Computer‐mediated communication as a learning resource

Evaluative studies of CMC can produce misleading or even contradictory results due to an (understandable) focus on how the characteristics of the medium affect usage, ignoring the dialectic between technology and culture, of mutual adaptation over time. CMC exchanges in Higher Education take place within a broad teaching and learning system, of which most participants already have extensive experience. This system provides the context within which participants make sense of, and adapt to, the use of on‐line communications. Thus interpretations of the processes shaping exchanges and their outcomes have to take into account: who participants see themselves as communicating with and why, how this serves longer‐term learning goals, and what past experience of engaging with both task and audience they have had; what kinds of exchange are facilitated, both by the medium itself and how the task is organised, and how such affordances are honed over time; and also, how these interactions impact on other aspects of teaching and on learning outcomes.