|
|
Interest in LGC
In her book ‘Internet Society’, Bakardjieva (2005) looks at the everyday use of the Internet. She presents a theoretical framework which combines concepts from several schools of thought (social constructivism, critical theory, cultural studies and phenomenological sociology) in an attempt to overcome some of the limitations of these perspectives. Bakardjieva (2005, p. 34) characterises her approach as “technology-in-use-in-social-situations”, or technology extended to include the acts of use in social situations. This is where a user enacts or invents ‘use genres’, i.e. they mobilise available cultural tools to respond to a social situation.
By drawing on the work of Bakardjieva (2005) and Bakhtin (1981), I propose that LGC can be seen as the appropriation of ICTs for learning; this can usefully be viewed as a ‘technology-as-speech’ metaphor (Cook, 2007) that operates at the level of the user’s story / genre / narrative. Bakhtin has argued that genres or stories “correspond to typical situations of speech communication, typical themes, and, consequently also to particular contacts between the meaning of words and concrete reality under certain typical circumstances” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 87). The speakers do not take their words and expressions out of dictionaries, but out of other people’s mouths, out of other utterances that are kindred to their own genre. Thus in speech, this corresponds to working with lived and living utterances rather than dictionary definitions. Essentially, we populate words with our own intentions and attributions, thereby expressing our own meanings. Words and genres become our own “only when the speaker populates it with their own intentions, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 294). Learner agency and appropriation of mobile technology, then, should be treated as a technology of speech, particularly because speech genres are adaptable and allow personal preference and creativity. Speech genres represent a blend between the individual and the typical: cultural tools are already steeped in the achievements of earlier users; by appropriating them to our own uses, we actively select, appropriate and implement them to the context of our own context or use. For example, consider the computer interface versus what we do with the computer in our everyday lives. To get a computer to work there are a set of rules that must be followed. However, the use genres that include computers are very diverse, depending on situational configuration and user goals: e.g. World of War Craft, blogging, spreadsheets, etc. By engaging in appropriation and adoption of technology or genres, learners can give technology a new, possibly peculiar, spin that others may adopt later. Learner appropriation and agency is therefore an action on tools whereby a learner actively selects, appropriates and implements within the context of a use genre (Bakardjieva, 2005). The user is an informed participant in the generative process of appropriation and adaptation.
References
Bakardjieva, M. (2005). Internet Society. The Internet in Everyday Life. London: Sage Publications.
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.Trans. by C. Emerson and M. Holquist, Ed. by M. Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press (selections).
Cook, J. (2007). Generating New Learning Contexts: Novel Forms of Reuse and Learning on the Move. Invited talk at ED-MEDIA 2007 – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, June 25-29, Vancouver, Canada. Available from:
|
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.