Social Learning in Educational Multimedia

Many projects on educational multimedia do not live up to their expectations. Technology and education are apparently difficult to mix. Proposals to improve the present situation either reflect on the technological base or on the educational context. Social learning in multimedia offers an approach that combines both perspectives. Based on the reflexive character of contemporary processes of change, it entails two ideal-typical forms of social practices: the mode of experimentation and the mode of control. This chapter provides for an analysis of the cases presented in part 2, in terms of their match with either one or both modes. Control and experimental aspects are analysed, leading to various points on the spectrum between both ideal-types. Then, we shift perspective form analysis to a pro-active orientation: what do the projects contribute to notions about successful or failing practices? Though success is more attractive than failure, the analysis of practices that are perceived to have failed, render useful insights for constructing guidelines of best practices. Accepting exploratory settings that may lead to failure guides the establishment of good practices.