The rapid advancement pervasiveness of ICT—especially in Norway where use of converging information and communication technologies is one of the highest in the world—is radically changing the possibilities for technology enhanced learning (TEL). Technological advancements, a perspective on knowledge as a cultural artefact, and our understandings of teaching and learning have influenced changes in learning environments during the past four decades. This has created new conditions for society and for its institutions that are challenging our basic assumptions about the nature of learning, teaching and educational activities in modern knowledge societies.

A fundamental challenge for TEL is how to design technology enhanced learning environments sensitive to the complex interconnections between pedagogical, technological and organisational issues and how to understand their use. First, this concerns an understanding of how humans interact and communicate while learning through technologies ranging from web-based applications or mobile devices to advanced multimedia systems and context aware and augmented reality. Second, it concerns further advancements in software applications and multimedia design and a deeper understanding of their affordances for human learning. Third, it concerns pedagogical designs and how central principles of learning and human development must be integrated into innovative learning environments in order to enable productive learning. Fourth, it concerns an understanding of infrastructural issues and how social organisations inhibit or afford the adoption of ICT mediated learning.

In this presentation I will focus on the design and use technology enhanced learning environments. I will show how my Scandinavian experience has influenced my perspective on ICT and on learning, thus helping shape my understanding of Technology Enhanced Learning. I will use examples from some of the projects in which I have been involved, with a focus on collaborative learning in distributed environments.