In Seminar.net's first year we published two issues, and we received recognition from fellow electronic publishers for our innovative use of short video clips offering authors the opportunity to introduce their contributions. There are some challenges when entering the world of digital communication, and one of them is certainly to take innovative steps towards multimodal ways of presenting academic knowledge. We would like our readers to forward their ideas and suggestions on how to make this journal’s communication of academic knowledge more inspired, vivid and helpful. We are planning three issues this year, and we are in the favourable position of continually receiving contributions that address the purpose of mediation and communication.
The current issue of Seminar.net, the first of Volume 2., is a cross-disciplinary accomplishment gathering together papers written by scholars from different disciplines, and they all contribute in significant ways to frame the field of “Media, technology and lifelong learning”.
This article presents aspects of educational thinking in a transformational, postmodern society. Lars Løvlie proposes, firstly, that we drop the absolute distinction between man and animal, and man and machine; and start treating them as co-extensive; and secondly, that the subject be described in terms of the interface rather than of the "I". The interface does not refer to the self as substantial or to culture as objective but rather to the places where they interact. Lars Løvlie is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo.
Wenche M. Rønning and Gunnar Grepperud have done a comprehensive national survey of adult flexible students’ learning situation in Norway 2004-2005. Having 1477 respondents from a total of 74 “classes”, all following flexible higher education courses, they throw light on how ICT is used on an everyday basis. The survey shows that Internet access is generally good, but clear disparities are shown between different occupational groups. They found that Internet plays a less dominate role than expected as a channel of communication in-between students and between students and their teachers. Wenche M. Rønning is a senior researcher at Lifelong Learning Research Centre,The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim and Gunnar Grepperud is professor at Centre for Further and Continuing Education, University of Tromsø.
The PowerPoint software is widely used, in business, higher education and elsewhere. In this essay Jens. E. Kjeldsen explains why Power Point cannot be seen av a neutral tool for the benefit of the teacher and the learner. It affects the way we teach, as well as the way the learners think, learn and understand. In stead of using the tool uncritically, we should use what Kjeldsen coins as media rhetoracy: the ability to communicate persuasively and appropriately. Jens E. Kjeldsen is an associate professor at the University of Bergen, Norway.
A text theoretical study of a digital format integrating writing and video
Digital text formats that allow a close interaction between writing and video represent new possibilities and challenges for the communication of educational content. What are the premises for functional and appropriate communication through web-based, multimedial text formats? These are the fundamental questions Martin Engebretsen, Associate professor at Agder University College raise in this paper. His aim is to describe how writing and video elements can be accomodated to web media.
There is a need to develop a broader view of knowledge for dealing with the way in which new digital trends influence the underlying conditions for schools, pedagogy and subjects. This short commentary article, based on my paper at the NVU-conference 2008, will therefore highlight whether a broader view of knowledge - situated learning, digital literacy and the digital revolution can generate new ways of how we perceive pedagogy within the new educational reform in Norway in particular and the digitized school in general. The focus is particularly angled towards the implications this may have for developing new practises for teachers and students.
The 37th Annual Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association will be held in Trondheim, Norway, 5 - 7 March 2009. Keynote speakers are Ruth Kagia (World Bank), irene Rizzini (University of Rio de janeiro), Roger Hart (University of New York), Jon Smidt (Sør-Trøndelag University College) and Anna-Lena Østern (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 November 2008, and deadline for registration 31 Januar 2009.
The Dream conference is titled Digital
Content Creation: Creativity, Competence, Critique and takes place in Odense, Denmark, 18-20 September 2008. Keynote speakers include professor David Buckingham, John Hartley, Angela McFarlane and Roger Säljö.
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.
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.
Volume 2 - issue 1 - 2006 
and we received recognition from fellow electronic publishers for our innovative use of short video clips offering authors the opportunity to introduce their contributions. There are some challenges when entering the world of digital communication, and one of them is certainly to take innovative steps towards multimodal ways of presenting academic knowledge. We would like our readers to forward their ideas and suggestions on how to make this journal’s communication of academic knowledge more inspired, vivid and helpful. We are planning three issues this year, and we are in the favourable position of continually receiving contributions that address the purpose of mediation and communication.