Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Mobility, Data and Learner Agency in Networked Learning pp 117–135Cite as

Networks of Knowledge, Students as Producers, and Politicised Inquiry

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Research in Networked Learning ((RINL))

Abstract

This chapter explores the potential for the development of new learning opportunities in higher education, through students being conceptualised not as consumers, recipients or commodities, but rather as co-researchers and co-producers of knowledge. It discusses the implications of new forms of networked knowledge enabled by the emergence of semantic web and linked data technologies, and the reconceptualisation of the Internet as a ‘global data space’. These approaches have the potential to allow students to engage critically with existing data and data practices, generate new data and, perhaps more significantly, to participate in local or global knowledge networks. These activities involve not only the development of specific techno-literacies, but also broader critical digital literacies of which we offer examples and propose a number of dimensions. A critical digital literacies perspective, particularly when combined with the idea of students as co-researchers and co-producers, provides a basis for student to undertake critical and politicised inquiry as part of a broader reframing of the purposes of higher education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • R. Alquati, Per Fare Conricerca (Calusca Edizione, Torino, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Barnett, Learning for an unknown future. High. Educ. Res. Dev. 31(1), 65–77 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2012.642841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • H. Batatia, K. Hakkarainen, A. Mørch, Tacit knowledge and trialogical learning: towards a conceptual framework for designing innovative tools, in Collaborative Knowledge Creation, ed. by A. Moen, A. Mørch, S. Paavola, (Sense, Rotterdam, 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Brooks, Dancing with the Web: students bring meaning to the semantic web. Technol. Pedagog. Educ. 21(2), 189–212 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2012.697400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D. Buckingham, Defining digital literacy: what do young people need to know about digital media? Nordic J. Digit. Lit.10, 21–34 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Calzada Prado, M.Á. Marzal, Incorporating data literacy into information literacy programs: core competencies and contents. Libri 63(2) (2013). https://doi.org/10.1515/libri-2013-0010

  • P. Carmichael, Not just about gadgets: time, innovation and change in the design of learning technologies. E-Learn. Digit. Media 12(3–4), 279–294 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753015571052

  • P. Carmichael, K. Litherland, Transversality and innovation: prospects for technology-enhanced learning in times of crisis, in Surviving Economic Crises through Education, ed. by D. Cole, (Peter Lang, New York, 2012)

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Carmichael, M. Tscholl, Cases, simulacra and semantic web technologies. J. Comput. Assist. Learn. 29(1), 31–42 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00459.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • H. Cleaver, Reading Capital Politically (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1979)

    Google Scholar 

  • H. Cleaver, Self-valorization in Mariarosa Dalla Costa’s “Women and the Subversion of the Community” (2011), Retrieved from https://la.utexas.edu/users/hcleaver/357k/HMCDallaCostaSelfvalorization2.htm

  • M. Conde, Activism mobilising science. Ecol. Econ. 105, 67–77 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.05.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L. Czerniewicz, Inequality as higher education goes online, in Networked Learning, ed. by N. B. Dohn, S. Cranmer, J.-A. Sime, M. de Laat, T. Ryberg, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2018), pp. 95–106

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • M. de Laat, T. Ryberg, Celebrating the tenth networked learning conference: looking back and moving forward, in Networked Learning, (Springer International, Cham, 2018), pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74857-3_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • D. De Roure, The future of scholarly communications. Insights 27(3), 233–238 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • N.B. Dohn, Implications for networked learning of the ‘practice’ side of social practice theories - a tacit-knowledge perspective, in The Design, Experience and Practice of Networked Learning, ed. by V. Hodgson, de Laat, D. McConnell, T. Ryberg, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2014), pp. 29–49

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • N.B. Dohn, J.-A. Sime, S. Cranmer, T. Ryberg, M. de Laat, Reflections and challenges in networked learning, in Networked Learning, ed. by N. B. Dohn, S. Cranmer, J.-A. Sime, M. de Laat, T. Ryberg, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2018), pp. 187–212

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • N. Dyer-Witheford, Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-technology Capitalism (University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • N. Dyer-Witheford, Cognitive capitalism and the contested campus, in Engineering Culture: On the Author as (Digital) Producer, ed. by G. Cox, J. Krysa, (Autonomedia, New York, 2005), pp. 71–93

    Google Scholar 

  • R. Edwards, F. Tracy, K. Jordan, Mobilities, moorings and boundary making in developing semantic technologies in educational practices. Res. Learn. Technol. 19(3), 219–232 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. Gillen, D. Barton, Digital Literacies (London Knowledge Lab/TLRP, London, 2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (Wiley Computer, New York, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Goodyear, L. Carvalho, N.B. Dohn, Artefacts and activities in the analysis of learning networks, in Research, Boundaries, and Policy in Networked Learning, ed. by T. Ryberg, C. Sinclair, S. Bayne, M. de Laat, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2016), pp. 93–110

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • A. Gorz, Detruire l’université. Les Temps Modernes 285, 1553–1558 (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  • L. Gourlay, M. Oliver, Beyond ‘the social’: digital literacies as sociomaterial practice, in Literacy in the Digital University: Critical Perspectives on Learning, Scholarship and Technology, ed. by R. Goodfellow, M. Lea, (Routledge, Abington, 2013)

    Google Scholar 

  • L. Gourlay, M. Oliver, It’s not all about the learner: reframing students’ digital literacy as sociomaterial practice, in Research, Boundaries, and Policy in Networked Learning, ed. by S. Bayne, C. Jones, M. de Laat, T. Ryberg, C. Sinclair, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2016), pp. 77–92

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • A. Haider, A. Mohandesi, Workers’ inquiry: a genealogy. Viewpoints 3 (2013). Retrieved from https://www.viewpointmag.com/2013/09/27/workers-inquiry-a-genealogy/

  • K. Hakkarainen, T. Palonen, S. Paavola, E. Lehtinen, Communities of Networked Expertise: Professional and Educational Perspectives (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Healey, A. Jenkins, Developing Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (Higher Education Academy, York, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • T. Heath, C. Bizer, Linked Data: Evolving the Web into a Global data Space. Synthesis lectures on the semantic web: theory and technology, 1(1), 1–136 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • V. Hodgson, D. McConnell, L. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, in The Theory, Practice and Pedagogy of Networked Learning, ed. by L. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, V. Hodgson, D. McConnell, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2012), pp. 291–306

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • D. Huynh, D. Karger, R. Miller, Exhibit: lightweight structured data publishing. Proceedings from WWW ‘07: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on World Wide Web, Banff, Alberta, Canada New York, NY, USA, 2007

    Google Scholar 

  • I. Illich, Deschooling Society (Marion Boyars, London, 1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • I. Illich, The Right to Useful Unemployment and its Professional Enemies (Marion Boyars, London, 1978)

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Jaakkola, Teacher Heutagogy in the Network Society: a framework for critical reflection, in Critical Learning in Digital Networks, ed. by P. Jandrić, D. Boras, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2015), pp. 163–178

    Google Scholar 

  • P. Jandrić, The methodological challenge of networked learning: (post)disciplinarity and critical emancipation, in Research, Boundaries, and Policy in Networked Learning, ed. by T. Ryberg, C. Sinclair, S. Bayne, M. de Laat, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2016), pp. 165–182

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • C. Jones, Networked Learning: a Paradigm for the Age of Digital Networks (Springer, Dordrecht, 2015)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • K. Jordan, H. Griffiths, K. Johnstone, An interactive timeline of plant evolution - a HEA Bioscience case study (2010), Retrieved from http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/casestudies/jordan.pdf

  • S. Koseoglu, A. Koutropoulos, Teaching Presence in MOOCs: Perspectives and Learning Design Strategies. Proceedings from Networked Learning Conference 2016, Lancaster, 9-11 May 2016

    Google Scholar 

  • G. Kress, The profound shift of digital literacies, in Digital Literacies, ed. by J. Gillen, D. Barton, (London Knowledge Lab/TLRP, London, 2010), pp. 6–7

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Lankshear, D. Knobel, Digital Literacies: concepts, policies and practices (Peter Lang, New York, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • K. Litherland, G. Forrester, Undergraduates as co-producers of a history of education timeline. Proceedings from BERA Conference, Brighton, 3–5, September 2013

    Google Scholar 

  • J.-F. Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • E.B. Mandinach, E.S. Gummer, A systemic view of implementing data literacy in educator preparation. Educ. Res. 42(1), 30–37 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x12459803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • A. Martinez-Garcia, F. Tracy, M. Tscholl, S. Morris, P. Carmichael, Case based learning, pedagogical innovation and semantic web technologies. IEEE Trans. Learn. Technol. 5(2), 104–116 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1109/TLT.2011.34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • P. McLaren, P. Jandrić, The critical challenge of networked learning: using information technologies in the service of humanity, in Critical Learning in Digital Networks, ed. by P. Jandrić, D. Boras, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2015), pp. 199–226

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Milan, Data activism as the new frontier of media activism, in Media Activism in the Digital Age: Charting an Evolving Field of Research, ed. by G. Yang, V. Pickard, (Routledge, Abingdon, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Milan, L. Van der Velden, The alternative epistemologies of data activism. Digit. Cult. Soc. 2(2), 57–74 (2016). https://doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2016-0205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • S. Morris, Semantic Web Use Cases and Case Studies: Using the Semantic Web to Enhance the Teaching of Dance (2012), Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/UseCases/LJMU/LJMU.pdf

  • M. Neary, Student as producer: a pedagogy for the avant-garde? Learn. Exch. 1(1) (2010). Retrieved from http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/4186/

  • M. Neary, Student as producer: an institution of the common? [or how to recover communist/revolutionary science]. Enhancing Learn. Soc. Sci. 4(3), 1–16 (2012). https://doi.org/10.11120/elss.2012.04030003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. Neary, A. Hagyard, Pedagogy of excess: an alternative political economy of student life, in The Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer, (Routledge, Abingdon, 2010), pp. 209–244

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Neary, J. Winn, The student as producer: reinventing the student experience in higher education, in The Future of Higher Education: Policy, Pedagogy and the Student Experience, ed. by L. Bell, H. Stevenson, M. Neary, (Continuum, London, 2009), pp. 192–210

    Google Scholar 

  • M. Neary, J. Winn, Beyond public and private: a framework for co-operative higher education. Open Libr. Humanit. 3(2), 1–36 (2017). https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. Neary, G. Saunders, A. Hagyard, D. Derricott, Research-engaged Teaching: an institutional strategy (Higher Education Academy, York, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Negri, From the Factory to the Metropolis (Polity Press, Cambridge, 2018)

    Google Scholar 

  • S. Paavola, L. Lipponen, K. Hakkarainen, Models of innovative knowledge communities and three metaphors of learning. Rev. Educ. Res. 74(4), 557–576 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543074004557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L. Pangrazio, N. Selwyn, ‘Personal data literacies’: a critical literacies approach to enhancing understandings of personal digital data. New Media Soc. 21(2), 419–437 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818799523

  • C.K. Pereira, S.W.M. Siqueira, B.P. Nunes, S. Dietze, Linked data in education: a survey and a synthesis of actual research and future challenges. IEEE Trans. Learn. Technol. 11(3), 400–412 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/tlt.2017.2787659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • J. Raffaghelli, Open Data for Learning: A case study in Higher Education. Proceedings from European Distance and E-Learning Network, Genoa, 17–20 June 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • G. Roggero, The autonomy of the living knowledge in the metropolis-university. Transversal, 2007(5) (2007). Retrieved from http://eipcp.net/transversal/0707/roggero/en

  • G. Roggero, The Production of Living Knowledge: The Crisis of the University and the Transformation of Labour in Europe and North America (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Sfard, On two metaphors for learning and on the dangers of choosing just one. Educ. Res. 27(2), 4–13 (1998). https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X027002004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • F. Tracy, P. Carmichael, Disrupting the dissertation: linked data, enhanced publication and algorithmic culture. E-Learn. Digit. Media 14(3), 164–182 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753017731356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • A. Wardrop, D. Withers (eds.), The Para-Academic Handbook (Hammer-On Press, Bristol, 2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • B. Williamson, Digital education governance: data visualization, predictive analytics, and ‘real-time’ policy instruments. J. Educ. Policy 31(2), 123–141 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1035758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • S. Wright, Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism (Pluto Press, London, 2002)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a grant from the UK ESRC/EPSRC Teaching Enhanced Learning Programme (http://www.tlrp.org/tel/) under research award RES-139-25-0403A.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bedfordshire, Bedford, UK

    Patrick Carmichael

  2. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Frances Tracy

Authors
  1. Patrick Carmichael
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Frances Tracy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Carmichael .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark

    Nina Bonderup Dohn

  2. Department of Informatics & Computing, Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Petar Jandrić

  3. Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Thomas Ryberg

  4. Learning, Teaching & Curriculum, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Maarten de Laat

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Carmichael, P., Tracy, F. (2020). Networks of Knowledge, Students as Producers, and Politicised Inquiry. In: Dohn, N., Jandrić, P., Ryberg, T., de Laat, M. (eds) Mobility, Data and Learner Agency in Networked Learning. Research in Networked Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36911-8_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36911-8_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36910-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36911-8

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation