Volume 2 - issue 1 - 2006

Editorial Volume 2 Issue 1

In Seminar.net's first year we published two issues,

and we received recognition from fellow electronic publishers for our innovative use of short video clips offering authors the opportunity to introduce their contributions. There are some challenges when entering the world of digital communication, and one of them is certainly to take innovative steps towards multimodal ways of presenting academic knowledge. We would like our readers to forward their ideas and suggestions on how to make this journal’s communication of academic knowledge more inspired, vivid and helpful. We are planning three issues this year, and we are in the favourable position of continually receiving contributions that address the purpose of mediation and communication.

The current issue of Seminar.net, the first of Volume 2., is a cross-disciplinary accomplishment gathering together papers written by scholars from different disciplines, and they all contribute in significant ways to frame the field of “Media, technology and lifelong learning”.

Technocultural education

This article presents aspects of educational thinking in a transformational, postmodern society. Lars Løvlie proposes, firstly, that we drop the absolute distinction between man and animal, and man and machine; and start treating them as co-extensive; and secondly, that the subject be described in terms of the interface rather than of the "I". The interface does not refer to the self as substantial or to culture as objective but rather to the places where they interact. Lars Løvlie is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo.

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The Everyday Use of ICT in Norwegian Flexible Education

Wenche M. Rønning and Gunnar Grepperud have done a comprehensive national survey of adult flexible students’ learning situation in Norway 2004-2005. Having 1477 respondents from a total of 74 “classes”, all following flexible higher education courses, they throw light on how ICT is used on an everyday basis. The survey shows that Internet access is generally good, but clear disparities are shown between different occupational groups. They found that Internet plays a less dominate role than expected as a channel of communication in-between students and between students and their teachers. Wenche M. Rønning is a senior researcher at Lifelong Learning Research Centre,The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim and Gunnar Grepperud is professor at Centre for Further and Continuing Education, University of Tromsø.

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The Rhetoric of PowerPoint

The PowerPoint software is widely used, in business, higher education and elsewhere. In this essay Jens. E. Kjeldsen explains why Power Point cannot be seen av a neutral tool for the benefit of the teacher and the learner. It affects the way we teach, as well as the way the learners think, learn and understand. In stead of using the tool uncritically, we should use what Kjeldsen coins as media rhetoracy: the ability to communicate persuasively and appropriately. Jens E. Kjeldsen is an associate professor at the University of Bergen, Norway.

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Making sense with multimedia

A text theoretical study of a digital format integrating writing and video

Digital text formats that allow a close interaction between writing and video represent new possibilities and challenges for the communication of educational content. What are the premises for functional and appropriate communication through web-based, multimedial text formats? These are the fundamental questions Martin Engebretsen, Associate professor at Agder University College raise in this paper. His aim is to describe how writing and video elements can be accomodated to web media.

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