distance education

Through the Lens of Situated Learning and Levels of Scale: Theorizing Development of Remote Teaching and the Role of On-Site Facilitators

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to theoretical development within a field otherwise mostly characterized by empirical contributions, with a primary focus on the practice and perspectives of on-site facilitators. To theoretically understand the development and use of remote teaching, we focus on the interaction between systems of human activity in education and the relationships enacted in practice through their interaction, with a focus on on-site facilitators’ work. In doing so, we use the concept levels of scale in situated learning. Through levels of scale, we conceptualize the historical development of remote teaching as the large scale and the remote learning environment as the small scale. Integrating the levels of scale and tracing the historical development of remote teaching in Sweden into the enactments taking place in a classroom of modern language teaching is the concrete theoretical development that our aim entails.

A Theoretical Framework for Synchronous Remote Teaching? Reshaping the Pedagogical Triangle

Abstract

This paper explores synchronous remote teaching as a pedagogical practice and elaborates upon a framework with which to understand the practice theoretically. The empirical backdrop comprises remote teaching practice in Sweden, where this practice is implemented via digital technology and with an onsite facilitator who is present with the students. The pedagogical triangle is revisited, examined, and explored in relation to remote teaching as a new pedagogical practice. In the theoretical elaboration, the pedagogical triangle is reshaped into a pyramid due to the onsite facilitator’s participation in the remote teaching. This elaboration is a first step to establishing a theoretical understanding of remote teaching practice on its own terms.