Mid Sweden University

Online supervision mainly focuses on written communication and electronic drafts, while offline supervision comprises physical and social clues, verbal communication, and drafts of texts. This article focuses on supervisors' written online communication about drafts of undergraduate student dissertations. Theoretically, these utterances form part of the communicative exchanges performed in the practice of supervision. This means that supervision is an emergent phenomenon that relates to its past, current, and future states. The setting was a dissertation course within a bachelor programme in behavioural science. The data consists of 423 utterances from four supervisors. The utterances were analysed and categorised, and the results show different qualities and degrees of identifications in the supervisors' communicated utterances. The study shows that the quality of supervisors' utterances embraces the difference between the application of comments, points of view, instructions, and questions. This implicates the importance of supervisors' awareness of the nature and the combination of their utterances if they want to increase the student autonomy when supervising online.

While offline supervision is comprised of physical social clues, verbal communication, and drafts of texts, online supervision mainly focuses on written communication and electronic drafts. Participating in online supervision probably sets other requirements regarding clarity in the utterances of the supervisor. In online student supervision, it helps if supervisors are aware of differences in how their utterances of drafts are interpreted by students. Earlier research of supervision in online education has overlooked these differences in qualities of utterances. A problem that arises out of this omission is a deemphasizing of the quality in the social interplay between students and teachers in online supervision. A study of differences in written utterances of supervisors pays attention to this overlooking.

As part of a greater research project of online supervision, the current study expands on earlier studies of the practice of online supervision by focusing on written utterances of supervisors and identifying and analysing differences in their comments on drafts of students’ dissertations. To fulfil this purpose online utterances' of supervisors were analysed. Theoretical ideas of communication and online participation were used to interpret the empirical data. Overall we identify four categories of utterances: comments, points of view, instructions, and questions.

The preliminary results of the research project implicate the importance of awareness among supervisors in online supervision, particularly on the nature of the utterances they make use of when supervising students' academic writing. Such awareness makes it possible for supervisors to strategically emphasise students 'independence'. That could guide students through their writing by applying a balanced mix of comments, point of views, instructions, and questions. Reaching a balance in online supervisions may be very valuable in the process of supervising dissertation work.

The preliminary results of the research project of online supervision suggest scrutinising how students perceive supervisor's utterances of their drafts. That task will, together with an analysis of how supervisors perceive their own utterances, be examined more closely in further studies. Those studies could focus on how the dialogue between students and supervisors intersects in drafts of student's dissertation.

Focus section on 'Educational Location-based Interaction'

Preface

Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, Esteban Clua, Jimmy Jaldemark, Heinrich Söbke

(https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-052-001pfs)

1. Thematic introduction

Mobile devices have become more common in recent years. A key feature is their location awareness. The absolute location as well as the relative location awareness related to an object can be exploited for location-based applications on mobile devices allowing location-based interactions. A common example are digital scavenger hunt apps that guide users to different locations. Social inclusion [1] and social interaction [2] are a common goal of location-based experiences. Location-based apps are also used for learning purposes, as they support a variety of learning concepts. In their literature review on mobile apps in general [3], the authors found situated learning, inquiry-based learning, sociocultural theory, scaffolding, communities of practice, and seamless learning, which can be taken as an indication of the manifold didactic options of location-based apps. 

Moreover, developments opening up new possibilities have been observed for more than a decade [4] are related to Internet of Things (IoT), ensuring that interaction possibilities of mobile devices with many other technical objects are provided. In addition, the Smart Cities paradigm provides more sensors and location-based data both offering options for location-based interactions potentially fostering learning. This is being enhanced through the 5G networks being implemented over the world, with more and more connected devices.

Another group of location-based interactions is given by commercial location-based entertainment games. Games such as Ingress, Pokémon GO and Minecraft Earth attract a large player base on the one hand and are increasingly credited for learning effects on the other [5,6]. However, it has also been observed that convergence between the real world and superimposed virtual layers does not necessarily exist [7]. The relevance to learning remains to be investigated.

Based on these trends, this special issue intends to foster a more general discourse on the specific contexts in which location-based interactions, e.g. enabled by location-based apps, might be at the core of learning tools, based on the debate of mobile and context-based learning. Some of the contributions in this focus section provide some guidelines on the balance between technical content and educational purpose, while the main contribution of others is more in the area of user experience and immersiveness. Among the topics of interest were design frameworks for (educational) location-based interactions and Augmented Reality (AR) technology enabling location-based interactions.

2. Summaries 

Overall the work with this special issue embraced the involvement of 30 scholars in the role of authors, editors and reviewers. This project was a true global enterprise by scholars from four continents and ten countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the US. 

The article by Nekoui and Roig “Children and the Mediated City. Place Attachment Development Using Augmented Reality in Urban Spaces” focused on augmented spaces as main elements of mediated cities. The authors discuss the application of Augmented Reality to facilitate communication and interaction between digital and physical spaces. The paper explored three case studies that exhibit how children use AR technology to develop various skills. The goal was to promote AR as a contemporary tool that helps children better perceive and experience the feeling of place attachment in their city.

The article “A framework for designing applications to support knowledge construction on learning ecosystems” written by Silveira, Cury and de Menezes discussed the increased digital immersion of education and the role learning ecosystems have to support informal and personal aspects of learning. The article develops a framework for location-based applications that may support the modeling of Smart Learning Environments. Cases are included to demonstrate the framework and show its practical implications.

The article 'Attention, stimulus and augmented reality for urban daily life education on a social peripheral setting: the 'Altamira - story-telling streets'' by Ricca, Lupo, Diniz, Veras, and Mazzilli addresses designers of location-based experiences. The authors consider location-based experiences in the urban environment as cognitive and attentional stimuli and develop a stimulus level framework in which they distinguish between linear, circular and spiraled stimuli. The framework, which is validated in the article, aims at reflecting on contextual educational experiences.

Raber, Ferdig, Gandolfi and Clements explore foundations of AR in teaching related to psychology of learning in their article 'An analysis of motivation and situational interest in a location-based augmented reality application'. Interestingly, they find a decrease in motivation alongside an increase in situational interest as well as a gain in knowledge. What needs to be noted is that the subject of the AR experience, namely tragic shootings at the authors' institution just over 50 years ago may likely not be conducive to motivation. Thus, one lesson may be that assertions regarding psychology of learning must also be contextualized in terms of the knowledge being imparted.

Special thanks go to the editor, Carlo Giovanella, who gave the inspiration for this focus section and who patiently and constructively guided the editing process, and to the reviewers, without whom this focus section would not have been possible.

3. Conclusion 

The multifaceted topics of the articles in this focus section highlight that location-based interactions have found their way into various learning scenarios for different age groups and teaching topics. It also illustrates the wide range of factors and the multi-disciplinarity that characterize a good location-based digital app. As digitalisation continues to spread, the technical foundations are broadening, suggesting that the possibilities and importance of location-based interaction will continue to grow in the future. We believe that the articles provide valuable insights into the current state of location-based interactions and the prospects for the future, and we are intrigued about potential further developments. May the articles be a good inspiration for the readers' own approaches to the use of location-based interactions and researches!

References:

1.  Bengs, A., Hägglund, S., Wiklund-Engblom, A., & Staffans, S. (2015). Designing for suburban social inclusion: A case of geo-located storytelling. Interaction Design and Architecture(S), 25(1), 85–99.

2.   Fonseca, X., Lukosch, S., & Brazier, F. (2022). Design Framework for Social Interaction with Location-based Games. International Journal of Serious Games, 9(1), 59–81. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v9i1.481

3.   Zydney, J. M., & Warner, Z. (2016). Mobile apps for science learning: Review of research. Computers and Education, 94, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.11.001

4.   Sintoris, C., Yiannoutsou, N., Demetriou, S., & Avouris, N. (2013). Discovering the invisible city: Location-based games for learning in smart cities. Interaction Design and Architecture(S), 16(1), 47–64.

5.   Mozelius, P., Eriksson Bergström, S., & Jaldemark, J. (2017). Learning by Walking-Pokémon Go and Mobile Technology in Formal Education. In 10th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Seville, Spain, NOV 16-18, 2017 (Vol. 10, pp. 1172-1179). The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development.

6.   Söbke, H., Baalsrud Hauge, J., & Stefan, I. A. (2017). Prime Example Ingress: Reframing the Pervasive Game Design Framework (PGDF). International Journal of Serious Games, 4(2), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v4i2.182

7.   Laato, S., Inaba, N., & Hamari, J. (2021). Convergence between the real and the augmented: Experiences and perceptions in location-based games. Telematics and Informatics, 65, 101716. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101716

In this concluding chapter, we point to themes that emerge from the chapters in this book on sustainable networked learning. The themes cut across different sections of the book, indicating their broader significance. These themes are the lasting effects of lockdown online teaching; Digital sustainability for the future; Future roles of networked learning in society; Balancing utopia and dystopia in visions of AI and open data; Speculative methods in research, education and design; and Balancing qualitative and quantitative data in the research of networked educational settings: Studies at the community and project levels.

The present book has emerged from the 13th International Conference on Networked Learning (NLC, 2022), held 16–18 May, 2022 at Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden. The conference had a high number of interesting, high-quality research papers, which made it a difficult task to select papers to be further developed into chapters for this book. To aid our editorial decisions, in the final plenary session of the conference, we encouraged the delegates to discuss what themes and ideas they had found most interesting and/or thought-provoking during the many presentations. Comments were collated on an online board (a padlet), creating a rich plethora of potential focal points for this volume. With this as the outset, we found a set of overarching themes that each encompassed a sufficient number of papers corresponding to delegates’ articulated interests. From there, the process leading to the present collection included several rounds of reviews and revisions through which authors of the chosen papers further developed their contributions.

For Garrison, a Community of Inquiry is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct meaning and confirm mutual understanding. In this study, we add Lehman’s argument that emotions are necessary to create a presence in an online learning environment and suggest that emotional presence supports reflection and knowledge construction. Using the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework and measurement tools as a base, this study measures to the extent to which instructors identify the existence of emotional presence among their students. This identification of emotion may allow instructors to respond according, if and when needed, to deflect or direct emotion in reference to building presence and, ultimately, a community of inquiry.In 2016 pilot testing of a revised CoI measurement tool, written from the instructor ‘s point of view, was tested in faculty development workshops. Following this pilot test, the instrument was used with a total of 287 higher education faculty from Portland, Oregon USA, in Beijing, China, and Sundsval, Sweden. Results indicate a correlation between years of teaching and acknowledgement of emotion but not a separate place for emotional presence in the community of inquiry framework. This is in contrast to studies of online learners where emotional presence emerges as a unique element in a community of inquiry. This paper presentation will review these findings in contrast to other similar studies and facilitate discussion of possible differences in perceptions of emotional presence between instructors and learners.

The call for a higher education that embraces lifelong learning began in the 1970s, continued to escalate, and has never been louder. From extensive review, this new approach requires a delivery system that is accessible and meaningful to adults of all ages and from diverse backgrounds. Now embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a new social contract for education could be the keystone in our quest to create and sustain “a world of peace, dignity and prosperity on a healthy planet” (Guterres, 2020).

This new social contract encourages us to analyse and embrace the results of the Covid-19 pandemic. This event left over 24 million diverse learners at significant risk of developmental loss. These learners from all age groups, including millions of children, may carry a deficit that will increase the demand for education across the lifespan. The same pandemic also left a legacy for digital learning that will shape education forms into the distant future. We add to these two key influences on higher education UNESCO’s recent suggestion that we need “a sector-wide, lifelong learning approach towards the future development of higher education” (International Commission on the Futures of Education, 2021, p. 102). 

Our research rests in the current higher education but draws on expert opinion about the necessary transformation needed for lifelong learning. An expanded Delphi method gathered data from prominent scholars and practitioners from around the world. This data driven exercise was guided by the question: What are the critical aspects of higher education transformation needed for lifelong learning in a digital era?

The paper outlines the data gathering and analysis processes, which include Grounded Theory steps of open, axial, and confirmatory coding. For those with demonstrated knowledge about technology-enabled lifelong learning, there is an interrelated taxonomy of structures and processes that must be addressed in policy creation and reform of higher education. We argue that these seven identified elements need integrated repurposing to achieve lifelong learning outcomes: ‘Multimodal delivery’, ‘Pedagogical change’, ‘Financial resources’, ‘Quality assurance, ‘Digital literacy’, ‘Accessibility’, and ‘Equity, diversity and inclusion.’ In addition, we identify government policy examples from Sweden and Canada that support these change requirements in alignment with SDGs.

António Guterres (2020) https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm20003.doc.htm

International Commission on the Futures of Education (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education. Paris: UNESCO.

The study reported here is part of a project that draws on research from mobile learning, game-based learning and the state-of-the-art view of childhood. These three strands of the wider field of learning meet in this short paper’s intersection of students’ expressions of mobile game-based learning in formal outdoor educational settings. It built on a mobile game-based learning approach that applied a commercial off-the-shelf game included in two teachers’ planning of lessons in mathematics and social science. The study included students’ expressions of learning while playing the game Pokémon Go during an excursion. The students carried spy glasses during the recording of data implying that they were co-producers in the data-collection. The expressions were collected through five focus group interviews, each involving 3-4 students. This data helped to answer the research question: What expressions of applying mobile gamebased learning in formal outdoor educational settings have students aged 11-12 years? The preliminary analysis resulted in categories based on the students’ expressions of various aspects related to the game Pokémon Go, the excursion lesson, using the smartphone, and how they consider learning and teaching at the school. From the preliminary results, the conclusion was that students found the lessons they participated in intriguing. The design of the lessons allowed them to have an open discussion about how learning occurs and to explore different crossdisciplinary themes that they otherwise not might have been able to explore. This conclusion is in line with results from state-of-the-art research within childhood studies. Therefore, the results from the current study suggest that mobile game-based learning in formal outdoor educational settings invited students to be coproducers of the content they were supposed to learn.

The Swedish National Graduate School for Digital Technologies in Education (GRADE) is a cooperative venture between six Swedish universities established during 2018. Within the field of educational sciences and in the area of digital technologies in education, GRADE aims to strengthen the expertise in the area and to increase national and international cooperation in research training activities.Over a number of years, and from multitude of sources (cf. Brown & Davis, 2004; Fisher, Higgins & Loveless, 2006; Kafai & Resnick 1996), research has stressed that increased digitalization in schools leads to a complexity that needs to be taken into account on different levels, from different perspectives and with different designs, methodologies and theoretical perspectives (cf. Olofsson, Lindberg, Fransson & Hauge, 2015; Price, Jewitt & Brown, 2013; Tondeur, Valcke & van Braak, 2008). At a micro-level, the learning situation of students, teachers and school-leaders changes and it becomes important to deepen the knowledge about the impact digital technologies has on the fundamental conditions for teaching and learning of different school subjects (cf. Chun, Kern & Smith 2016; Leung & Baccaglini-Frank, 2017). On a macro-level, conditions for education as such changes and digital technologies becomes an important object of study as agents of change (Wong & Li, 2008). The digitalization of K-12 schools has long been highlighted in policy as a necessity (cf. Kirkman et al, 2002; OECD, 2010). However, research and evaluations (cf. Fransson et al, 2012; OECD, 2015; Wastiau et al, 2013) show that many substantial challenges remain. One of the fundamental pillars of GRADE is the interdisciplinary approach. Several disciplines are present (Applied IT, Curriculum studies, Education, Informatics, Technology and Learning, Educational work, Work-interated Learning) in researching digital technologies in K-12 schools with the ambition to contribute to the continued implementation, integration and use of digital technologies in Swedish K-12 schools that stems from the evidence-based knowledge produced within the activities of GRADE. The research within GRADE will be characterized by close cooperation with stakeholders from school practice, with the aim to contribute to concrete school development. In GRADE, a multi-level approach that involves multiple layers or levels of school activities will be encouraged. When possible, studies will be longitudinal. This will imply studies from an organizational and management perspective, e.g. studies of school leaders and other members of senior management positions responsible for digital technology use and implementation. Also implied are studies of teachers' teaching practices and didactical considerations, as well as studies of the students in classrooms and their learning using digital technologies. This will also imply that several issues with a bearing on the digitalization of education, for example regarding school policy, teaching, learning, assessment and professional development will be researched from different perspectives and with different methodological approaches. In this paper, these points of departure will be explored based on the expectations and experiences of the first twelve admitted doctoral students and their supervisors.

Online education is continuing to gain popularity in educational institutions and organizations. Hitherto, most research has occurred at aggregated levels, while few researchers have studied how and why individuals participate in online education. It is essential to examine individual perceptions and relationships in order to understand how students behave in relation to others. This paper investigates how students of higher education participate in online seminars and why they participate in certain ways. An online class that attended asynchronous and synchronous online seminars was studied. Electronic logs were used to examine how students participated and interviews were used to illustrate why they participated. It was revealed that the participation of students varied between aspects such as exchanging information, managing tasks and providing social support and the emphasis of these aspects were related to the tool they communicated through. A number of participation inhibitors were identified and it was also suggested how these inhibitors can be addressed.

It is commonly suggested that emerging technologies will revolutionize education. In this paper, two such emerging technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and educational robots (ER), are in focus. The aim of the paper is to explore how teachers, researchers and pedagogical developers critically imagine and reflect upon how AI and robots could be used in education. The empirical data were collected from discussion groups that were part of a symposium. For both AI and ERs, the need for more knowledge about these technologies, how they operates, the need for more knowledge about these technologies, how they could preferably be used, and how the emergence of these technologies might affect the role of the teacher and the relationship between teachers and students, were outlined. Many participants saw more potential to use AI for individualization as compared with ERs. However, there were also more concerns, such as ethical issues and economic interests, when discussing AI. While the researchers/developers to a greater extent imagined ideal future technology-rich educational practices, the practitioners were more focused on imaginaries grounded in current practice.

University teachers continue to strive to take up mobile and blended learning technologies in their teaching practices and universities continue to support this work through professional development courses for university teachers. At Mid Sweden University, two projects have recently been carried out with the objective to develop higher education practices supported by mobile and blended learning technologies in teaching in practice. Professional development for university teachers was expected take place using an iterative design comprising five features: participating in a competence development course, planning trials, conducting trials, evaluating teaching and participating in a pedagogical seminar. In this paper, the preliminary results of the final interviews with 12 teacher educators will be presented. The interviews were carried out to explore beliefs regarding changes in teaching practices, following the completion of teacher professional development project. The results showed that the teacher educators in this study experienced change in the use of mobile and blended learning in their teaching through dialogue, collaboration, dissemination and networked learning. Three themes were identified. The first theme was collaboration. Here, the teacher educators expressed beliefs which could be related to collaboration for learning to use mobile and blended learning technologies in their teaching, supporting conditions for networked learning. This involved working and planning new technologies in new courses together. In the second theme, sharing is caring, the teachers in the study expressed helping each other out and supporting each other in the work to learn and use new technologies in their teaching. Support through pep talks and taking on learning new technologies as a group was one example of gaining knowledge about new technologies. In the third and final theme, the teacher educators’ expressed beliefs regarding dissemination as a way to share knowledge and experiences. Beliefs expressed here included learning through seeing what others were working with and exchanging knowledge. The teacher educators’ in this study also expressed the need for continued learning through collaboration and dissemination, as networked learning in their community of practice. How universities continue to provide professional development to support teachers’ continued work together in communities of practice through networked learning will be of importance. These efforts in professional development will provide possibilities to push forward change in teachers’ use of mobile and blended learning in their teaching practices.

In the contemporary digitalised knowledge society, work-integrated professional development is an important andcontinuous activity. Continuous professional development should preferably be a hybrid format, where academiacollaborates with industry and the surrounding society in a multi-directed exchange of ideas. Continuous professionaldevelopment is today conducted in a blend of workplace activities, and in technology enhanced online environments.A complex blend for professionals that at the same time are working full-time with their ordinary jobs. The need fora support model to navigate in these new digital learning spaces is obvious, where the support model also shouldinclude collaboration and a community of practice. A community where the members communicate regularly to improvetheir skills and knowledge in their common professional domain. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse thedevelopment of a support model that involves these aspects. Findings confirm the necessity of the four steps in theearlier model, at the same time as they indicate the need for a fifth step facilitating the creation of Communities andLandscapes of Practice. The use of the model may support higher education institutions in creating beneficial conditionsfor hybrid work-integrated continuous professional development for industry.

Policy documents have long emphasized lifelong learning, social development, global competition and employability. At the same time, how higher education needs to be transformed to meet this demand for creating opportunities for lifelong learning is an important issue. This study seeks to take on the literature through the exploration of two main constructs: lifelong learning and higher education reform, answering the question of which key themes of lifelong learning, if any, are emerging in higher education reforms. Using a systematic review of relevant, foundational, and current published literature on lifelong learning and higher education reform, the two-step selection of the publications is presented. Key themes are discussed as well as next steps in the continued study with the systematic literature review in which selected articles will be read by and expert panel. How lifelong learning and higher education reform can create a diverse higher education system which will address diverse students and required competencies in diverse, dynamic societies will be of importance for future study.

In the current discussion on the reformation of higher education for continuous lifelong learning, there are several reports on the importance of opening up higher education. As highlighted by lifelong and work-integrated learning this is one of the main challenges in the rapidly growing knowledge society, where the Corona pandemic has acted as a catalyst for technology enhancement. One often-mentioned idea is that of work-integrated learning and to practice what is preached inside the university. Other emphasised ideas are flexibility, continuity, and the possibility to study anywhere and anytime (Rientes et al., 2023). However, there is no consensus on how professional development in higher education should be redesigned to best support continuous professional development. This study is part of the third phase in a modified four-phase Delphi study (Mozelius et al., 2023), building on suggestions by a global panel of experienced researchers in the field of lifelong learning. After a survey in the first phase, and a reading assignment in the second phase, data has been collected by structured interviews. Interview questions were partly created around the themes in the survey answers and the themes in the reading assignment literature.

The aim of the study is to analyse and discuss the Delphi expert panels' views on the need for reformation for quality lifelong learning in higher education. The research question that guided the study was: "What are the experts’ suggestions for a redesign of higher education to create conditions for continuous lifelong learning?”

Interview answers have been analysed according to the Grounded theory methods of Open coding and Axial Coding. In the initial Open coding phase, the focus was more on a general reformation of higher education for lifelong learning. Preliminary categories in the Open coding phase were later aggregated into 1) ' Digital literacy' 2) 'Multi-modal learning delivery' 3) 'Infrastructure' with the subcategories, 4) 'Quality considerations', 5) 'Pedagogical change', 6) 'Continuous lifelong learning', 7) 'Accessibility', 8) 'Equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI)' and finally, 9) Miscellaneous with the subcategories of 'Economy', 'Financial aspects' and 'The Corona pandemic'.

In the Axial coding phase, the same data were reanalysed with 6) 'Continuous lifelong learning' ' as the central or axial category. Other important supporting categories in this study were found to be: 'Infrastructure', 'Pedagogical change and multimodality', 'Accessibility', and 'Financial aspects'. All of these categories, based on the experts’ views, warrant deeper study for insight into possible formation of higher education. More research is needed to understand these crucial aspects of continuous professional development inside and outside of the university.

In the ongoing shift to a knowledge society, the idea of a technology-enabled lifelong learning has frequently been discussed. The shift also requires a transformation of higher education with new forms for teaching and learning deployment. This ongoing transformation was formulated in a research question that has guided this study: 1) Which key themes of lifelong learning emerge from higher education literature? This study was carried out as a scoping literature review to map literature in the field. Findings from a thematic analysis pointed out seven main themes or perspectives: The Policy perspective, The Value perspective, The Employability perspective, The Reform perspective, The Collaborative perspective, The Student perspective and The Workplace learning and Professional development perspectives. Five publications of the 26 selected publications from the literature search will be further used and analysed as part of a Delphi study. This Delphi study will involve a group of leading researchers in the field of lifelong learning as an expert panel to further explore and expand the key themes of lifelong learning in higher education and digital trends in higher education reforms.

This chapter discusses the application of a transactional approach to educational design. Its purpose is to describe how such an approach could be applied to a thesis course. To fulfill this purpose the chapter unfolds by indicating that the practice of supervision faces challenges from changes in society. Technology-enhanced participation in supervision is one answer to these challenges. Inspired by scholars such as Bakhtin, Dewey, and Vygotsky the applied transactional approach expands on ideas such as dialogues and educational settings. The implementation of these ideas into the educational design intersects within two principles, group-work, and open and public exchanges of information. The transactional approach is then illustrated with the help of a first-year undergraduate thesis course in the discipline of Education.

This paper is about changes within the practice of higher education. These changes relate to students’ and teachers’ participation in educational communication through distance settings. Here, this communication is analysed and described in terms of different dialogical intersections, which embrace the tools used in educational communication and the locations where students and teachers are physically situated. The Swedish practice of higher education illustrates these changes in participation in educational communication. In short, the number of intersections has increased, and the use of tools and locations has changed over the years. This is visible both in discourse and in the practice of higher education. Finally, this paper questions whether the distinction between distance, face-to-face and online education nowadays is meaningful.

This reflective paper discusses the contextual and situated character of concepts in mobile learning. It aims at challenging current conceptualizations of mobile learning by utilizing ideas from pragmatist and socio-cultural perspectives. This challenge includes a framework that embraces a distinction between interactional and transactional world-views. The paper suggests a dynamic non-dualistic view of mobile learning. This view includes examples of concepts that might be appropriate for conceptualizations of mobile learning. 

The chapter aims at discussing challenges for design based on a context-dependent and complex understanding of mobile learning. The chapter elaborates on contextual aspects of learning and how these are related to mobility in terms of various issues involving physical space (locations), conceptual space (content), social space (social groups), technology, and learning dispersed over time. From these aspects, mobile learning is emphasised as a complex social process, including learning mediated by personal, wireless, and mobile devices through communication between human beings that participate in multiple contexts. Four challenges are discussed based on this complex understanding of mobile learning. Three of these challenges include the relationship between learning and educational settings. The first challenge relates to learning as a phenomenon occurring in the intersection of various physical locations and social groups. The second concerns the impact that personal, mobile, and wireless Internet-connected technology has on the monopoly of knowledge. The third concerns the boundaries between formal and informal learning. To reach a coherent conceptualisation useful in designing for mobile learning the chapter links these challenges to pragmatist and sociocultural ideas about the relation between human beings and the surrounding context. These three challenges are embraced by a fourth challenge: the conceptualisation of mobile learning and how it relates to concepts and principles for design. To meet these challenges designing for mobile learning benefit from the deployment of concepts built from a transactional worldview. Such worldview suggests the use of intersectional concepts that embrace several conceptual aspects of mobility in designing for learning.

This paper deals with the question of how to conceptualise education performed online. To answer this question data from an online course were interpreted through a theoretical frame consisting of interactional and transactional approaches to human action. Consequences for understanding and conceptualising the environment, technology, and communication in education performed online were unfolded. Conceptualisations building on the concept of learning environment were found to be problematic.

Detta kapitel utgår från den skenbara polarisering som finns mellan de som anser att ett deltagande i en utbildning via nätet ger stora möjligheter till utbildning och de som ser stora begränsningar i den allt större andelen nätbaserad utbildning som numera finns till förfogande. Syftet med föreliggande kapitel är att föra en kritisk diskussion om denna polarisering och om skilda förutsättningar medger olika möjligheter och begränsningar för deltagandet i nätbaserad utbildning. Ett deltagande via nätet äger rum i gemenskaper tillsammans med andra deltagare, och deras normer och värderingar formar deltagandet i gemenskapen. Deltagande blir även möjligt och begränsat av andra historiska och sociala förutsättningar såsom deltagarens erfarenhet, kunskap, livssituation, etniska tillhörighet, kön, och socialgrupp. Ett deltagande via nätet blir då en del av deltagarens identitetsutveckling och en formning av deltagarens sätt att tänka. De nämnda förutsättningarna sätter fokus på deltagarens användning av tekniken i ett socialt sammanhang. Användningen av teknik kan i sig själv därför inte sägas vara neutral och fri från värderingar i den meningen att förutsättningarna är lika för alla deltagare i en nätbaserad utbildning. Kapitlet mynnar ut i en diskussion där deltagandet blir diskuterat i termer av makt. En makt som i kapitlet ej beskrivs som ensidigt negativt laddad. Makt är en relation mellan deltagaren och den värld som denne befinner sig i. En relation där deltagaren liksom utbildningsanordnaren båda är delaktiga och kan påverka förutsättningarna för deltagandet i den nätbaserade lärgemenskapen.

Lifelong learning is a concept – as its name reveals – that relates to learning throughout the life of a human being. However, it is also a political concept applied to policy documents concerning societal development through strong educational systems, including higher education (Medel-Añonuevo, 2002). Therefore, it is fair to claim that higher education is seen as a tool for the society to support paths of lifelong learning by educating an increased number of diverse students. This has been a challenge for the educational system for decades, and distance educational settings are an answer to demands to make higher education accessible for more students, including adult learners. Moreover, lifelong learning has been closely linked to distance educational settings over the years. In effect, such settings have always supported lifelong adult learning.

Initiating lifelong learning has been a task higher education has worked with for many years (e.g., Biesta, 2011; Knapper & Cropley, 2000). Politically, lifelong learning is emphasised as an tool to develop and nurture human capital and foster social development. The purpose behind many of these initiatives is to make people employable. However, higher education also works with lifelong learning initiatives to offer people democratic and humanistic values. Since the second half of the 20th century, higher education institutions apply these two perspectives (Jaldemark, 2021). In this symposium, the focus is on initiatives closely linked to the needs of the working market. Democratic and humanistic initiatives and perspectives are important but are here deemphasised. Whatever perspective is chosen, lifelong learning as an idea and task for higher education is still an emerging phenomenon.The ongoing digitalisation of society impacts lifelong learning initiatives in at least two different ways. First, the digitalisation of society impacts human practises in many areas of life (e.g., Billet, 2021, Goodyear, 2021; Poquet & de Laat, 2021). For example, peoples' performance of everyday tasks such as communicating with friends and families or paying bills. In line with the focus of this symposium, the digitalisation of society impact work-related practices and tasks hugely. Some practices and tasks met slightly digitised changes; some disappear in the process. Some professions have disappeared, new ones have turned up in the footsteps of the increasing digitalisation of working life. These changes have led to an increased need for lifelong learning opportunities. Higher education institutions are seen as important providers to meet up these needs.Second, digitalisation impacts the deliverance of education (e.g., Lock, Lakhal, Cleveland‐Innes, Arancibia, Dell & De Silva, 2021; Sannino, Engeström, & Jokinen, 2021). Lifelong learning initiatives adopt digital practices to deliver highly accessible quality learning opportunities. Nevertheless, the link between higher education, application of educational technologies and lifelong learning is established long before the strong impact of the current digital technologies. Since its inception, distance educational settings have been a vehicle to enable higher education lifelong learning for adults. In effect, such settings predate the digitalisation of society while nurturing lifelong learning is a reason behind the introduction of these distance educational settings. Multi-functional digital technologies replace analogue technologies.Until recently, Swedish lifelong learning initiatives were a voluntary task for higher education institutions. In 2021, Swedish legislators added to The Swedish Higher Education Act (Sveriges Riksdag, 2021:317/1992:1434) that "in their operations, higher education institutions must promote lifelong learning". In other words, the promotion of lifelong learning is nowadays mandatory for Swedish higher education institutions. This symposium includes six papers that discuss lifelong learning initiatives from one Swedish higher education institution, Mid Sweden University. It presents preliminary results from ongoing work at five development projects. These projects link to a university-wide development called BLAD (Jaldemark & Bång, 2020). In common for these projects, they all aim to develop networked and hybrid lifelong learning models suitable for higher educations alignment with the postdigital era.

Artikeln behandlar frågor rörande den vuxne lärandes makt över lärandet i nätbaserad utbildning. Makten agerar här i den lärandes handlingar och visar sig genom användning av och kommunikation med hjälp av datoriserade nätverk samt genom fysisk separation mellan utbildningens aktörer i en officiell utbildningsmiljö. Syftet med artikeln är att utifrån ett maktperspektiv undersöka förutsättningarna för ett kvalitativt djuplärande i nätbaserad utbildning. Utifrån ekonomiskt och kulturellt kapital, etnicitet, kön och socialgrupp uppstår maktproblem för den lärande med avseende på access till och genomförande av nätbaserad utbildning. Den lärande erbjuds en begrän-sad mängd positioner för lärandet med avseende på kontroll, styrning och ägarskap. Dessa problem behöver i större utsträckning behandlas både empiriskt och teoretiskt inom fältet nätbaserad utbildning.

Sedan 1960-talets första steg i utvecklingen av internet har utökade möjligheter för individer att lära sig med stöd av informations- och kommunikationstekniska redskap växt fram. Denna utveckling inbegrep till en början enbart stationärt lokaliserad teknik, men medger numera även en hög grad av mobilitet. Detta har möjliggjort att formellt och informellt lärande i stor utsträckning kan inbegripa aspekter av mobilitet. I artikeln betonades lärandets sammanhang och hur det kan relateras till mobila kontextuella aspekter såsom fysisk lokalisering, innehåll, sociala grupperingar, teknik och tid. Utifrån dessa aspekter definieras mobilt lärande som en komplex social process där kunskapsutveckling medieras via personlig och bärbar teknik genom kommunikation mellan individer som deltar i multipla kontexter och sammanhang. Utifrån denna komplexitet diskuteras sedan fem utmaningar för förståelsen av lärande. Tre av utmaningarna berör lärandets pedagogiska praktik. Den första utmaningen diskuterar lärande som ett fenomen i skärningspunkten mellan olika fysiska lokaliseringar och sociala grupperingar. Den andra handlar om den inverkan personlig, bärbar och trådlös teknik har på befintliga informations- och kunskapsmonopol. Den tredje berör gränsdragningen mellan formellt och informellt lärande. De två sista utmaningarna diskuterar det vetenskapliga studiet av lärande. Den fjärde utmaningen berör därför ansatser och begrepp för att studera lärande. Den femte utmaningen handlar om den disciplinära anknytningen till forskningsfältet mobilt lärande. I artikeln dras slutsatsen att studiet av lärande och mobilitet kan bidra till pedagogikämnets utveckling.

This paper focuses on written utterances in online settings of higher education. It concerns the constitution of the initiation, turn taking and the steering of exchanges of utterances; and it describes these patterns in terms of different genres. The study also concerns participation in higher education and, specifically, participation in educational settings where students and teachers rarely meet face-to-face. Their participation is thus dependant on written utterances in online settings. Overall, this paper discusses constitutive aspects of these written utterances. The educational communication between students and teachers embraced both behaviourist and constructivist genres. The distinction between these two genres relates to the functionality of the utterances, the main metaphor for learning and the responsibilities for the communication taken by students and teachers. The emergence of these genres seems to be affected by interplay between the composition of the study-groups, the structure of the task and other aspects of participation through online settings.

The general purpose of this thesis is to understand how participation in the activity of education relates to communication and tools. This purpose unfolds by drawing on possible conceivable consequences. In the fulfilment of this purpose communication, education, participation, and tools are analytically linked by a common denominator: human action. The commentary text expounds on these links, while the four included papers illustrate how these links operate in educational settings. The general purpose serves to frame a narrower purpose: a discussion of participation through computer-mediated communication in online settings of Swedish higher education. The theoretical departure derives from a transactional approach that embraces human action as an inseparable aspect of a dynamic whole, here defined as the activity of education. This activity is discussed in terms of its cultural, ecological, historical, and social aspects. This theoretical departure embraces ideas largely taken from ecological, pragmatic and sociocultural perspectives of human action. The papers include analyses of, variously, empirical material taken from interviews with students, online exchanges of utterances, syllabuses, and study-guides. Two of the papers are literature reviews. The findings indicate that participation in education is a complex boundless phenomenon that is best understood as a dynamic whole. In this whole, participation in education is culturally, ecologically, historically, and socially transformed by actions, agents, communication, tools, and the setting. In this thesis, concepts such as computermediated communication, communicative genres, dialogical intersections, and educational settings are utilised to reach a dynamic understanding. The dynamics of these findings, therefore, are a challenge to all dualistic conceptualisations of education, such as those building on the idea of learners operating in learning environments. Particularly, these findings challenge operationalisations of education that rely on computer-mediated communication and which build on the idea of so-called online learning environments. A more coherent understanding of participation in education is possible if educational research and design builds on a non-dualistic conceptualisation that includes the idea of participation being performed in a boundless activity.

A special issue of International Journal of Web Based Communities published as no. 4 vol. 8 2012

This paper focuses on participation patterns of written utterances in online courses. Patterns concern how initiation, turn taking and the maintaining of a conversation are constituted in different speech genres. The contextual frame is in general participation in education and specifically participation in online courses. In this context the participants rarely meet face-to-face. Their participation in the online course is thus dependent on utterances written in an online conversation. The purpose of this paper is partly to describe the participation patterns of teachers and participants in online courses as speech genres, and partly to discuss the constitutive and maintaining dynamic aspects of these patterns. The online conversations have been investigated with a frame including conversational analysis and speech genres. The theory of speech genre has been used to put conversations into context. Utterances by participants and teachers are understood as interplay between speakers and the surrounding context. This theory connects speech genres used by the participants in other settings, including content and authority similar to everyday conversations between friends. Conversational analysis, including different conversational sequences in education, contributes to the study by revealing ideas and conditions concerning conversation in formal education. For example the way IRE-sequences, and the following steering of content and structures, contributes to maintaining an asymmetric balance of power.

Postdigital lifelong learning is impacted by and concerns the intertwining of analog and digital, biology and physics, human and nonhuman, individual and collective, private and public aspects of learning throughout human life. It is a complex phenomenon that intersects individual and societal issues. Since the twentieth century, this intersection has been a site of struggle between at least two discourses. The democratic and humanistic capability discourse emphasises lifelong learning as the development of agency, emancipation, enlightenment, equity, and freedom. The economic and neoliberal discourse focuses on developing human capital and employability. Postdigital lifelong learning combines these two discourses and dissolves the boundaries between the individual and the collective by developing capabilities and enabling employment.

This paper deals with the question of how to conceptualise online education. To answere this question data from an online course were interpreted through a theoretical frame consisting of interactional and transactional approaches to human action. Consequences for understanding and conceptualise the environment, technology, and communication in online education were unfolded. Conceptualisations building on the concept of learning environment were found to be problematic.

The nature of the university has been debated for centuries. In a postdigital age, the focus of the debate is on the politics of knowledge. Historically, the university has been classified in many different ways, yet Matthews’ recent classification into Mode 1 University: The Ivory Tower, Mode 2 University: The Factory, and Mode 3 University: The Network, offers a good starting point for postdigital analyses. These modes reflect structural relationships between the university, the market, and the society and reveal questions pertaining to power, including the university’s relationships to academic freedom, critical thinking, democracy, and knowledge production.

This paper focuses on the problem - or ups and downs - of online participation in higher education. Models of participation drawn from instructional design (ID) and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) are contrasted with data gathered from thirteen participants and one teacher during a fulltime online course lasting five months. This paper indicates that participation in online courses in higher education is more complex than the views offered within conventional theories of CSCL and ID. Personal conditions, for example, are more important than noticed in these theories. A view of participation as a relationship between the student, the study group and the educational institution is proposed as an alternative model for understanding the ups and downs of learning online.

This article deals with the question of how participation in online learning communities can be understood. Starting from the idea that participation in such communities has an intersectional character; it investigates how understanding of this character of participation relates to different rhetoric. Such rhetoric is discussed as being either interactional or transactional. The discussion links the application of rhetoric to both human beings and non-human objects such as content and technologies. The article concludes that application of a dualistic interactional rhetoric is suitable to a narrow conceptualisation and design of participation in online learning communities. However, a non-dualistic transactional rhetoric is suitable if a wider conceptualisation and design of participation in online learning communities is sought. An example from the health-care sector is used to illustrate how the ideas discussed in the article could be applied to designing for participation in online learning communities.

Detta kapitel berör hur deltagandet i nätbaserad utbildning och distansutbildning växt fram. En diskussion förs hur förutsättningarna för deltagandet förändrats i takt med att samhälleliga och tekniska förändringar ägt rum.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze qualitative differences in supervisors’ written utterances over drafts of students’ thesis and to exemplify how students understand such utterances. To fulfill this purpose interviews with students and online utterances of supervisors and students will be analyzed.