Abstract
Contemporary educational practices have been calling for pedagogical models that foreground fexibility, agency, ubiquity, and connectedness in learning. Tese models have, in turn, been stimulating redevelopments of educational infrastructure –with physical contours reconfgured into novel complex learning spaces at universities, schools, museums, and libraries. Understanding the complexity of these innovative learning spaces requires an acknowledgement of the material and digital as interconnected. A ‘physical’ learning space is likely to involve a range of technologies and in addition to paying attention to these ‘technologies’ one must understand and account for their physical sites of use as well. Tis paper discusses the infuence of materiality in learning, using an analytical approach that situates learning activity as an emergent process. Drawing on theories that foreground socio-materiality in learning and on the relational perspective ofered by networked learning, we call for a deeper understanding of the interplay between the physical (material and digital), conceptual, and social aspects of learning, and their combined infuence on emergent activity. Te paper argues that in order to successfully design for innovative learning, educators need to develop their capacity to trace the intricate connections between people, ideas, digital and material tools, and tasks –to see the learning-whole in action.
Highlights
Understanding links between the built environment and human behaviour has long been central to the fields of architecture, urban planning and archaeology
Drawing on the work of Ingold (2011; 2012) we put forward a view of learning that involves increasing correspondence between people’s ability to read subtle cues in their enviros, and their ability to adjust their actions without markedly disrupting the flow of their learning. We argue that this sensitivity to materials within a holistic perspective leads us to a particular view of design for learning that takes the physical, social and epistemic nature of learning into account, foregrounding part-whole relations at different levels of granularity and bringing awareness of how changes in one aspect of the learning environment is expressed or reflected in another
Design for learning needs to be grounded on what we value in learning and on theoretical understandings of how people come to know, which in turn, should be coherently reflected at different scale levels in the networked assemblage of elements –the tools, tasks, and social arrangements at the micro, meso and macro levels
Summary
Understanding links between the built environment and human behaviour has long been central to the fields of architecture, urban planning and archaeology. Drawing on the work of Ingold (2011; 2012) we put forward a view of learning that involves increasing correspondence between people’s ability to read subtle cues in their enviros, and their ability to adjust their actions without markedly disrupting the flow of their learning We argue that this sensitivity to materials within a holistic perspective leads us to a particular view of design for learning that takes the physical, social and epistemic nature of learning into account, foregrounding part-whole relations at different levels of granularity and bringing awareness of how changes in one aspect of the learning environment is (or is not) expressed or reflected in another
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call