Context Engineering for Learning: A Sociotechnical Approach

Authors

Abstract

The authors present a view of the problems related to the role of context in learning and development, individual and organizational, influenced by readings in Anthropology, Activity Theory and Actor-Network Theory, and of how they relate to the problems of developing e learning experiences. Next, they briefly present the Context Engineering (CE) approach to Information Systems Development (ISD) as a framework to think and organize the development of virtual contexts for e-Learning. This approach proposes to achieve a critical understanding of development as a socio-technical phenomenon within a cultural and historical envelope, to provide a framework of development problems focused on the relation between a model of context and its mediators. It also proposes to use contextuality as the key to performing emancipatory movements while operating on socio-technical networks. The authors then attempt to translate the approache's fundamental ideas and guiding principles to the development of virtual learning contexts, elaborating on some of the learning and development issues that arise.

Subject

context engineering

Book Chapter

Managing Learning in Virtual settings: The Role of Context, Information Science Publishing (Idea Group), October 2005