ABSTRACT

The point of departure for this chapter is the idea that learning activity is becoming less constrained by time, space, and the organizational requirements of educational providers. As people take more control over their learning activity, there is a multiplication of the possible influences of time and space on their learning. If learning can take place anywhere, then we need to know more about the pedagogical affordances of the various wheres in which it is situated. This becomes a priority for the effective learner—needing to know how to select and configure appropriate learnplaces—as well as for researchers trying to understand the sometimes subtle connections between place and learning. The chapter offers a summary description of flexible learning and then moves on to consider the relations between learning and place. The account is structured, in part, by a distinction between weaker and stronger interpretations of what is meant by situated learning. The function of the weaker interpretation is to highlight the importance of the learning context, such that we can focus on the affordances of the learnplace and consider the ergonomics of supportive learning environments. The stronger interpretation of situated learning causes us to take seriously the idea that being a learner is first and foremost engagement in a cultural practice, that people have to learn to engage in such cultural practices, and that place has a distinctive role in cultural practice. Paradoxically, ideas about flexible learning and mobile learning help us put learning in its place.