I recently had the pleasure of giving a presentation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna.

The title of my presentation was "Discursive Psychology and Web 2.0 Technology: Investigating Web 2.0 in Education."

A copy of the PowerPoint used in this presentation is available, as is an audio podcast.

Here's a paper that I wrote together with an Austrian colleague, Theo Hug as a chapter inMediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences (K.Lundby, ed.). It explores the definition and practices of "media literacy" in the context of recent developments in the sociology and theory of media in Europe. Central to these developments is the idea that changing communication media are absolutely foundational to culture and education. They cannot be separated from even the most basic understandings of epistemology and cognition. Following McLuhan (right), this paper argues that media (whether print, television or the "mixed media" of the Web and Internet) set the parameters for the institution of schooling, the dynamics of individual development and even the character of knowledge itself. Special thanks go to Michael Molenda (Indiana U.) for his permission to use his systems diagram of the "student academic learning model" in the paper.

This book, forthcoming from Peter Lang Publishers, undertakes a re-thinking of e-learning research in the light of new developments in technology, social practice and psychological theory. It both describes and enacts a range of possibilities for resesarch that are a part of such a re-thinking.

A draft of some sample chapters of this monograph are available at: http://elearn.tru.ca

During the spring, I worked with Janet Hopkins (an MEd student) on a directed study examining Wikiversity, a sister project of Wikipedia. Initially in this study, Janet took a free, open, online course offered through Wikiversity, “Composing Free and Open Online Educational Resources.”

While completing the 12-week course, Janet kept field notes on her blog. Janet and I made use of these notes in putting together a paper presenting an ethnographic study of the community and culture of Wikiversity. It appears in the October 2008 edition of First Monday.

Narrative interpenetrates both everyday and specialized knowledge and communication. This paper, appearing in the online journal E-Learning, uses the example of one teacher's account of the use of blog technologies in a classroom setting to illustrate how e-learning practice and research are similarly saturated with narrative characteristics (including those of rising and falling actionor complication right). In doing so, the paper also attempts to give a voice to at least one example of a kind of position and story that is generally not heard in e-learning research.

It is commonly asserted that “knowledge,” “information,” or more abstractly, “the networked” or “the postindustrial” are eponymous for our society, age, or economy. These broad and often unquestioned assertions have significant social and political implications. They bring with them urgent implications for all levels and forms of education—from the preparation of children as “knowledge builders,” through the reconfiguration of higher educational institutions, to support for different forms “lifelong learning.” This paper, appearing in Ubiquity in May critiques some of these ideologies or myths. It owes much to Frankfurt School member Jürgen Habermas (right), who is better known for his social theory than his hotdogs :-).

Phenomenology & Practice is an online, open-access journal journal dedicated to the study of the lived experience of professional and everyday human practices. This journal, for which I am both co-editor and technical editor, revives and expands Phenomenology + Pedagogy, which was founded by Dr. Max van Manen, and was published from 1983 to 1992. The first issue features papers from German, British and North American authors, and also from Max van Manen, the journal’s founding editor.

Earlier, I reported on the visit of Dr. Tone Saevi to TRU. Together with Dr. Diane Purvey and myself, Dr. Saevi taught a course that combined film and art together with an emphasis on the pedagogical relation. As a result of the rich experiences of the course, and through ongoing collaboration with Dr. Saevi a co-authored article reporting on the course is set to appear in an up-coming issue of the Journal of Curriculum Studies. In addition to an overview of the course, the paper also gives an account of the educational philosophy associated with the pedagogical relation, and explains how this philosophy was integrated with films and (other) works of art in the course. The submitted version of the document is provided.