Increasing the effectiveness of e-learning has become one of the most practically and theoretically important issues within both educational engineering and information system fields. The development of information technologies has contributed to growth in online training as an important education method. The online training environment enables…

This article examines key issues in how new technologies are impacting upon how we teach, learn and collaborate, and uses an educational research project called GRAIL (Graduate Researcher's Academic Identity Online) under development to illustrate some fundamental issues in adopting new technologies. A significant challenge to the effective use of…

This article intends to investigate the challenges of e-learning implementation with an emphasis on education innovation. The Botswana government imports technology rather than developing it in-house through or in association with a well-developed national research and development (R&D) centre. In simple terms, e-learning is the delivery of…

"Impact" is possibly the most frequently evaluated construct associated with any kind of technological diffusion or adoption within educational settings. Seemingly endless research projects are funded to measure it and to validate the educational value we have become adept at inscribing into practically all novel technologies brought to…

This article considers the question of the authorship of digital texts and their use by learners and teachers in higher education. It draws on the work of Foucault, in particular how his concept of the "author function" is applied by Poster to the authorships of the digital age. From this theoretical basis, the article goes on to…

Learning technologies are becoming a common, and in many cases essential, component of the contemporary learning environment. As such, those who design, implement and control these encompassing technologies have emerged as major contributors to the success (or otherwise) of such systems. This article considers the power and responsibilities of…

This article focuses on the social practices of propagating and circulating memes within Internet environments as a significant dimension of cultural production and transmission. Memes (pronounced "meems") are contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and which directly shape and transmit key actions and…

Using Milton's "Paradise Lost" as metaphor, this article examines shifting positions of authority, and the role of technology, in higher education practice. As higher education becomes caught up in the performative agendas of globalised market rationalism, technology is mobilised in a specific way which sits uncomfortably with…

This article has two objectives: to explore the changing power relationships within the quality management practices of United Kingdom higher education with specific reference to online learning and the role of learning technologists; and to explore some of the issues surrounding the potential to represent academic discourse through media other…