Distributed Learning

<p>At a time of increasing globalisation, the concept of open and distance learning is being constantly redefined. New technologies have opened up new ways of understanding and participating in Learning. <em>Distributed Learning</em> offers a collection of perspectives from a social and cultural practice-based viewpoint, with contributions from leading international authors in the field. Key issues in this comprehensive text are:<br>*the challenges of ICT to traditional teaching and learning practices<br>*the value and relevance of 'activity theory' and 'communities of practice' in educational institutions and the workplace<br>*perspectives on the relationship between globalisation and distributed learning, and the breakdown of distinctions between global and local contexts<br>*issues of identity and community in designing courses for the virtual student<br>*language and literacies in distributed learning contexts<br>This book provides useful introductory reading, building a sound theoretical framework for practitioners interested in how distributed learning is shaping post-compulsory education.</p> 1. Information, Knowledge and Learning: Some Issues Facing Epistemology and Education in a Digital Age 2. Informed Opportunism: teaching for Learning in Uncertain Contexts of Distributed Education 3. Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice 4. Looking Beyond the Interface: Activity Theory and Distributed Learning 5. Workplaces, Communities and Pedagogy: An Activity Theory View 6. Distribution and Interconnectedness: the Globalisation of Education 7. The English Language and 'Global' Teaching 8. From Independent Learning to Collaborative Learning: New Communities of Practice in Open, Distance and Distributed Learning 9. Learning as Cultural Practice 10. The University Campus as a 'Resourceful Constraint': Process and Practice in the Construction of the Virtual University 11. Identity, Community and Distributed Learning 12. Flexible Literacies: Distributed Learning and Changing Educational Spaces