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

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Chapter 8
Noticing the past to manage
the future
On the organization of shared
knowing in IT- support practices
Ann- Charlotte Eklund, Åsa Mäkitalo
and Roger Säljö
Understanding is like knowing how to go on.
Wittgenstein (1980, § 875)
Introduction
At present digital technology is a generic element in the transformation of work
practices through ways we communicate, administrative procedures, the organization
of production processes, and so on. To be useful in specific practices, the
technology has to be adapted to local needs in relevant manners. In healthcare,
electronic patient records are introduced in order to make hospital practices more
efficient; in retail stores databases allow efficient monitoring of the inflow and outflow
of goods; in the car- manufacturing industry computer technology monitors
production processes and customizes products according to buyers’ specifications.
As a result of this development, knowing and skills tend to become more specialized
(for empirical analyses and illustrations of the interplay between technology
and specialization of work practices, see Heath & Luff, 2000; Luff, Hindmarsh &
Heath, 2000; Resnick, L., Säljö, R., Pontecorvo, C., & Burge, B., 1997; Zuboff,
1988). Such changes in the cultural tools we use in everyday life as well as in
professional settings make it important to study how professional knowing and
learning are organized in various practices.
One result of these transformations is that the implementation, maintenance
and support of digital systems per se have become significant activities and fields
in which knowing has become professionalized. IT helpdesk practices are obvious
symptoms of this development. When digital technology was first introduced
in working life, companies relied on experienced users of computers to handle
troubleshooting and support tasks alongside their regular duties. But this is no
longer viable. The support function emerged as a professional field in its own
right when network systems and products became increasingly complex. Today,
helpdesks provide support services that concern the technological systems as well
as users’ individual issues.