To Örebro University

Practitioners designing for mobile learning (mLearning) and scholars exploring the same are faced with the challenge of planning for and understanding a variety of ways and places of learning. This study focuses on one crucial distinction concerning this; that of formal and informal learning. Through the analysis of contemporary research literature, we found that informal learning is represented as more enriching than formal learning. We also identified that many representations of informal learning actually gainsay the idea of designing the learning process. Based on these results we propose a number of implications to enhance pedagogical sustainability in mLearning design. We argue that in order to fuse informal and formal learning, designers need deep knowledge about different students’ learning environments, habits, preferences and everyday uses of technology. One way to achieve this is to have learners co-designing, another is to offer a design in form of a learning path that students themselves can customize according to their learning habits, routines and preferences.

Collaborative digital textbooks – comprehensive materials covering entire curriculums – are developing from being books in pdf format to becoming collaborative digital environments where teachers and students can communicate, engage in feedback and discussions, share and manipulate materials, test knowledge, and monitor results. This study investigates how these digital environments are used in school practice: How are the collaborative tools used to improve learning? Thirteen seventh- and eighth-grade classes, 370 students and 30 teachers in five Swedish secondary schools, were investigated over 1,5 years by means of questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students. Here, questionnaire results are presented, while observations and interviews serve to provide contextual insights. Collaborative tools were very little used; often teachers and students were not even aware of their existence. Most use was individual, students were left alone with the digital material. Students read or listened to the text and did not actively engage in learning by e.g. making notes or marking text. Most teachers did not use the material actively to help students understand and learn, most did not even check student results on automated tests. We conclude that the teachers have not incorporated the new, collaborative design of the digital textbook into their thinking regarding tools for teaching and learning and still regard it as a static book. This suggests that making full use of digital tools requires new ways of thinking of teaching, and that it takes more than providing digital tools to achieve this end.

A multitude of different technologies are used in school today. Some are provided by the school and others are brought by the individual teacher or student. In addition, different applications are available. In this study the focus is on student-initiated uses of technology and how it conditions learning. Based on a case study with surveys, interviews and an observational time study, it is shown that students appear to be the most frequent users of technology in the classroom and for the most part initiate its use. We also show that they often initiate uses directed towards communication and inquiry. Against the prevailing understanding that students mainly use technology for extra-curricular activities, we found that most of the student-initiated technology and applications related to the task in hand and were therefore not regarded as problematic by teachers or students. However, with regard to student-initiated uses of social media, games and communicative applications the picture is more diverse. In this context, teachers and students complain that such use may distract students, although some regard it as rewarding, for example due to the informal learning or time for contemplation and relaxation that results. We conclude by questioning the dichotomies of curricular–non-curricular and intended - unintended learning and we argue for the need to add contemplation to the taxonomy used for understanding the educational use of information technologies as conditions for learning. 

Sessionen fokuserar frågor som berör rasism och antirasism i skolan. Här presenteras fyra papers som fokuserar hur lärare agerar när de upplever olika former av rasism, både bland kollegor och elever som i skolans organisering. Sessionen presenterar preliminära resultat från det pågående forskningsprojektet "How to counteract racism in education" (Vetenskapsrådet), men tar också avstamp i boken "Att motverka rasism i förskolan och skolan" (Arneback & Jämte, 2017). Sessionen är öppen för alla som är intresserade av frågor som berör rasism och antirasism i skolan. Det kommer också lämnas utrymme för gemensamma samtal och frågor kring forskningsfältet i stort.

Paper 1:

Att motverka rasism i skolan (Arneback & Jämte)

Presentationen fokuserar lärares antirasistiska handlingar och visar en palett av didaktiska arbetssätt lärare använder för att möta olika uttryck för rasism i skolan. Vidare fokuseras hur lärares egna erfarenheter av rasism påverkar deras agerande och förståelse av problemet.

Paper 2:

Mediediskurser om rasism och antirasism i skolan (Wiklund)

Lärares antirasistiska arbete är beroende av hur de förstår begreppet rasism och mediers sätt att använda begreppet är viktiga källor för denna förståelse. Dessa antaganden ligger till grund för denna presentation av hur rasism definieras i medietexter om händelser där rasism aktualiseras i skolsammanhang.

Paper 3:

Om kommunikationens möjligheter och begräsningar i arbetet mot rasism (Arneback & Englund)

Bidraget behandlar villkor för lärares agerande i bemötandet av elevers rasistiska uttalanden. Vår teoretiska referens är primärt John Deweys (1922) bok Human Nature and Conduct. Bidraget analyserar den deliberativa kommunikationens möjligheter och gränser i förhållande till elevers potential, klassrumsklimat samt lärares egna kunskaper och upplevda kapacitet.

Paper 4:

Har lärare ett ansvar att agera när kollegor ger uttryck för rasism? (Bergh & Tryggvason)

Uttryck av rasism är utmanande frågor som lärare möter och hanterar i och omkring undervisningen. Läroplanen är tydlig med att lärare har ett ansvar att motverka alla former av rasism i skolan. Men hur agerar lärare när kollegor ger uttryck för rasism? Den här presentationen utforskar ett ansvar som många gånger är osäkert och riskfyllt.

In this article, the authors explored how laptops used in 1:1 classrooms affect cooperation and collaboration practices. Based on an observational time study, the authors found that the most common activity in 1:1 classrooms is group work using the computer. They also found that, despite what the concept 1:1 alludes to about one student working with one computer, most laptop use takes on other forms such as two students working with one computer (1:2) or two students working together using two laptops (2:2). The findings reported in this article about the various different collaboration arrangements have implications for both research and practice. For practice, because teachers can arrange activities based on an awareness of the different student–laptop constellations that emerge when students are given a laptop. Research is likewise informed about the various group work constellations and can build on this knowledge for further analysis of the pros and cons with the different collaborative forms.

Skola och annan utbildning har i och med förändringar som globalisering och digitalisering ställts inför nya krav. För att människor ska kunna uppfylla sina roller som medborgare och i arbetslivet behöver de utveckla specifika textkunskaper och textkompetenser. Här presenteras erfarenheter och exempel från Unos Uno-projektet och annan forskning som studerat hur undervisning planeras, utformas och bedrivs för att möta dessa krav på multimodal literacy. Det handlar om vilka arbetsformer som bäst stöder elevernas utvecklande av de kunskaper och kompetenser som krävs i det förändrade textlandskapet.

The objective of this paper is to explore the discourses of learning that are actualized in workplace e-learning. It aims to understand how learning is defined in research within this field. The empirical material consists of academic research articles on e-learning in the workplace, published from 2000 to 2013. The findings are presented as four metaphors highlighting four overlapping time periods with different truth regimes: Celebration, Questioning, Reflection and Dissolution. It is found that learning as a phenomenon tends to be marginalized in relation to the digital technology used. Based on this, we discuss a proposal for a more critical and problematized approach to e-learning, and a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities for employees and organizations to acquire knowledge in the digital age.

There is a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in education. Drawing on interviews and surveys with students and teachers in three Swedish schools, this study finds that studentsas well as teachers find much of the students' social media use distractive to learning. We investigate this by means of an interpretative study of students' and teachers' experiences. We find that concerns relate to how social media use makes students less social, how weaker students are more likely to get distracted, how teachers lack strategies for tackling the problem and how the responsibility of the use is delegated to the students. We discuss how the distractive use of social media is made possible as a result of education policies requiring a higher degree of individual work, individual responsibility, and educational choices forstudents. Teachers and school leaders need to jointly reclaim the students and coping strategies for the distractive use are urgently needed.