Materiality of Learning, The: Technology and Knowledge in Educational Practice. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives.

As an attempt to overcome the human-centered character of educational research, this book develops a spatial approach to the materiality of learning. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, this is done through ethnographic comparisons of an Internet-based 3D virtual environment project in a fourth-grade primary school class and the class's work with traditional learning materials: blackboard, textbooks, notebooks, pencils, and rulers. Pupils' and teachers' bodies are also taken into account when Estrid Sorensen through detailed descriptions analyses what multiple forms of technology, knowledge, and presence are enacted with the materials. She shows that in some constellations of humans and materials technology appears stable and robust, while in others it is varying. Knowledge is shown to be in the mind in some constellations while distributed in others, just as human presence varies, depending on the materials involved, from having the character of agents to taking those of authorities and subjects.