The Cultural Dimension of Space-Time in Technology-Mediated Learning
摘要
The present chapter aims to discuss the cultural dimension of space-time in technology-mediated learning by introducing and elaborating on the theoretical lens of the chronotope, a concept originally proposed by Bakhtin. Chronotopic analysis allows to examine how the social construction of space-time is dynamically interwoven with cultural, historical, and material aspects of the learning process. Illustrative empirical examples are used to enrich the theoretical discussion. The examples are taken from a case study involving 50 fifth grade students engaging in a making-based activity in Minecraft Education, a game based on digital block construction, will be used to enrich the theoretical discussion. Considering the iterative transformation of the space-time of learning that characterized the different phases of the project, this case lends itself well to exemplify the social and cultural dimensions of space and time and to discuss the micro-level cultural processes emerging when the students made sense of the learning context and of the pedagogical activities across complex configurations of virtual and physical spacetimes.