Sociocultural perspectives on~technology-enhanced learning and knowing

Abstract

During the last decades the sociocultural approach to studying learning and knowing has been raised as an alternative to more cognitive approaches to become a vivid research tradition with many branches. Sociocultural theorizing and thinking have played an important part in contemporary educational research and educational psychological research in general and also in the research area of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). This is witnessed by the content of the handbooks in the field (see for example, Handbook of Educational Psychology (Alexander & Winne, 2006) and Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (Jonassen, 2004)).This chapter aims to provide an outline of foundational ideas in sociocultural theorizing about human learning and knowing, summarizing some key sociocultural studies on TEL and illustrating key ideas with examples of empirical research. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.