Conceptualization of Multimodal and Distributed Designs for Learning

In this chapter, we will focus on articulations of teaching and learning and relate these to technological shifts and social paradigms. We will briefly describe the changes of technology of learning from SYSTEM 1, which is characterized by rather stable structures, national curricula, classroom teaching, printed school textbooks, and assessment standards (developed during 1945–2000), to SYSTEM 2, which is characterized by dynamic (global) change, the development of digitized media, cognitive systems, mobile learning, and the idea of individual agency (2000→). During these two periods of time, quite different teaching and learning strategies can be articulated: “designed information and teaching” versus “multimodal and distributed designs for learning.” However, most current theories of learning are still founded on theories of meaning developed in an era constituted by SYSTEM 1, and the assumptions of stable systems and the reproduction of forms, processes, and actions. Today, different kinds of platforms, tablets, games, apps, and collaborative problem-solving design have contributed to individual production, new communicative patterns, and information access to such a degree that we could say that “information is no longer the problem.” Information is ubiquitous and cheap. What is at stake is rather to connect people in meaningful communicative settings. The formation and transformation of knowledge and the role of multimodal and distributed designs for learning as a theoretical approach will then be discussed in relation to SYSTEM 2.