Computer technologies and computer-mediated information and communication are increasingly parts of professional practice and learning. They are part of the programmes of preparation for professionals and the assemblages of professional work and learning once in situ. These technologies are often taken simply to be tools to be used to enhance professional practice. Technology has always been important to work, but… Read more →
When I was a physicist, studying the structure of atomic nuclei, I needed to listen to the language spoken by the nucleus – the emission of radiation and matter, high energy pulses of light and protons, neutrons and alpha particles – and learn to read from those signals insights into the internal structure and behaviour of nuclei. The interrogative tools… Read more →
I’m currently studying how the everyday work-learning practices of the entrepreneurial workforce are changing through the infusion of web and mobile technologies. The data in this study suggests that increasingly sophisticated digital fluencies have come to matter in online work and learning practices. I prefer the term fluencies to literacies in an attempt to move beyond narrow conceptions of skill… Read more →
There is no shortage of historical or contemporary examples of unqualified amateurs working and learning alongside qualified professionals and the boundary issues associated with defining the nature and extent of different contributions. In, for instance, health and social care, policing, some aspects of teaching, the contribution of the non-qualified volunteer can be significant. Yet while there is great attention of… Read more →