Ferreira has broken some fertile new ground with her examination of the relationship between academic culture and uses of technology in university teaching and learning. Her work argues that academic culture is “one of the most significant variables in the deployment of and adaptation to information technologies in the university.” All who are interested in teaching and learning in 21st century universities will benefit from her insights.

Little research has directly addressed academic culture and its relationship to technology use. In Luppicini’s meta-analysis of 170 articles from 78 journals, academic culture in particular is not included among sociocultural factors influencing technology use [1]. Ferreira’s study makes productive connections between the culture of academics and technology use. In particular, her work addresses concerns related to student engagement and social interaction.

Three kinds of qualitative data from two universities in Montreal were analyzed. Ferreira conducted 30 in-depth interviews with professors and students at each university, as well as with 12 others in administrative and supportive roles. Content analyses were performed on documents such as policies and vision statements. Participant observations of online communications and the technological infrastructures were also performed.

Ferreira’s analysis identifies ideological, pedagogical, and aesthetic tensions reported by academics negotiating their relationships between technologies and education. For example, important pedagogical issues include “the importance of ... face-to-face and social interaction for engagement” and “the pedagogical importance of discussion itself.” An interesting ideological element is that “the technologies are used ... to replicate a completely conventional instructional strategy, [namely] discussion.” Distinctions between access to information and dynamic knowledge building represent “an important ideological boundary in academic culture’s negotiation of the technologies.”