Norbert Pachler

University College London | UCL · Institute of Education

The first full-length authored treatment of the relationship between the centrality of technological development in daily life and its potential as a means of education, Mobile Learning charts the rapid emergence of new forms of mass communication and their potential for gathering, shaping, and analyzing information, studying their transformative c...

In this paper we propose appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them as cultural resources in and across different cultural practices of use, in particular everyday life and formal education. We analyse the interrelationship of mobile device users with the structur...

Ideologies of education and of teaching are complex and layered, and they contain macro-social, institutional as well as micro-ideological levels. Building on cases from the UK and South Africa, this paper argues that notions of ‘professionalism’ among teachers display such ideological layering, and that such notions are heavily invested with inter...

This chapter explores the implications of contemporary environments and the affordances of mobile technologies for learning with particular reference to text-making and implications for schools. And, it discusses the emergence of a 'new habitus of learning'

With reference to a range of recent publications, this chapter initially explores profound changes in the world of work and careers paying particular attention to the digital transformation of economic life by the increased use of AI and automation and through 'gig-fication' linked to platformization. The chapter then explores the impact of these d...

With reference to a range of recent publications, this chapter initially explores profound changes in the world of work and careers paying particular attention to the digital transformation of economic life by the increased use of AI and automation and through “gig-fication” linked to platformization. The chapter then explores the impact of these...

This is a very unusual special issue. The articles we bring together present an expert response to recent UK government policy documents on the teaching and assessment of modern foreign languages in schools in England. Our focus, in particular, is on the Curriculum Research Review for Languages from Ofsted, the UK's school inspection service (Ofste...

See link: https://theconversation.com/teachers-have-been-let-down-by-a-decade-of-inaction-on-digital-technologies-142938

This paper contributes new critical and theoretical approaches that build the capacity to link research and practice in the field of educational technology. Building on a recent meta-narrative review of the problematic concepts of impact and measurability of educational technologies, we explore the case for methodological design principles that cou...

Learning Analytics und ihre Metriken – Annäherung an einen pädagogischen Rahmen über einen sozialsemiotischen Weg Der Beitrag stellt sich die Aufgabe, Metriken auf Bildung anzuwenden und schlägt dazu vor, Lernanalytik und ihre metrischen Verfahren in ein sozialsemiotisches Konzept von Lernen als Entwicklung von Bedeutung einzuordnen. Solch ein soz...

In this chapter we carry out a critical review of the various historical analyses of the impact of technological interventions in education. The purpose is to analytically explore and learn from some of the methodological limitations and strengths of the approaches adopted to measure and capture the impact of educational technology. This retrospect...

If learners are to benefit educationally from the potential offered by tablet devices we must understand the nature of the legitimate concerns that are reported. In this chapter we therefore critically examine arguments and evidence relating to the use of tablet devices and smartphones in education. We do this by engaging with common concerns and i...

This book seeks to provide an opportunity for interested parties such as practitioners and students, as well as the wider public, to explore some examples and approaches to teaching and learning in and across different disciplines from the perspective of a university intent on affording consideration of education the importance it deserves. The op...

This chapter sets out the genealogy of a conceptual framework for the critical analysis of learning technologies in formal educational contexts with a particular emphasis on schools, drawing on significant research and theory in this contested area. It identifies three significant problem spaces. First, the problem space of pedagogy and learning de...

The successful introduction of mobile learning into education is arguably premised on sustainability in the sense of an ability to maintain innovation over time and to become embedded into mainstream practice. This paper argues that such an endeavour requires a discursive approach, decoupling sustainability from the notion of unambiguity tendentiou...

In the context of the normalisation of mobile devices, this chapter argues that mobile devices and the artefacts accessed through and created with them should be viewed as important cultural resources and, therefore, constitute valid resources for learning. In line with ongoing transformations around the individualisation of society and convergent...

This report was produced in response to the Invitation to Tender: External Evaluation of a Proposal for Reorganisation of Secondary Studies in the European Schools for Secondary Years 4, 5, 6 and 7, ref: BSGEE/201401. Here is an executive summary: 1. The main aim of this evaluation was to establish and demonstrate the impact of the proposed new st...

The purpose of this paper is to begin to examine how the intersection of mobile learning and design research prompts the reconceptualization of research and design individually as well as their integration appropriate for current, complex learning environments. To fully conceptualize and reconceptualize design research in mobile learning, the autho...

Internationalisation has developed into one of the dominant discourses in education linked to wider trends around globalisation and the so-called knowledge economy. Internationalisation goes to the heart of the role of education, what education and educational institutions are, and what they are for. Th is chapter explores some perspectives on what...

This chapter explores the impact of technology in the context of a recent paradigmatic shift in the world of education from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning; learning conceived in the terms of Kalantzis and Cope (2004) as engaging the learner's identity and creating a sense of discovery and transformation. Based on a discussion of their a...

Bei Kulturökologie geht es zum einen um den systemischen Zugang zu Kultur mit ihren Artfakten, dazu gehören Medien, und zum anderen um die Frage nach Ressourcen. Artefakte und Ressourcen definieren Kindheit z. B. in der Weise, wie die Elterngeneration ihre Kinder als Teil der Gesellschaft z. B. der Wissensgesellschaft oder der Mediengesellschaft si...

Mobile devices and services have achieved a level of critical mass and importance that requires us to take them seriously as new cultural resources. Mobile cultural resources emerge within what we call a ‹mobile complex›, which consists of the inter­play of structures, agency and cultural practices. These new cultural resources also can be consider...

This article explores the potential of mobile learning in adult education with a particular focus on identity formation and self-representation. It draws on the mobile learning experiences implemented within MyMobile–Education on the move, a European project (2010–2012) whose main purpose was to develop guidelines for mobile learning in adult educa...

How can you effectively motivate young people to engage with foreign language learning? How can young people engage with new ideas and cultural experiences within and outside the classroom? The new edition of A Practical Guide to Teaching Foreign Languages in the Secondary School offers straightforward advice and inspiration for training teachers,...

Learning to Teach Using ICT in the Secondary School offers teachers of all subjects a comprehensive, practical introduction to the extensive possibilities that ICT offers pupils, teachers and schools. Under-pinned by the latest theory and research, it provides practical advice and guidance, tried-and-tested examples, and covers a range of issues an...

The use of mobile phones is attracting considerable interest in the fields of professional learning and work-based education. Surprisingly, there is relatively little systematic knowledge about how mobile devices can be used effectively for learning and competence development in work contexts. Many of the current approaches tend to repackage e-lear...

In this chapter we discuss the impact of digital technologies on notions of literacy and critically explore literacy as normally understood by school curricula (as developing reading, writing and spelling) in relation to ‘new literacies’ (relating to the production and reception of digital and multimodal artefacts and representations as social and...

This chapter starts from the premise that any teaching, be it enhanced by digital technologies or not, in order to be effective, i.e. maximise student learning, needs to be based on a principled understanding of learning and on insights from (educational) psychology and learning theory. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to explore the potentia...

As the history of mobile learning, which extends to more than a decade by now, has taught us, banning digital mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, mp3 player etc. from classrooms and school yards is not the only option to deal with these new technologies in school contexts. In fact, in order to make use of the potentials inherent in the u...

Learning to Teach Foreign Languages in the Secondary School has established itself as the leading textbook for student teachers of foreign languages in the UK and internationally. The practical focus is underpinned by a theoretical perspective and backed up by the latest research, encouraging you to develop a personal approach to foreign language t...

This section of the book looks at patterns for assessment. The term assessment is used here in an inclusive way, to comprise both summative and formative assessment, and so also covers what is often called ‘feedback’.

The concept of literacy has traditionally referred to the reading and writing of printed texts but it has later been widened to include powerful new media. Literacy refers to the competency of citizens to deal with public media. This definition depends on a complex interrelationship of actors as readers and writers in a public sphere characterized...

Die mittlerweile weltweit alltäglichen Handys und Smartphones sind der Anlass, einen kulturökologischen Rahmen für Medienbildung zu skizzieren. Ausgangspunkt ist die Überlegung, mobile, digitale und konvergente Medien als Kulturressourcen zu verstehen. Dazu schlägt der folgende Beitrag ein Triangulationsmodell vor, das hilft, gesellschaftliche und...

In medicine, knowledge is embodied and socially, temporally, spatially, and culturally distributed between actors and their environment. In addition, clinicians increasingly are using technology in their daily work to gain and share knowledge. Despite these characteristics, surprisingly few studies have incorporated the theory of distributed cognit...

This research aimed to delineate a domain map for formative e-assessment. At a conceptual level this includes a description of key processes involved, and at a practical level this includes examples of existing practice as well as some technical system requirements. IOE Research Briefings are short descriptions of significant research findings, bas...

Medical Education 2013: 47: 463–475 CONTEXT Some studies have explored the role of learning context in clerkships and in clinical teams. Very little is known, however, about the relationship between context and competence development in more loosely framed, day-to-day practices such as doctor–doctor consultations, although such interactions are fre...

Gunther Kress, one of the founders of social semiotics and multimodality, has made lasting contributions to these fields through his work in semiotics and meaning-making; power and identity; agency, design, production; and pedagogy and learning; in varied sites of transformation. This book brings together leading scholars in a variety of discipline...

Non basta limitarsi ad aggiungere i telefoni cellulari alla lunga lista dei media che sono entrati nel mondo nella scuola per migliorare l’offerta formativa. In quest’ottica, il contributo qui presentato si sofferma sui telefoni cellulari considerandoli come una nuova risorsa culturale emergente in un sistema massmediale connotato da personalizzazi...

Using social media and personally-owned mobile devices as a means of providing a bridge from media use in everyday life to the expectations of school and higher education potentially has enormous attraction. This chapter discusses access to ‘cultural resources’ facilitated by digital media from a wide perspective (e.g. learning resources, health in...

The formation of the coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats after the UK general election in May 2010 signalled the start of a period of radical reform and significant change in the field of education. The Education Act 2011 was one of the first significant pieces of legislation introduced by the new governmen...

In the medical profession much knowledge is embodied as well as socially, temporally and culturally distributed and clinical workplaces are characterized by intensive use of technological instruments. Viewed from this perspective, surprisingly little use has been made of the theory of distributed cognition (DCog), which places centrality on how cog...

If schools are not to be isolated from ongoing societal and cultural transformations, composition, one of the expressive literal forms of school-based learning, should harness emerging representational resources. Resources for composition are drawn from available cultural resources, which are increasingly characterised by provisionality. Provisiona...

This chapter provides an overview of the socio-cultural ecology of mobile learning developed by the London Mobile Learning Group, an interdisciplinary international group of researchers. It discusses the main features of the theory incl. the notions of the mobile complex, cultural resources, appropriation and user-generated contexts and the interpl...

Today’s healthcare can be characterised by the increasing importance of specialisation that requires cooperation across disciplines and specialities. In view of the number of educational programmes for interdisciplinary cooperation, surprisingly little is known on how learning arises from interdisciplinary work. In order to analyse the learning and...

This piece critically reflects on some current issues concerning teacher education in England with reference to recent policy documents. Some reference is also made to selected recent research literature in the field from the US and the UK.

Mobile devices are increasingly being used to support learning in work contexts. In exploring the emerging field of work-based mobile learning (WBML), researchers need to give consideration to the theoretical and empirical findings from mobile and work-based learning. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of key issues and dominant debates...

Social and mobile technologies offer users unprecedented opportunities for communicating, interacting, sharing, meaning‐making, content and context generation. And, these affordances are in constant flux driven by a powerful interplay between technological innovation and emerging cultural practices. Significantly, also, they are starting to transce...

This special issue aims at exploring educational and socio-cultural perspectives on the use of the increasing convergence of mobile devices and digital media for social networking in formal and informal contexts of learning. It originated from the work of the Theme Team SoMobNet (Social Mobile Networking for Informal Learning; http://www.somobnet.e...

This entry gives an overview of key issues in the teaching and learning of foreign languages in secondary education. The discussion ranges from educational purposes and societal needs to methods, attainment levels, curricular requirements and the use of new technologies.

This entry provides an overview of key issues in language teacher education. The discussion covers models, structure, content and processes, standards-based approaches as well as the role of language and second language acquisition in language teacher education.

This chapter explores the role of digital technologies in teacher education against prevailing discourses around neoliberal, new-managerial and neo-conservative ideologies which require teacher educators to ‘modernize’ their approaches to learning to teach inter alia by addressing the perceived gap between theory and practice.

Mentoring practices, however they are defined, evolve and change over time. One important driver for change in the last 15 years or so is the growth in online technologies for all aspects of our everyday and working lives, be they social or professional. Mentoring is a concept which covers a number of purposes and which can be found across a wide r...

This handbook reports on the result of a two-year European Learning Partnership. The Grundtvig partnership MyMobile responded to the current trend toward individualisation in mobile and network communication. It reacted to today’s socio-cultural and technological developments, in which computers, laptops and mobile phones provide ubiquitous individ...

This article proposes appropriation as the key for the recognition of mobile devices—as well as the artefacts accessed through, and produced with them—as cultural resources across different cultural practices of use, in everyday life and formal education. The article analyses the interrelationship of users of mobile devices with the structures, age...

Mobile devices are increasingly being used to support learning in work contexts. In exploring the emerging field of work-based mobile learning (WBML), researchers need to give consideration to the theoretical and empirical findings from mobile and work-based learning. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of key issues and dominant debates...

This article argues that mobile phones should be viewed as new cultural resources that operate within an individualized, mobile and convergent mass communication; such a recognition facilitates the options for a cultural ecology. A particular challenge here is to find adequate curricular functions in school where the inclusion of these new cultural...

Against the conceptual and theoretical background of a socio-culturally orientated approach to mobile learning (Pachler, Bachmair and Cook, 2010), this paper examines the evaluation of user-generated contexts by referring to an example from the use of mobile phones in schools. We discuss how mobile device-related, user-generated contexts around str...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore efforts to bridge conceptualisation and practice in work‐based learning by reflecting on the legacy and sustainability of the Centre for Excellence in Work‐based Learning for Education Professionals at the Institute of Education, University of London. The Centre was part of the national CETL (Centres...

This paper presents findings from the JISC funded project ‘Scoping a vision for formative e- assessment (FEASST)’. The project was motivated by the increasing recognition of the importance of formative assessment and the need to identify effective strategies for incorporating it into e- learning. We were particularly interested in the human-centric...

This book offers education practitioners insights that will enable them to improve their professional practices in relation to the conceptualisation, design, implementation, assessment and evaluation of approaches to e-learning. The authors pay attention to the perspectives of both teachers and learners when exploring key questions including: • How...

The increasing use of mobile devices in work contexts has the potential to alter our work and learning practices. This is particularly true for knowledge workers. In addressing the implications of this transformation the book offers a multi-faceted collection of different concepts and cases of mobile learning in work environments from international...

The rationale for this chapter is: ■ to argue why e-learning is a vital matter for all teachers in all phases of education; ■ to examine the impact of technologies on the education environment and why change is not only desirable but unavoidable; ■ to explore the key challenges which e-learning brings to traditional concepts of teacher–learner rela...

This chapter provides a brief introduction to work-based mobile learning as well as an overview of the various chapters in the book which it introduces. Beyond the key messages of the individual contributions, the chapter also briefly discuss themes that emerge across the different chapters on work-based mobile learning.

As our title suggests, this chapter looks in some detail at one specific aspect of the use of mobile technologies, appropriation, which we consider to be central to our ability to understand fully the potential of mobile devices, particularly in relation to the interface between formal and informal learning

Mobile devices are increasingly being used to support learning in work contexts. In exploring the emerging field of work-based mobile learning (WBML), researchers need — at least — to give consideration to the theoretical and empirical findings from mobile and work-based learning. In this paper we provide an overview of key issues and dominant deba...

Hvis mobile enheder med specifikke sociale og teknologiske strukturer og medfølgende kulturelle praksisser rent faktisk er blevet en integreret del af hverdagen, må det uddannelsesmæssige felt reagere. Men hvordan og hvem?

‘Mobile learning’ is an emerging, and rapidly expanding field of educational research and practice. However, there exist as yet no comprehensive theoretical and conceptual frameworks to explain the complex interrelationship between the characteristics of rapid and sometimes groundbreaking technological developments, their potential for education an...

The chapter carries out a social semiotic multimodal analysis of the affordances of mobile devices. Through the analysis of the hardware and software design and of the functionalities of a Nokia N95, taken as an instance of various smartphone models, the chapter analyses what types of representations are foregrounded and backgrounded by these devic...

This chapter provides a brief overview of the ‘history’ as well as the most pertinent current issues in mobile learning (research and practice). The research underpinning this chapter necessarily involved attendance at, and the organisation of specialist conferences and engagement with relevant blogs and other social networking tools. The chapter p...

This chapter provides an overview of the detailed discussion of the relationship of the two dominant fields under discussion in Part II of this book: the mobile complex in everyday life and the teaching and learning practices of schools. We argue that, in order to be able to assimilate the cultural practices around mobile device use in everyday lif...

The chapter about at-risk learners focuses on mobile devices as cultural resources. And, it discusses mobile resources for learning. We argue that mobile, cultural resources and learning are two central aspects of the so-called information society. We are mindful that the allocation of the cultural resources of learning, and cultural resources for...

This chapter looks at issues surround our proposal that mobile/cell phones should be seen as resources for learning and we argue that it is very important for teachers to assume responsibility for seeing it as part of their role to sensitise young people to the need for a reflective use of new technologies. We take a detailed look at adoption trend...

In this concluding chapter, we recapitulate some of the issues, which we have discussed in this book and allow ourselves the luxury of some ‘visions’. Here and there too we indicate suspicions around problems, pitfalls and wrong directions in speculating about the future of mobile devices and technologies and mobile learning. It is not our intentio...

New mobile, individualised mass communication with mobile devices and the internet offers flexible contexts, which have become normalised in young people’s everyday lives. Our look at internet-based video platforms reveals learner-generated contexts in the form of mobile videos, which link to the classroom, e.g. Maths work. We discuss the potential...

In this chapter we present some selected cases of mobile learning as well as an analytical framework based on our socio-cultural ecological approach around structures, agency and cultural practices with which to examine them. The framework draws on several methods, which are used in contemporary qualitative media research and which are also acknowl...

This short chapter sets the scene for Part III of the book, in which we look at where mobile learning is likely to be heading over the next few years. It sounds a cautionary note about the inherent problems of using mobile/cell phones for learning and presents some critical questions that need to be asked.

In this chapter we attempt an overview, and critique of the dominant theoretical and conceptual frames currently used by researchers to explain and analyse learning with mobile devices. In particular, we discuss Activity Theory (Engeström) as well as, to a lesser extent, situated learning theory (Lave and Wenger), the Conversational Framework (Laur...

This article presents key findings from a Joint Information Systems Committee-funded project, which aimed to identify existing practices where technologies contribute to formative assessment and identify processes that take place around formative assessment where technologies play a significant role. Using a design pattern methodology, the project...

This paper reports on one aspect of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded project ‘Scoping a vision of formative e-assessment’, namely on cases of formative e-assessment developed iteratively with the UK education practitioner community. The project, which took place from June 2008 to January 2009, aimed to identify current theories...