ABSTRACT

This chapter concerns the question of how focus is placed when a learner is in a given learning situation. It looks at how the various elements of an environment interact with individuals and how those interactions bring about shifts in participants' focus. Networked learning takes on many guises; one that is perhaps more unusual than most, is the use of digital tools to teach mathematics at a Malawian primary school. Despite the very different learning places, the externally designed learning environment is surprisingly similar. In both places students sit in groups of up to 30 children, students sit on mats on the floor to work, and students predominately work on their own with their own digital computing device. In both the Malawi and the UK settings, focus for the students is clearly placed in such a way that the app becomes conducive to their learning.