Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: List of contributors vii Editors' introduction 1 -- MARY R. LEA AND KATHY NICOLL --1 Information, knowledge and learning: some issues facing -- epistemology and education in a digital age 16 -- COLIN LANKSHEAR, MICHAEL PETERS AND MICHELE KNOBEL --2 Informed opportunism: teaching for learning in uncertain contexts of distributed education 38 -- WENDY MORGAN, ANNE L. RUSSELL AND MICHAEL RYAN --3 Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice 56 -- JEAN LAVE AND ETIENNE WENGER --4 Looking beyond the interface: activity theory and distributed learning 64 -- DAVID R. RUSSELL --5 Workplaces, communities and pedagogy: an activity theory view 83 -- STEPHEN BILLETT --6 Distribution and interconnectedness: the globalisation of education 98 -- RICHARD EDWARDS --7 The English language and 'global' teaching 111 -- BARBARA MAYOR AND JOAN SWANN 8 From independent learning to collaborative learning: new communities of practice in open, distance and distributed learning 131 -- MARY THORPE --9 Learning as cultural practice 152 -- CHARLES CROOK --10 The university campus as a 'resourceful constraint': process and practice in the construction of the virtual university 170 -- JAMES CORNFORD AND NEIL POLLOCK --11 Identity, community and distributed learning 182 -- GILL KIRKUP --12 Flexible literacies: distributed learning and changing educational spaces 196 -- RICHARD EDWARDS, KATHY NICOLL AND ALISON LEE Index 210.