Situated Learning and Interacting With/Through Technologies: Enhancing Research and Design

Abstract

There is a growing interest within social and humanistic sciences towards understanding practice both theoretically and analytically. Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept, “situated learning,” describes the process of newcomers moving toward full participation in a community. Wenger later refined his approach in his book Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Situated learning is equalled with social order: instead of understanding learning as a separate practice from everyday life, learning is seen as a more mundane phenomenon. It is sometimes difficult to operationalize Lave and Wenger’s concepts in data analysis. Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (CA) find that social order is created continuously by its members in their interactions. As ethnomethodology and CA base their findings on rigorous data analysis, they are extremely useful in analysing situated learning in everyday practices. The interdisciplinary interaction analysis (IA) is suggested as the best way to study the various aspects of situated learning in technology-intensive interactions.