It has taken Heather Short and I a while to get this Special Issue completed – having begun life as a stream at the UFHRD conference in the University of Brighton in 2013. Finally today the SI has gone online – something to shout about because there is so much on Technology Enhanced Learning and lots of “we did this” papers at conferences but little out there which really tackles some of the major issues in TEL at work.
The preponderance of TEL in HE papers shows that academics are grappling with the treasure chest of opportunities learning technologies, especially free and public domain ones, offer to students and teachers. This Issue (British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 45 Issue 6 2014) carries some useful contributions and in our jointly authored editorial we pick up a focus on TEL issues in practice in the workplace, whether blended learning approaches are best, sociological factors and communities of practice, whether organisation size matters, the extent to which employees may be reluctant to use TEL, help and support and informality of workplace learning.
We are hoping that the Issue will spark and stimulate further research in this vital area. TEL at work is not about passive information transmission – this goes to the heart of employee engagement and learning which must drive the engine of growth in organisations.
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