret biomedical knowledge
on the basis of different individual trajectories.
In the second dataset we follow a group of secondary school students (aged
14–15) and their teacher while solving a task in a 3D (three- dimensional) ICT
application. This example shows how increased complexity in new learning environments
creates disturbances that intensify the importance of the temporal- spatial
ordering of the interactions. The data presents here- and- now interactions, which
bring in longitudinal aspects of time in different ways. This case also illustrates
central aspects heterochrony and multiplicity of timescales by studying how different
artifacts intersect during students’ interactions, and how their creation of
common objects brings together different timescales.
Introducing intersecting trajectories of
participation: biomedical knowledge and life
experience
In the first empirical data set we illustrate the concept of trajectories of participation
introduced through considerations related to challenges of ‘living well’ with
a chronic condition. The case relates to the condition ‘anal anomaly’, a congenital
anomaly with life- long challenges to physical functioning, psychosocial and emotional
well- being of the person with the condition and also their family (Diseth
et al., 1998; Senter for Sjeldne Diagnoser, 2006). The data is an excerpt from a
corpus of interviews where researchers asked adolescent and adult patients, as well
as parents, about their experiences and challenges to everyday living. The interviews
were conducted where ICT- based resources were being designed to supplement
existing healthcare services.
The chosen excerpt gives examples of how two adolescents share their experience
and handle an important issue related to the condition ‘constipation’. In
the excerpt the discussion illustrates the intersections between the accumulated
generalised bio- medical knowledge and personal everyday experiences, and how
they experiment and try to find their own path to deal with their additional challenge
to everyday life. 1
Peder:
Constipation is the main issue with the syndrome. I think it varies
from person to person. I can recognize the symptoms easily.
I become aware when I start to be constipated . . . lose my appetite,
eat poorly, do not drink, become fatigued and such things . . .
you try to prevent it as much as you can, with medicines and so