Contemporary Computing As An Assemblage: Exploration Of Mobile Learning And Actor Network Theory

Methodology

“Contemporary Computing could be seen as an assemblage” Discuss.

The assignment is based on the concept of affordances which has been used as a contemporary theme for research on mobile learning and this shows how computational devices are used as forms of mobile learning systems and used as technologies for learning. The concept of affordances is used in the assignment or the research literature is critiqued and explored by the actor network theory which is used to position the categorisation of the discursive practices used to position the technologies in relation to the learning(Hanaki). The methodologies of using this procedure of mobile computing devices for the process of learning is being explored and the potential for any form of alternative research is also being considered. Mobile learning has received a multitude of theoretical as well as critical attention for empirical research. The mobile devices for computing are very sophisticated and pervasive for their potential in use of education. The definition of mobile learning should not be constrained only towards learning through mobiles but the focus has been shifted from device to human. Therefore a broader view has to be established that accounts for the student or learner which is more mobile and not on mobile technology which means the importance is given to the mobility of the learner.

The main focus of this assignment would be to look for examples of initiative of mobile learning which would also be able to inform the development of the university programs in the medicine and health sector. The review of the literature that has been extracted for this assignment which uses several themes of methodology from where the discourse and the conclusions emerged like the widespread efficiency of the mobile computing devices(Kuriyama). The change in the meaning and the inaccuracy of the topic has led to further enquiries for the validation of the concept and to seek other form of processes that might cause problems for this non critical assumption. The presence of the term is not enough but the way it functions to support the concept of mobile learning.

The investigation included the identification of recurrent patterns that were identified and the next step would be to sample it against the literature with a view of reducing the selection bias. The literature was chosen against a structure and based on criteria which had been undertaken in order to consider the suppositions. The two criteria’s were influence which has been indicated by the number of citations used in order to find out whether the enunciation of the concepts have been influential to the topic and other research fields the second was currency(Yasarcan).

Complexity Of Technology

The mobile devices in recent years have undergone huge changes and adoption in the present years and the research of the mobile learning processes too in the potential of their use in the formal education system. An analysis with respect to the actor network theory uses the allegory of the assorted networks  explains that the agents , organisations and the machines  are all the effects of generated in a form of patented network of not only simply human materials but a diverse range of materials. The principle of acting network theory states that the materials and the non-human elements of any form of network should be treated logically in the exact way as the human and social elements(Stiller). The intention behind the use of actor network theory is to clarify the number of networks that have grown and the analytical method to bring the process in light rather than to explain only the results. Different discourses have been used to describe the computer and the dependency on account of the computer technology. There are four dominant forms of treatises

The boosters are the most dominant form of discourses that help to position the computers as a form of learning technology.

The ant schoolers are a form of subgroup of the boosters where the computers are the dominant form of learning technology but credited In such form that the schools are credited to be less efficient form of learning centres and they don’t have any role to play.

The critical form of the discourses are lesser unified and represent a number of concerns and see the computers as politics just by another form of names. The main concern is with the equality, access and the potential for deliverance(Schuster).

Doomsters are the subgroup of critical form of discourses and they have similarity to the anti-schoolers as they are of the view that the capacity of the computers can bring about a destructible change and are therefore completely opposed to the fact.

The discourses are known to be the opposing forces and they are regarded as I direct reference to the opposing categories which can be challenged. The research asserts the affordances for knowledge as the concept of the affordance is used to position the device as technology for learning.

The use of ANT has proven to be useful in order to capture the actors which are involved in the development of mobile learning technology for a number of reasons. The first thing is to focus on the actor networks as the fundamental building block for the development of the mobile learning technology(Kuriyama). The ANT looks at the relations between the actors and the complex social which comprises the entrepreneurial and the political activities as well as negotiations. It examines the manners in which the actors forms, strengthen and maintain the networks of the actors with the mobile learning technology and the process by which their aims and objectives will get interlocked while the process of alignment of the dynamic interests are carried on I the background. When the focus of the problems are on the evolution process of its construction and is opposed to being focused on the pre-defined or the elements which are fixed, the generation of the insights are developed keeping its concern on the operation of mobile learning technology and they would shape up to be in addition to the attention it seeks for both anticipated and un anticipated consequences for its use in computer settings(Kůrková and Sanguineti). The ANT allows the investigations to ask such questions as how and why the mobile learning techniques come into play and how the other users and the actors ignore, conform, usurp and modify the interest of the computer designers. The ANT helps in the investigation of the fluidity of the reality of the mobile learning and the underlying the complex actor communications as they reveal(Najarian). The ANT helps in the facilitation of the formative assessments in order to study the mobile learning of the multiple certainties while they recognize the consequences of the co-existence of the realities in the actor networks while challenging expectedness of the out-dated cumulative of the outcome focused on the fundamental methods.

Use Of The Actor Network Theory (Ant) To Tackle The Complexity

With the ANT everyone must thoroughly follow the actors in order to understand the form of the actor network consultations effect the shape of the technical artefacts. In practice snowballing can be used to identify the actors in the mobile learning which might decide what to include and what not to about the investigative works that is to be directed towards contextualising a particular mobile learning solution as the assemblage that the researchers which wish to chart. While following the actors one can be able to avoid the context or the specific actors(Yasarcan).

The students in the present times are accessing the online courses from the mobile devices. The mobile learning has also helped in practice without the required institutional control of the devices or the context(Mckenna). A community that has been able to adopt the mobile devices within the craft brewing. This community consists professional brewers, hobbyists and some other on the higher education programmes. In the craft brewing community the mobile devices which have been willingly adopted and are referred being essential for the individual learning.

Conclusion

This assignment has been able to focus on the research findings which can act informally in order to position the mobile technologies for the use of learning. The uncritical use of the argumentative and the essential concept of affordance which has been used is very problematic in the way it is considered in the research. The classification of the framework   of the groupings of the discourse like the boosters, anti-schoolers, critical and the doomster which are used as approach for the users are not used as neutral approach but as opposition or on competition with the other approaches so that the technologies can be positioned in different ways(Marin and Mohan). The assertion is challenged that the implementation and the research carried out for the concept of mobile learning has to be of primary concern due to the ubiquity and the occurrence of the devices. ANT has offered a process of intervention and has helped to unpack the assumptions which had been taken for granted priory and has helped to consider the process of carrying out the research from a different perspective.

References

Filk, Thomas, and Albrecht von Müller. ‘Evolutionary Learning Of Small Networks’. Complexity 13.3 (2008): 43-54. Web.

Hanaki, Nobuyuki. ‘Action Learning Versus Strategy Learning’. Complexity 9.5 (2004): 41-50. Web.

Kuriyama, K. ‘Sleep-Dependent Learning And Motor-Skill Complexity’. Learning & Memory 11.6 (2004): 705-713. Web.

Kůrková, VÄ›ra, and Marcello Sanguineti. ‘Learning With Generalization Capability By Kernel Methods Of Bounded Complexity’. Journal of Complexity 21.3 (2005): 350-367. Web.

Marin, Dylan, and Permanand Mohan. ‘Personalisation In Mobile Learning’. IJMLO 3.1 (2009): 25. Web.

Mckenna, S. ‘Learning Through Complexity’. Management Learning 30.3 (1999): 301-320. Web.

Najarian, Kayvan. ‘On Learning Of Sigmoid Neural Networks’. Complexity 6.4 (2001): 39-45. Web.

Schuster, Peter. ‘Generation Of Information And Complexity: Different Forms Of Learning And Innovation: A Simple Mechanism Of Learning’. Complexity 10.4 (2005): 12-14. Web.

Stiller, J. C. ‘Adaptive Online Learning Of Generative Stochastic Models’. Complexity 8.4 (2003): 95-101. Web.

Yasarcan, Hakan. ‘Improving Understanding, Learning, And Performances Of Novices In Dynamic Managerial Simulation Games’. Complexity (2009): NA-NA. Web.