Open AccessThe agency of students, teachers and learning technologists
Author(s) -
Frances Bell
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
research in learning technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2156-7077
pISSN - 2156-7069
DOI - 10.3402/rlt.v17i2.10865
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , publication , scope (computer science) , pedagogy , educational technology , sociology , psychology , computer science , political science , social science , law , programming language
The articles in this issue reveal the commitment of ALT-J to publish research that addresses the perspectives of a range of stakeholders in learning technology: in this case, students, teachers and learning technologists themselves. Although the articles are wide-ranging in their scope and approaches, we can detect some important and common themes. The first of these is agency: learning technology research can fall into the trap of focusing on the technology that is offered rather than what people do with or without it. The second is online discussion: although computer conferencing has been used in education since the 1980s, student engagement remains a thorny issue for practice, and one that demands additional research. Thirdly, the role of learning technologists remains in question: how can they support staff and students through their practice and research