Symposium 1: The Role Of Learning Technology Practitioners And Researchers In Understanding Networked Learning

Abstract

This paper critiques the emergence of learning technology as a discipline and considers the inherent characteristics of the area, its role alongside other research disciplines and the issues and challenges it faces. It reviews the types of activities learning technologists are engaged with in terms of research, staff development and institutional strategy. It charts how the area has developed and matured to the point that there is now a bipolar divide between learning technologists who have a practical, practitioner support focus and those with more of a research orientation and considers whether this bipolar divide is beneficial or problematic for the future of the area.