Chapter 9: Reflective Practice and Digital Habitats: Responsiveness and Directiveness in Course Management Systems

E-learning within higher education institutions can be viewed as socially shaped by a range of stakeholders who learn about the impact the technologies have on their working practice and consequently negotiate the “digital habitats” within which this work takes place. Technologies such as course management systems (CMSs), which combine to form these habitats, can be responsive to the learning and professional development that take place, but can also direct activity, shaping it in a more or less restrictive way. Through qualitative case studies of five online learning teams in institutions in the UK and U.S., four levels and six types of responsiveness and directiveness are identified, and consequences investigated. The research concludes that the lack of formalized reflective practice in higher education has a potentially significant impact on the ability of stakeholders to sustain a consensus over the use of technology in teaching, and thus to keep the CMS responsive to the needs of a range of stakeholders.