Editorial: TEL in the workplace

This Special Issue of the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) is devoted to Technology- Enhanced Learning (TEL) in the workplace. Following a stream devoted to this subject at the University Forumfor Human Resource Development Conference in 2013,wewanted to stimulate discussion on the use of such technology as part of learning in work situations. Therefore, this issue brings together contributions that provide relevant and current thinking about such learning, evidence of how it occurs and theoretical frameworks to enable its use.

In 2006, Latchem undertook a content analysis of this journal, looking at editorials, refereed articles and colloquia in 31 issues of the publication between January 2000 and November 2005. Of these 374 items, only 3% were from “colleges, industry and the ‘learning and skills sector’ ” (Latchem, 2006, p. 507)—the “learning and skills sector” included places of work-based learning, using the definition supplied by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) (2005), the then British government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning. This low input from nonacademic organisations was despite, as Latchem noted, many editorial reminders. For example, Rushby’s January 2004 editorial (Rushby, 2004) stressed that BJET is as much for trainers in workplace settings as it is for those in academia. Consequently, Latchem’s first conclusion was that BJET should aim to include more papers on educational technology in the workplace. Although it is not until now that a whole issue has been devoted to this subject, we hope that the articles in this Special Issue will encourage further dialogue and submissions on workplace TEL.