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 Learning Technologies and Laurillard's Conversational Framework
In one of Roland Barthes' most well-known essays, in which he outlines the post-structuralist concept of the 'text' and textual analysis, he offers a wonderul sense of the research of the future: '...discourse on the Text should itself be nothing other than text, research, textual activity, since the Text is that social space which leaves no language safe, outside, nor any subject of enunciation in position as judge, analyst, confessor, decoder. The theory of the Text can coincide only with a practice of writing.'
Barthes' point is that even in the moment of reading, all texts have another spectral life, having a rich past (the words and their intended use always emit from somewhere) and a future or 'present tense' which occurs, with the words 'lifting off the page' as we read, as we do something with them in our moment of reading and thinking.
Keeping these remarks on Barthes in mind, I turn to Diana Laudrillard's 'Rethinking University Teaching' (2nd ed, 2002), which I have to say I found quite compelling (if I am honest this is not something I can often say with educational literature). Frequently, I found myself reading in writing (in the sense Barthes describes), as my mind wandered into whole new places of thought - quite literally at times I was prompted to look up material online (some wonderful e-learning projects, links noted below). Other times, I simply found myself making various associations with ideas, with experiences in the past and with speculations on how I might focus my fellowship project. Given the 'pleasurable' experience of reading this material , it is perhaps not too surprising if I say I did not necessarily gain a clear overview of the book. I can't say I fully understand (or at least have digested) Laurillard's Converstational Framework. In part this is perhaps due to the fact that I was often skipping pages, flipping between sections, but also I sometimes finding the use of jargon (e.g. intrinsic and extrinsic feedback) a little too abstract, lacking elaboration.
Nevertheless, I found there is something intutive about Laurillard's model, which equally is intellectually grounded. The Conversational Framework (against, for example, Gilly Salmon's e-learning framework) offers a very cogent and open-structured approach to thinking about learning technologies. Its mapping of different forms of technologies is excellent, providing a range of examples that I have just not come across elsewhere. All too often literature on e-learning is either very generalising, or examines a very specific case-study. In the case of Laudrillard's writing something else seems to take root... [MORE TO FOLLOW]
Open University online resources:
Art Explorer
Related article: Varying the Texture: A Study of Art, Learning and Multimedia
Ubiquitous D3E
MENO - Multimedia, Education and Narrative Organisation
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