ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I am concerned to relate the content of previous chapters to the practice of teaching. To do this I shall be examining a variety of examples of learning situations in which IT is being used. All will involve groups of pupils or students and their teachers. I shall be particularly concerned with teacherpupil and pupil-pupil interaction, and shall ask the following general questions: • What is the nature of the interaction taking place? • Is it different from that in other teaching contexts, and if so, how? • How does this affect the learning which takes place? • Was IT a necessary component of this learning? I wish to pick out the following important and relevant points from the preceding chapters: 1 Learning in the classroom is essentially a social activity, not only because
it takes place in a shared environment, but also, as Edwards states, it is ‘an inculcation of pupils into a predetermined culture of educated knowledge and practice, [rather] than some unfolding development of individual cognitions’ (Edwards, 1991, p. 197).
