Infrastructures, institutions and networked learning

The use of networked technologies has become ubiquitous in universities in advanced industrial countries. The same physical spaces may still be used for teaching but an infrastructure to support digital technologies is now in place allowing the widespread use of high speed networks and Web 2.0 services by academic staff and students. Institutions of higher education have a set of interests in making their investments in networked technologies productive and effective and they have to choose how far the institution should develop their own means of support and how far they should rely on publicly available resources and networks which are then used for educational purposes. This paper explores one institution and seeks to illuminate what kinds of questions are asked when a new institutional initiative to supply networked resources, including Web 2.0 services, takes place and how those decisions are taken. What is the infrastructure for networked learning and how does it come about?