Login and logout: practices of resistance and presence in virtual environments as a kind of reflective learning activity

Abstract

Learning processes are closely connected to the contexts in which professional and day‐to‐day practices are conducted, and to the characteristics of those contexts. These processes develop through and between different systems of activities, established by actors operating on the basis of explicit and implicit rules in order to achieve certain goals. They do so through the use of artefacts and knowledge, within a system of labour sharing, role definition and specific power mechanisms. What happens when the rules of these systems, or the roles, artefacts or knowledge, change? What happens to learning processes if the contexts in which the practices are implemented happen to be online, for example in a blog or a virtual community of practice (VCoP) or on social networking platforms? When we speak of learning in Web 2.0 environments created ex novo within a project, we are speaking of a type of participation and precise presence that does not manifest itself through a nomadic, solitary journey around the web. It is, rather, considered as one of the ways of being, learning and working together within a given project. This is, therefore, a very powerful option: learning together online through the use of ICT and in a given space of time. Our intention in this paper is to develop a two‐fold reflection on learning modes in virtual activity systems: the importance of learning as participating (learning to participate); the importance of learning to learn together in virtual environments (learning together). In so doing, we refer to the experience of using web instruments in the context of a European project in which guidance practitioners from a number of different countries took part. Lastly, the general lines of a participatory and appreciative approach to facilitating online reflective learning will be proposed.