University students’ approaches to learning: rethinking the place of technology

Abstract

In this article, we argue that educational technology research has spent too long trapped in a paradigm of simplistic comparisons, wherein normal science consists of evaluating a technology‐based intervention by contrasting it with some established set of educational practices. Our argument is different in significant ways from the claim that media will never influence learning. Rather, it focuses on two sets of issues. The first is concerned with the nature of comparison, and especially with the hidden work of simplification that is usually entailed in comparative research. The second is also concerned with a shift in perspective – from that of the educational innovator to that of the student. The article has implications for thinking about the design and management of learning environments in more holistic or ecological ways.