Alfredo Jornet Gil
I am licentiate in Psychology by the University of Valencia (UV), Spain, where I studied from 2003 to 2009, although during that period I took a substantial part of my studies at the University of Tromsø (UiT), Norway, as exchange student. During the 2009-2011 periods I worked as research assistant both at UV and UiT, for their respective departments of Psychology, being involved in international co-participation between the two universities. My research mostly dealt with the study of socio-psychological aspects related to the use of Information and Technologies (ICT), but also with developmental psychology issues. A more detailed description is provided in the attached CV.
From January 2011 I am enrolled as PhD candidate at InterMedia (University of Oslo, Norway). InterMedia (IME) is an interdisciplinary research center where researchers from the learning sciences, sociology, anthropology, computer sciences and engineers co-work. IME conducts research on the areas of communication design, design and learning in education/workplace, and ICT. IME has a research strategy that explicitly adopts a socio-cultural approach. Through the active organization of interdisciplinary research meetings, seminars and reading sessions, research that accounts for cultural-historical aspects from a dialogical approach is encouraged. My research project is granted by the Research Council of Norway, and is planed for the period 2011-2013. In line with IME’s research strategy, the project adopts a socio-cultural psychological approach to the study of situated meaning making processes in educational activity.
My personal and academic interest in cultural-historical psychology makes a stay at ISCAR SU of high relevance to me and my research. During my undergraduate studies, although of wide theoretical scope, my readings and tutoring were mostly oriented within individual cognitivist perspectives, and dialogical approaches were extraneous. During my later experience as research assistant, however, I found many limitations in individual cognitivist approaches to the study of ICT adoption and use, and searched for wider scope perspectives. I experienced my first contacts with literature on socio-cultural perspectives highly inspiring and stimulating. My current position at IME gives me an extraordinary occasion to further explore and use such perspectives. As stated in the attached project description, my research interest is in exploring the genesis of conceptual understanding as it emerges from student’s interactions, and is strongly tied to Vygotskyan original ideas and further developments. However, I am at an early stage of my research. A stay at the ISCAR SU 2011 represents an incomparable occasion for getting further insights and inspirations for developing my project, especially when it comes to operationalization aspects and methodology. I also believe that I can contribute with my heterogeneous background and current experience at IME. In addition to my personal interest, IME strongly encourages and supports my participation in such an academic event. I want with this to express my strong motivation to participate in ISCAR SU 2011, and I look forward for a positive answer.