Fifteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

Too often higher education lecturers are transfixed by the potential of technology for learning and forgo the fundamentals. This paper takes a step back to explore a revitalised understanding of collaborative learning in order to better correspond the affordances of technology with the learning objectives. To align technology with learning objectives is of the utmost importance especially in the South African context of limited resources and social, economic and political uncertainty. The argument made in this paper is for a level-headed approach to technological intervention that is driven by a strong theoretical underpinning. A central theoretical concept that is considered in responding to the context described above and the motivation for using collaborative learning and associated technologies is that of social capital (Bourdieu, 1984). Bryman (2012:21) explains its advantage to be “the social connectedness and the interpersonal resources that those with social capital can draw on to pursue their goals.” The ability to build social capital within ‘communities as networks’ through collaborative learning is presented as the fundamental learning objective to engage with technology. The methodology of diffraction (Harraway, 1992; Barad, 2007) was used to read social practice theory and collaborative learning theory through each other, to extract revitalised dimensions. These dimensions, it is argued, can serve as indicators to be used in corresponding technology with collaborative learning objectives. This research is based on a three year project that experimented with numerous learning technologies before engaging with theory as the driver for relevant learning.