Vol. 8 - Issue 1 2012 - ISSN 1504-4831

Volume 3 - issue 3 - 2007

Editorial volume 3 - issue 3: The future of the Learning Management System

Time Magazine argued in 2006 that the person of the year truly was “You”. editorial3-3

This was in deed a significant gesture to the fact that digital technologies change the way people interact and live their lives. What made “You” a candidate for “Person of the year”, was that the development of the Internet had made it possible for anyone to publish and express your personality on the Web; or rather of “Web 2.0”.

In 2007, the notion of “Web 2.0” has been on headlines for many conferences and conventions, articles and in the news. While some enthusiasts already prepare for the developments of “Web 3.0”, most people face the challenge of trying to grapple with how new technological changes affect their everyday life in the present tense. So, if “You” was the person of the year in 2006, Web 2.0 was the technology of the year in 2007. And then again, the notion of what consequences Web 2.0 might have for teaching and learning in the area of higher education, lifelong learning and adult education will be raised in numerous contexts.

In this article, Anne Karin Larsen, Grete Oline Hole and Morten Fahlvik explain the development of, and experiences with, educational resources based on a “Virtual Book” concept. Students from 11 European countries participated in the project. Based on theories of composite texts and community of inquiry, the article examines how the produced material contributed to the learning process, with a particular focus on the e-learning framework. The authors work at Bergen University College in Norway.

From the left: Anne Karin Larsen, Grete Oline Hole and Morten Fahlvik.

Insights into teaching practices using Virtual Learning Environments

Laurence Habib and Monica Johannesen raise a pertinent question about how the introduction of a Virtual Learning Environment affects students, administration and teachers. Their analytical angle offer a framwork to see how critical and creative users might push the limits of for what is possible. They apply Actor-Network theory in understanding the organisational and pedagogical effects of using the VLE, they offer us a dynamic interpretations on how the various actors shape and shake assumptions and limits of its use. Laurence Habib and Monica Johannesen work at Oslo University College.

Monica Johannesen (left) and Laurence Habib.

Insights into teaching and use of ICT in rural and remote Australian schools

In this article Neil Anderson, Carolyn Timms and Lyn Courtney of James Cook University, Australia, address the rural/urban distinction in a complex project, investigated in several aspects. There is evidence for claiming that students in rural areas take up ICT to a lesser degree than in metropolitan areas. They found that Rural/ Remote Takers were more likely to perceive ICT subjects as boring than their metropolitan counterparts. They also found that Rural/Remote Non takers were more likely to report that they did not have access to a home computer. This is a significant set of findings that should alarm policymakers and educational administrators. There are good reasons to believe this will be the case in many other countries.

From the left: Ms Lyn Courtney, Professor Neil Anderson, Professor Colin Lankshear (key researcher in the ARC study) and Ms Carolyn Timms.

Article list vol 8. - issue 1

1. Thommy Eriksson & Inge Ejbye Sørensen - Reflections on academic video

2. Theo Hug - Storytelling – EDU: Educational - Digital – Unlimited?

3. Alexander Porshnev & Hartmut Giest - University Students’ Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Russia: A Focus on Learning and Everyday Life *

4. Edda Johansen, Thomas Harding & Tone Marte Ljosaa - Norwegian Nurses’ Experiences with Blended Learning: An Evaluation Study

5. Heidi Philipsen - Scaffolded filmmaking in PlayOFF: A playground for worldwide film experiments

Call for papers

Seminar.net welcomes papers and reviews for upcoming issues, and you find guidelines for authors here. Our scope is to publish refereed articles dealing with research into theoretical or practical aspects related to the learning of adolescents, adults and elderly. A vital field of interest for seminar.net is the use of media technology in lifelong learning.

Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-Representations in New Media

Knut Lundby (red.)

Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2008.

Reviewed by
Jill Walker Rettberg
Associate Professor of Digital Culture
University of Bergen
http://jilltxt.net

We live in an age in which more and more of us are creating our own "digital stories". In 2008, 18% of Norwegian 16-24 year olds were recorded as being active bloggers over the previous three months (Statistics Norway, "ICT in households", 2^nd quarter 2008) while more than 2/3 of American teenagers have uploaded self-produced material to the Internet, in the form of YouTube videos, photographs, blogs, stories, remixes etc. (Pew Internet). The numbers of these "user-made" cultural productions are growing year by year and spreading from the younger generation to us adults, who are now the group most increasingly represented on Facebook. In blogs and on Facebook the distinction between amateur and professional is largely meaningless.

John Hartley and Kelly McWilliam (eds.)

Publisher: Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

Reviewed by
Birte Hatlehol
PhD student in Media Education
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Email: birthe.hatlehol@svt.ntnu.no

The anthology Story Circle is an international study of digital storytelling that discusses the phenomenon in a global context. The book contains 20 articles with contributions from a number of key specialists with wide-ranging experience in the field of DST.

Edited by Heidi Philipsen and Lars Qvortrup

Publisher: Samfundslitteratur Press: Frederiksberg Press, 2007.

Reviewed by
Stephen Dobson
Professor
Lillehammer University College
Email: stephen.dobson@hil.no

Introduction
Two questions can be asked: firstly, not do we need another book on remediation, but why? And secondly, if this is the case, what kind of book should it be? This review spirals around these questions.

Global perspectives on E-learning.

Rhetoric and reality by A. A. Carr-Chellman (Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2005

Reviewed by

Dr. J. Ola Lindberg

Department of Education, Mid Sweden University
Email: Ola.Lindberg@miun.se

Dr. Anders D. Olofsson
Department of Education, Umeå University
Email: Anders.D.Olofsson@educ.umu.se

It seems suitable to begin this review by giving a brief description of the context in which the texts of this book are produced. If it fails to be regarded as a description, then we hope at least it can be regarded as one possible understanding of the context. When contextualizing a book, a good idea seems to be to start with a few words about the editor, Alison A. Carr-Chellman.

by George Lakoff, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006

Reviewed by
Geir Haugsbakk
Ph.D.-candidate in Education
Lillehammer University College

Email: Geir.Haugsbakk@hil.no

“To lose freedom is awful; to lose the idea of freedom is even worse.” This statement by George Lakoff is at the core of his attention in his last book. And his opinion is that the loss of the concept of freedom is a tragic incident that has struck a large part of the American people, not least since September 11, 2001.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, professor, Lillehammer University College.

7 years have passed since the publication of Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin’s Remediation. Understanding New Media (1999). It has already in the space of this short time attained the status of a classic.

Adult Learning in the Digital Age

Information Technology and the Learning Society by Selwyn, N., Gorard, S. and Furlong, J. London: Routledge, 2006.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, Senior lecturer in Education, Lillehammer University College, Norway.

Published by Routledge (London), 2003, p196.

Reviewed by Stephen Dobson, Senior lecturer in education, Lillehammer University College.