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Thomas Hillman

University of Gothenburg, Department of Education, Communication and Learning, Faculty Member

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Thomas Hillman is Associate Professor of information technology and learning at the Faculty of Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

With a background in the design of products and environments for learning, his research investigates the ongoing reconfiguration of technology for learning in both formal and informal settings with a focus on the mutually constitutive relationship between the development of technologies and the transformation of epistemic practices. Thomas' work to understand the role of tools in learning processes draws on sociocultural perspectives on learning, interaction and development, and on sociomaterial ways of conceptualizing the relationship between technology and use.

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Papers by Thomas Hillman

Traces of engagement: Narrative-making practices with smartphones on a museum field trip

by Alexandra Weilenmann, Thomas Hillman, and Beata Jungselius

In this paper, we explore museum visitor learning through the examination of the engagement in na... more In this paper, we explore museum visitor learning through the examination of the engagement in narrative-making practices of school children while visiting a natural history museum. Two groups of children are given worksheets and encouraged to use their own mobile technologies to document their visits in relation to the subject of evolutionary mechanisms. Their engagement is occasioned through this worksheet and we show how they negotiate the interpretation of the task and then go on to complete it in quite different ways. We examine, in turn, how the students structure their visits with walking paths through the museum exhibitions, and how they structure the narratives they produce to complete the tasks by using the tools at hand and incorporating different parts of the exhibits.

Finding space for student innovative practices with technology in the classroom

Learning, Media and Technology

This article examines the role students’ play in shaping the nature of the technologies they use ... more This article examines the role students’ play in shaping the nature of the technologies they use in their classrooms and the role teachers play in supporting students’ innovative practices. Drawing on research on the sociology of technological development from the field of Science and Technology Studies, the process by which one student’s particularly innovative practice changes technology use in a classroom is unpacked. Through analysis of the translation and re-inscription of a graphing calculator and an interactive whiteboard, this article highlight’s the role teachers have in providing both space for students to contribute their innovative technological practices, and support for the establishment and sharing of these practices as recurring patterns of use.

Tracing the construction of mathematical activity with an advanced graphing calculator to understand the roles of technology developers, teachers and students

The International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education

In this paper, I examine the visions of mathematical activity that the developers of an advanced ... more In this paper, I examine the visions of mathematical activity that the developers of an advanced graphing calculator materially instantiate in their device, the ways that teachers translate those inscribed visions and situate the technology within their classrooms, and the ways that students negotiate the technology as part of their practices.

Instagram at the museum: Communicating the museum experience through social photo sharing

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2013

The everyday use of smartphones with high quality built-in cameras has lead to an increase in mus... more The everyday use of smartphones with high quality built-in cameras has lead to an increase in museum visitors' use of these devices to document and share their museum experiences. In this paper, we investigate how one particular photo sharing application, Instagram, is used to communicate visitors' experiences while visiting a museum of natural history. Based on an analysis of 222 instagrams created in the museum, as well as 14 interviews with the visitors who created them, we unpack the compositional resources and concerns contributing to the creation of instagrams in this particular context. By re-categorizing and re-configuring the museum environment, instagrammers work to construct their own narratives from their visits. These findings are then used to discuss what emerging multimedia practices imply for the visitors' engagement with and documentation of museum exhibits. Drawing upon these practices, we discuss the connection between online social media dialogue and the museum site.

A geography of connections: Networks of humans and materials in mathematics classrooms using handheld technology

Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: …, Jan 1, 2011

This article examines the role of materials in education by investigating the inclusion of a hand... more This article examines the role of materials in education by investigating the inclusion of a handheld digital technology in mathematics classrooms. By drawing on activity theory to conceptualize learning with technology and Actor-Network theory to understand the relationships between materials and humans, the use of educational technology in two secondary school mathematics classrooms is investigated. Drawing on interviews and video-recorded classroom observation, this investigation maps the patterns of relations among humans and materials as classroom socio-technical networks adapt to the inclusion of a handheld digital technology. The results present a variety of ways that the human and material actors in classroom socio-technical networks operate as an interconnected whole rather than as a set of individual interactions.

Creating live experiences with real and stuffed animals: The use of mobile technologies in museums

by Thomas Hillman and Beata Jungselius

dreamconference.dk

In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis of ongoing work that examines ways smartphones h... more In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis of ongoing work that examines ways smartphones have created new forms of sociality and participation in museums. We draw upon initial findings from a study at the Gothenburg Natural History Museum as well as a number of studies conducted at the Universeum, a science center in Gothenburg. Drawing upon these studies, we focus on the documentation practices that take place during museum visits (i.e. the process of taking photographs and recording videos), as well as on sharing practices (i.e. how photos and videos are shared during and after visits).

The inscription, translation and re-inscription of technology for mathematical learning

Technology, Knowledge and Learning, Jan 1, 2011

Seeking to contribute to our understanding of the role of educational technology in mathematical ... more Seeking to contribute to our understanding of the role of educational technology in mathematical learning, this paper takes a socio-genetic approach to tracing the ways technology becomes part of classroom mathematical activity. It illuminates the reflexive processes of inscription, translation and re-inscription as technologies evolve by examining the development and classroom use of Texas Instruments’ TI-Nspire™. To investigate the development and use of TI-Nspire, research from the field of Science and Technology Studies is drawn on that provides insights into the relationship between development, technology, and users while avoiding essentialist positions that obscure either technological or human aspects of the relationship. The findings show that rather than being a linear process where the technology is passed from developer to teacher to student, the development and use of TI-Nspire involves multiple feedback loops with constant reconfiguration. These loops occur at several levels as teachers and students integrate the technology into their mathematical activity and these reconfigurations feed into new versions of the technology.

Re: design for Learning - A study of the co-construction of a technological tool for mathematical learning

This dissertation examines the development and use of an educational technology with the aim of e... more This dissertation examines the development and use of an educational technology with the aim of enriching our understanding of the relationships among technology, teachers, students and mathematical activity. Drawing inspiration from the premise articulated in the genetic analysis research of Vygotsky (1978, 1986) that to understand a learning situation we must study it in situ and, in addition, investigate its history, I propose that examining the development of an educational technology can help us to better understand how and why it comes to be used the ways it does in classrooms. Starting with the development of a technology, I follow it into mathematics classrooms and examine the ways teachers and students work with it. For this investigation, I draw on a growing body of research in the field of Science and Technology Studies that examines the development and use of technology and the relationships between humans and their tools (Akrich, 1992; Bijker, 1997; Latour, 2007; Suchman, 2006). This research offers approaches to understanding the complex non-linear nature of the interactions between a technology’s development and the ways it is used. In addition, I draw on the sociocultural approach of Activity-Theory (Vygotsky, 1978; Leont’ev, 1978) to help me conceptualize learning as tool-mediated activity. I present the findings of this study in three journal articles that show that the development of educational technology is not necessarily a linear process, that teachers and students find innovative ways to shape the tools they use, and that their innovations may become formalized as part of new versions of a technology. The findings also illustrate that the introduction of new educational technology has wide-ranging meditational effects on the human and material relationships within classroom networks of activity and that the development and use of technologies designed for mathematical learning reflexively mediate and are mediated by mathematical activity.

The physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits: Identification and categorization of pedagogically relevant concepts

Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option t... more Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option that can be chosen is the inclusion of exhibits that can be touched and manipulated, a style of exhibit often referred to as hands-on or interactive (Adams and Moussouri, 2002). Within this subset of exhibits, designers also have a multitude of choices to make that can affect the experiences visitors will have. The goal of this study is to help the transfer of research findings about learning and hands-on interactive exhibits to designers so that more-informed choices may be made. With this goal in mind, the exhibits within three exhibitions at the Montreal Science Centre are examined from a pedagogical perspective. Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning (2000) is employed as a conceptual framework, and one of its contexts is specifically addressed. Since exhibition designers act upon the objects that form exhibits, and only have direct influence on their physical nature, the physical context of Falk and Dierking's model is chosen as a lens through which to investigate the exhibits. Emergent concepts from the physical context of those exhibits are collected and then categorized. To relate the emergent concepts to a pedagogical perspective, the categories are then associated to the pedagogical triangle (Houssaye, 1988; Moore, 1989), which allows them to be organised following the roles and interactions present in that model. This study, therefore, presents a structure and common language through which the physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits can be understood from a pedagogical perspective.

Canadian curriculum spaces for issues of online privacy

Education, Jan 1, 1996

Internet connectivity and the technologies that it supports have become a pervasive part of many ... more Internet connectivity and the technologies that it supports have become a pervasive part of many aspects of life. The power of these tools have brought a multitude of possibilities but also some serious issues. One of these issues relates to privacy. For all users, but particularly for young people, many of whom are embracing the possibilities of new media, the Internet offers a huge variety of new ways to interact and share information. Simple dictums given to children like ‘never talk to strangers’ may be rendered much more complicated in the online worlds of the Internet where issues of identity and trustworthiness can often come with subtleties and challenges not seen in the physical world. Just as children need to develop the skills to critically read the physical world, they also need to become critically literate on the Internet. While there has been a good deal of attention paid, in recent years, to critical literacy with respect to new media in Canadian school curricula, little regard has been given to issues surrounding online privacy. In this article, I will discuss the dearth of attention to issues of online privacy in Canadian curricula and the need for spaces specifically designated to address them.

Review of Vygotsky by Van der Veer

Traces of engagement: Narrative-making practices with smartphones on a museum field trip

by Alexandra Weilenmann, Thomas Hillman, and Beata Jungselius

In this paper, we explore museum visitor learning through the examination of the engagement in na... more In this paper, we explore museum visitor learning through the examination of the engagement in narrative-making practices of school children while visiting a natural history museum. Two groups of children are given worksheets and encouraged to use their own mobile technologies to document their visits in relation to the subject of evolutionary mechanisms. Their engagement is occasioned through this worksheet and we show how they negotiate the interpretation of the task and then go on to complete it in quite different ways. We examine, in turn, how the students structure their visits with walking paths through the museum exhibitions, and how they structure the narratives they produce to complete the tasks by using the tools at hand and incorporating different parts of the exhibits.

Finding space for student innovative practices with technology in the classroom

Learning, Media and Technology

This article examines the role students’ play in shaping the nature of the technologies they use ... more This article examines the role students’ play in shaping the nature of the technologies they use in their classrooms and the role teachers play in supporting students’ innovative practices. Drawing on research on the sociology of technological development from the field of Science and Technology Studies, the process by which one student’s particularly innovative practice changes technology use in a classroom is unpacked. Through analysis of the translation and re-inscription of a graphing calculator and an interactive whiteboard, this article highlight’s the role teachers have in providing both space for students to contribute their innovative technological practices, and support for the establishment and sharing of these practices as recurring patterns of use.

Tracing the construction of mathematical activity with an advanced graphing calculator to understand the roles of technology developers, teachers and students

The International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education

In this paper, I examine the visions of mathematical activity that the developers of an advanced ... more In this paper, I examine the visions of mathematical activity that the developers of an advanced graphing calculator materially instantiate in their device, the ways that teachers translate those inscribed visions and situate the technology within their classrooms, and the ways that students negotiate the technology as part of their practices.

Instagram at the museum: Communicating the museum experience through social photo sharing

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2013

The everyday use of smartphones with high quality built-in cameras has lead to an increase in mus... more The everyday use of smartphones with high quality built-in cameras has lead to an increase in museum visitors' use of these devices to document and share their museum experiences. In this paper, we investigate how one particular photo sharing application, Instagram, is used to communicate visitors' experiences while visiting a museum of natural history. Based on an analysis of 222 instagrams created in the museum, as well as 14 interviews with the visitors who created them, we unpack the compositional resources and concerns contributing to the creation of instagrams in this particular context. By re-categorizing and re-configuring the museum environment, instagrammers work to construct their own narratives from their visits. These findings are then used to discuss what emerging multimedia practices imply for the visitors' engagement with and documentation of museum exhibits. Drawing upon these practices, we discuss the connection between online social media dialogue and the museum site.

A geography of connections: Networks of humans and materials in mathematics classrooms using handheld technology

Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: …, Jan 1, 2011

This article examines the role of materials in education by investigating the inclusion of a hand... more This article examines the role of materials in education by investigating the inclusion of a handheld digital technology in mathematics classrooms. By drawing on activity theory to conceptualize learning with technology and Actor-Network theory to understand the relationships between materials and humans, the use of educational technology in two secondary school mathematics classrooms is investigated. Drawing on interviews and video-recorded classroom observation, this investigation maps the patterns of relations among humans and materials as classroom socio-technical networks adapt to the inclusion of a handheld digital technology. The results present a variety of ways that the human and material actors in classroom socio-technical networks operate as an interconnected whole rather than as a set of individual interactions.

Creating live experiences with real and stuffed animals: The use of mobile technologies in museums

by Thomas Hillman and Beata Jungselius

dreamconference.dk

In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis of ongoing work that examines ways smartphones h... more In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis of ongoing work that examines ways smartphones have created new forms of sociality and participation in museums. We draw upon initial findings from a study at the Gothenburg Natural History Museum as well as a number of studies conducted at the Universeum, a science center in Gothenburg. Drawing upon these studies, we focus on the documentation practices that take place during museum visits (i.e. the process of taking photographs and recording videos), as well as on sharing practices (i.e. how photos and videos are shared during and after visits).

The inscription, translation and re-inscription of technology for mathematical learning

Technology, Knowledge and Learning, Jan 1, 2011

Seeking to contribute to our understanding of the role of educational technology in mathematical ... more Seeking to contribute to our understanding of the role of educational technology in mathematical learning, this paper takes a socio-genetic approach to tracing the ways technology becomes part of classroom mathematical activity. It illuminates the reflexive processes of inscription, translation and re-inscription as technologies evolve by examining the development and classroom use of Texas Instruments’ TI-Nspire™. To investigate the development and use of TI-Nspire, research from the field of Science and Technology Studies is drawn on that provides insights into the relationship between development, technology, and users while avoiding essentialist positions that obscure either technological or human aspects of the relationship. The findings show that rather than being a linear process where the technology is passed from developer to teacher to student, the development and use of TI-Nspire involves multiple feedback loops with constant reconfiguration. These loops occur at several levels as teachers and students integrate the technology into their mathematical activity and these reconfigurations feed into new versions of the technology.

Re: design for Learning - A study of the co-construction of a technological tool for mathematical learning

This dissertation examines the development and use of an educational technology with the aim of e... more This dissertation examines the development and use of an educational technology with the aim of enriching our understanding of the relationships among technology, teachers, students and mathematical activity. Drawing inspiration from the premise articulated in the genetic analysis research of Vygotsky (1978, 1986) that to understand a learning situation we must study it in situ and, in addition, investigate its history, I propose that examining the development of an educational technology can help us to better understand how and why it comes to be used the ways it does in classrooms. Starting with the development of a technology, I follow it into mathematics classrooms and examine the ways teachers and students work with it. For this investigation, I draw on a growing body of research in the field of Science and Technology Studies that examines the development and use of technology and the relationships between humans and their tools (Akrich, 1992; Bijker, 1997; Latour, 2007; Suchman, 2006). This research offers approaches to understanding the complex non-linear nature of the interactions between a technology’s development and the ways it is used. In addition, I draw on the sociocultural approach of Activity-Theory (Vygotsky, 1978; Leont’ev, 1978) to help me conceptualize learning as tool-mediated activity. I present the findings of this study in three journal articles that show that the development of educational technology is not necessarily a linear process, that teachers and students find innovative ways to shape the tools they use, and that their innovations may become formalized as part of new versions of a technology. The findings also illustrate that the introduction of new educational technology has wide-ranging meditational effects on the human and material relationships within classroom networks of activity and that the development and use of technologies designed for mathematical learning reflexively mediate and are mediated by mathematical activity.

The physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits: Identification and categorization of pedagogically relevant concepts

Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option t... more Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option that can be chosen is the inclusion of exhibits that can be touched and manipulated, a style of exhibit often referred to as hands-on or interactive (Adams and Moussouri, 2002). Within this subset of exhibits, designers also have a multitude of choices to make that can affect the experiences visitors will have. The goal of this study is to help the transfer of research findings about learning and hands-on interactive exhibits to designers so that more-informed choices may be made. With this goal in mind, the exhibits within three exhibitions at the Montreal Science Centre are examined from a pedagogical perspective. Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning (2000) is employed as a conceptual framework, and one of its contexts is specifically addressed. Since exhibition designers act upon the objects that form exhibits, and only have direct influence on their physical nature, the physical context of Falk and Dierking's model is chosen as a lens through which to investigate the exhibits. Emergent concepts from the physical context of those exhibits are collected and then categorized. To relate the emergent concepts to a pedagogical perspective, the categories are then associated to the pedagogical triangle (Houssaye, 1988; Moore, 1989), which allows them to be organised following the roles and interactions present in that model. This study, therefore, presents a structure and common language through which the physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits can be understood from a pedagogical perspective.

Canadian curriculum spaces for issues of online privacy

Education, Jan 1, 1996

Internet connectivity and the technologies that it supports have become a pervasive part of many ... more Internet connectivity and the technologies that it supports have become a pervasive part of many aspects of life. The power of these tools have brought a multitude of possibilities but also some serious issues. One of these issues relates to privacy. For all users, but particularly for young people, many of whom are embracing the possibilities of new media, the Internet offers a huge variety of new ways to interact and share information. Simple dictums given to children like ‘never talk to strangers’ may be rendered much more complicated in the online worlds of the Internet where issues of identity and trustworthiness can often come with subtleties and challenges not seen in the physical world. Just as children need to develop the skills to critically read the physical world, they also need to become critically literate on the Internet. While there has been a good deal of attention paid, in recent years, to critical literacy with respect to new media in Canadian school curricula, little regard has been given to issues surrounding online privacy. In this article, I will discuss the dearth of attention to issues of online privacy in Canadian curricula and the need for spaces specifically designated to address them.

Review of Vygotsky by Van der Veer