Practices with technology: learning at the boundary between study and work

摘要

A study of part-time student experience of university courses delivered using a range of technologies found that information and communication technology enabled students to move between study and work experience to the benefit of their learning in both contexts. Technology-based study activities enabled students to participate in learning both as a student and as a member of a practice or work context. Given the increasingly pressured lives of all students in higher education and their aspirations for employment after graduation, this suggests that we would benefit from taking their relationship to work and professional practice into account more directly, in deciding how to integrate technology into their study experience. Teacher conceptions of technology as a tool primarily for information delivery and discussion need to expand to recognize that it can be used to construct learning experiences situated in roles, skills and interactive environments that enhance students' ability to make transitions across the boundaries between contexts of study and work.