ABSTRACT
It is commonly acknowledged that information and communication technologies have created new infrastructures that dramatically change our possibilities for knowledge production and learning. Along with these new possibilities for learning and connectedness, we have also generated new ideals that create
vision for the new information society and yet also, at times, become confused from with the lived reality of this society in everyday practice. For instance, in the ideal information society, people are optimally networked so that resources are equally available, shared and voiced, and participation possibilities are maximized. However, we have only limited knowledge of how these ideals match with every day social practices of connectivity. At the same time, these notions of optimal connectedness and participation are marshaled by new paradigms of learning. These paradigms provide an alternative to traditional proprietary models of knowledge production, and are based on open knowledge production models in which knowledge production and sharing happens through decentralized and distributed networks. These networks are available independent from time and space barriers, and owned by many, rather than revealing information through linear systems from one central point (Peters, Besley, and Araya 2014). Along with this open knowledge production, it is argued that a wider variety of resources over greater distance is available for learners. In line with this many have pointed out that learners in the digital age have or need to have global orientations and need to learn to juggle the contradictory frameworks that come with this wider variety.
