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Examining texts written around the middle section of the time frame for this study, from around1996 to 2006, it is clear that the concern of authors was how technology could be used to enablecollaboration, co-operation and constructivist approaches to learning. Collis (1996) notes,"Educationally there is a growing movement toward acknowledging the value ofcooperative work and computer-supported cooperative work is a multidisciplinarygrowth area." (Collis, 1996 p. 406)She goes on to say,"Interconnectivity and integration also refer to the movement toward regardingcomputer use as an integrated part of the educational environment integrated interms of computer application in traditional subject areas, but also in terms ofcomputers as a catalyst to stimulate more integration of subject areas." (Collis, ibid)Kearsley was the first author I came across who systematically tried to map the emerginglandscape of the potential uses of technology in education (see Kearsley, 2000). Writing aroundthe turn of the century he introduced me to terms like MultiUserDomains (MUDs) and MultiUser Interfaces (MUIs) (Kearsley, 2000). It is more than coincidence that one of the mostwidely adopted so-called virtual learning environments is MOODLE (Modular Object-OrientedDynamic Learning Environment). MOODLE is a multi user domain in that many people can beinside a virtual learning environment (VLE) all at the same time and it is supported by a userinterface that allows for many people to operate it synchronously 25 . It could be argued that afully-functioning VLE is the current technological zenith of a learning network (N 3 )Historically, it was a small matter of months before practitioners in the field had started tocondense such apparently complex phenomena into short hand terms like e-learning (see25 Gillespie, Boulton, Hramiak and Williamson (2007), base a whole book for teachers in training on the assumptionthat MOODLE will be the virtual learning environment they will have to use when they arrive in schools. In theperiod from about 2004 to the present day, schools have invested significantly in VLEs. In that time I haveexperienced professionally, Fronter, Frog and RM's Kaleidos, none of which are significantly better in terms ofaffordances (see Collis above or Wenger, White and Smith, above) than Moodle (Now that MOODLE has beenturned into a global phenomenon, its accronym has been adopted as a brand name and thus it is appropriate to usefrom here on the normal case spelling.93Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)