Student Activity in Blended Learning Environments: A Sociomaterial Perspective

This paper investigates uses of blended learning in teacher education where students participate through respectively webinars, seminars and self-directed group work to study literacy. Based on a recently implemented study activity model that aims to strengthen teacher students' academic activity, the paper asks how different patterns of relationships and spatial arrangements produce student activity in specific ways. How are forms of participation, learning and presence performed through webinars, seminars and group activities and in connections between these activities? How do technologies participate in and contribute to creating student activity, engagement and learning? The paper builds on research in a Danish teacher education college where a study activity model has been implemented as part of a joint model for activity in professional higher education. In this model learning is understood through forms of activity that are either student or teacher initiated. However, in practice not only students and lecturers participate in and produce these activities, technologies such as smartboards, pc's, online platforms and cloud based environments are also significantly involved in creating activities, engagements and learning opportunities. The research project investigates these relationships by studying the arrangements and practices of activities through observations of different activities and interviews with students. Preliminary results from these interviews suggest that arrangements of activities not only vary significantly, but also affect students' preferences and experienced potential for learning in different ways. Methodologically, the research is inspired by sociomaterial approaches to education that understand learning activities as entanglements created through dynamic relationships between human and material participants.