Abstract
What do we mean when we refer to ‘real’ life learning? How do we define the term ‘real’? One possibility is that we mean that the learning takes place in actual (real) business organisations. Another is that we are referring to the acquisition of useful skills that have some every-day or employment-related (real) application, or perhaps we mean using technologies and case studies from (real) business organisations. Whether or not a technological artefact, programming language, or systems design concept is considered to be ‘real’ within the Information Systems community is generally related to its use in industry and commerce. But can a programming language, for instance, be real in education only, even if it is not used in commerce and industry? This rather philosophical paper addresses the issue of ‘what is real’ in the context of Real-life learning, and especially in regard to the content of IS curriculum, in the hope that this might shed some light on what this learning should involve.
Key words
- Real-life learning
- information systems curriculum
- industry
- reality
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© 2005 International Federation for Information Processing
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Tatnall, A. (2005). In Real-Life Learning, What is Meant by ‘Real’?. In: van Weert, T., Tatnall, A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies and Real-Life Learning. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 182. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25997-X_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-25997-X_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-25996-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-25997-0
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