Introduction

This book represents an attempt to take this step back, in order to explore more varied, and possibly richer, ways of theorising the contexts and cultures of education in cyberspace. The essays in this volume originate from a small international gathering – the Ideas in Cyberspace Education symposium (ICE) – held in the English Lake District late in 2002, in which the possibilities for a greater diversity of theorisation in this area were explored. We have collected here a representative selection of the differing theoretical frameworks that were offered in the papers presented at the symposium. These included perspectives that drew on poststructuralist analysis, activity theory, cybercultural theory, the work of Foucault, Bakhtin, Vygotsky, McLuhan, Lacan and Derrida, to name but a few. The issues that emerged from the discussions at ICE tended to focus around the cultures, subjectivities, discourses and environments of cyberspace and we have found it helpful to use these broad areas as framing devices for this book. It is our hope that the book will begin to address the need – recognised by many who were involved in this symposium – for more fully theorised perspectives on the emergent cultures and pedagogies of education in cyberspace.