What is Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW)

This chapter explores frames and sensemaking as a means of understanding the experiences of teachers in higher education who are slow adopters of technology in settings where technology is also inflexible. Literature on teaching online emphasises the differences between online and face-to-face teaching over the similarities between them, and conceptualises this as a discrepancy in expectation between face-toface and online teaching that requires teachers to remodel their approach to overcome it. Problems of low uptake of courseware systems by teachers are commonly identified as either problems of teachers’ insufficient technical knowledge, or as problems of the nature of technology, however it is more useful to understand them as sensemaking problems where teachers deal with new technology using old frameworks. Two cases are explored in depth showing that some frames require less effort to produce good teaching. The paper suggests that teachers with inflexible frames must break them to adapt to online environments. However, a pre-existing pedagogically oriented frame already primed to seek out new settings for learning forms a minimally sufficient frame for sensemaking within an online setting even in the absence of strong technological skills.