Technology and Learning

During the 1900s, the use of technology in teaching has frequently been combined with an expectation that technology would renew pedagogy. Renewal, however, has been more difficult to implement. Implementation of technology often takes much longer than expected, as those who are trying to introduce new technologies do not take into account the social, cultural and economic context. The confidence of technological optimists in teaching machines and self-instructive technologies has generally been met with resistance from students and teachers. The gap between educational political reality and visions of a new pedagogy is also apparent in the contemporary reliance on various forms of online teaching in higher education nationally and internationally.

The research area Technology and Learning examines the relationship between technology and learning techniques based on sociological and educational perspectives. The educational system is one of the social fields where the meeting of new technologies and social inertia is made clear. The area is very wide and requires an interdisciplinary field of inquiry where technology is problematized. The area of research is thus rooted in a tradition where technologies such as information and communications technologies (ICT), are studied in time and space with a focus on learning in the education sector. This means that the technology’s framework and its social context is crucial. Research and researchers within the program have their roots in the pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, computer education, journalism and informatics as well as several different institutional affiliations.

Key concepts for research in the program are expectations, practices, techniques and the organization of learning. ICT's ability to make education independent of time and space is also problematized in relation to the organization of the educational sector. In an increasingly globalized world, education remains largely a national concern. How does this resonate with new experiences, for example for young people in higher education? In what ways do new educational technologies create new forms of knowledge? Do these developments of new representational technologies imply the development and change of new forms of knowledge in education?

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Last updated: 2009-11-03