Learning In a Networked Society: Spontaneous and Designed Technology Enhanced Learning Communities

One of the most significant developments in contemporary education is the view that knowing and understanding are anchored in cultural practices within communities. This shift coincides with technological advancements that have reoriented end-user computer interaction from individual work to communication, participation and collaboration. However, while daily interactions are increasingly engulfed in mobile and networked Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in-school learning interactions are, in comparison, technologically impoverished, creating the phenomenon known as the school-society digital disconnect. This volume argues that the theoretical and practical tools of scientists in both the social and educational sciences must be brought together in order to examine what types of interaction, knowledge construction, social organization and power structures: (a) occur spontaneously in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) communities or (b) can be created by design of TEL. This volume seeks to equip scholars and researchers within the fields of education, educational psychology, science communication, social welfare, information sciences, and instructional design, as well as practitioners and policy-makers, with empirical and theoretical insights, and evidence-based support for decisions providing learners and citizens with 21^st century skills and knowledge, and supporting well-being in today’s information-based networked society.

​Yael Kali is an Associate Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Haifa, as well as the Director of the Learning In a NetworKed Society (LINKS) Israeli Center of Research Excellence (I-CORE). Together with the TEL-Design Team members, she explores learning and teaching with Information Communication Technologies (ICT), at various levels, from junior high school to higher education. Her work focuses on the role of design principles for supporting Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Kali also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Instructional Science.

Ayelet Baram Tsabari is an Associate Professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where she heads the Science Communication research group. Her training in science education (PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science) and science communication (visiting scholar, Cornell University) alongside rich experience as a journalist, editor, and a TV presenter, shaped her interest in building a community of science communication practitioners and scholars. Baram Tsabari founded the Israeli Science Communication Conference series, and, as an elected member of the Israel Young Academy built a national infrastructure for science communication training for scientists. 

Amit Schejter is Professor and Head of the Communication Studies department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Visiting Professor of Communications and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy at the College of Communications of Pennsylvania State University.