Re-situating Constructionism

This chapter is in three parts. In the first, I will examine the literature on situated learning, situated cognition, and ecologies of knowledge. In the second, I will explore some significant contributions to thinking about media, science, and technology. In the third and final part, I will focus on the literature of constructionism itself, from the early 1980s to current works, and attempt to trace some trends in the thinking around it. Ultimately, I will attempt to elaborate an ecological approach to understanding educational technology and educational media, an approach that brings together the three areas covered in this chapter. By ecology, I mean a dynamic, evolving system in which actor and environment are inseparable and mutually constitutive, in which both people and cultural artifacts are considered, and in which responsibilities and ethics are emergent and situated. In looking for these qualities in approaches to knowledge, culture, learning, and technology, I believe, we can begin to develop a critical stance with respect to a confusing world.