ABSTRACT
Use of communication technologies is central to designing for networked learning. This chapter offers a general scheme for thinking critically about technologies employed in networked learning. Combining three theories in ethics – consequentialism, deontology and virtue theory – with key themes in philosophy of technology, it frames and contributes to several of the discussions carried out in connection with networked learning. I. Illich published the book, Tools for Conviviality, only two years after his Deschooling Society, in which he proposed the furthering of deinstitutionalised learning webs. The ideas about technology in his 1973 book are to a great extent generalisations of his observations in Deschooling Society. Virtue theory locates morality in the habits and standing dispositions – vices and virtues – people develop in their daily lives, rather than the singular actions. One of the topics that featured at the Gymnasium's "tag cloud" was an aspect of classroom management, differentiation.
