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Dr. Norm Friesen is Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practices at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Friesen is the author of several editions of books on the effective use of instructional software and on the implementation of technical standards for online collections of educational resources. He is author of /Re-Thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods and Practices/ (Peter Lang, 2008), and is co-editor of /Phenomenology & Practice/ (www.phandpr.org), an open peer-reviewed journal. His academic credentials include a Masters degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in Education from the University of Alberta.

Contact info:

Email: nfriesen [at] tru.ca

Phone: +1 250 852 6256

Publications

Book

Friesen, N. (in press). The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen: Relational Pedagogy and Internet Technology. (In: New Literacies, Colin Lankshear & Michele Knobel, eds.) New York: Peter Lang.

Friesen, N. (2009). Re-Thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods and Practices. (In:Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education, Steinberg, S. & Kincheloe, J., Eds.) New York: Peter Lang. Sample chapters available at:  Or order online at:

Book Chapter

Friesen, N. & Theo Hug. (submitted). After the Mediatic Turn: McLuhan’s training of the senses and media pedagogy today. Medialität und Realität. Zur konstitutiven Kraft der Medien. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Friesen, N. (in press). Pedagogy in the Classroom and on the Screen: A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Analysis. In Malte Brinkmann (Ed.) Erziehung — phänomenologische Perspektiven. Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann. Draft available at:

Friesen, N. & Hug, T. (in press). Investigating Web 2.0 in Education: A Discursive Paradigm for Research. E-Learning in der Praxis. Vienna.

Friesen, N. (2010). Vision and "the training of perception:" McLuhan’s Medienpädagogik.Beiträge des interfakultären Forums Innsbruck Media Studies. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press. Pp. 75-85. 

Friesen, N. & Hug, T. (2010). Education and Media Literacy in the Age of Pervasive Mediatization: A Transatlantic Perspective. In Bauer, P., Hoffmann, H. & Mayrberger, K. (Eds.) Fokus Medienpädagogik – Aktuelle Forschungs- und Handlungsfelder. Munich: kopaed. Pp. 96-113.

Friesen, N. & Hug, T.  (2009). The Mediatic Turn: Exploring Consequences for Media Pedagogy.  In K. Lundby (Ed.). Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences. New York: Peter Lang. Pp. 64-81. Online version available at: 

Friesen, N. (2007)  (Micro-)Didactics: A Tale of two Traditions. In T. Hug (Ed.) Didactics of Microlearning. Concepts, Discourses and Examples. Münster: Waxmann. Draft online:

Article

Friesen, N. (submitted). Education and the Social Web. Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative. International Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

Friesen, N. (in press). Anglo-American Approaches to Lesson Planning. Special issue of Bildung und Erziehung (Formation and Education) on lesson planning (Stefan Hopmann & Meinert Meyer, Eds.).  

Friesen, N. (accepted). Dissection and Simulation: Brilliance and Transparency, or Encumbrance and Disruption? Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology.

Hamilton, T., & Friesen, N.  (in press). Technology and Pedagogy: Autonomist and Instrumentalist Configurations in the Scholarship of Online Education. Policy Futures in Education.

Friesen, N. (2010). Practice Makes Perfect? The Practice Approach in E-Learning. International Journal of Technologies in Higher Education. 6 (2-3). 

Friesen, N. (2010). Interaction Paradigms for Online Technologies: Shift Happens. International Journal of Computing & Information Technology 2 (1). Draft available at: 

Friesen, N. & Cressman, D. (2010). Media Theory, Education and the University: A Response to Kittler’s History of the University as a Media System. Canadian Journal of Media Studies. 7(1).

Friesen, N. & Sævi, T. (2010). Reviving forgotten connections in North American teacher education: Klaus Mollenhauer and the pedagogical relation. Journal of Curriculum Studies,142(1), 123-147.

Friesen, N. (2009). Ethics and the Technologies of Empire: The Military Imprint on E-Learning.AI & Society. 25(1) 71-81 

Friesen, N. (2009). "Open Source" Resources in Education: Opportunities and Challenges.Open Source Business Resource 3 (7; July) 29-34. 

Friesen, N. (2009). Genre and CSCL: The Form and Rhetoric of the Online Posting. International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. 2(4). 171-185.

Friesen, N. (2009). Discursive Psychology and Educational Technology: Beyond the Cognitive Revolution. Mind, Culture and Activity.16(2), 130-144. 

Friesen, N., Feenberg, A., & Chung, G. (2009). Phenomenology and Surveillance Studies: Returning to the Things Themselves. The Information Society Journal. 25 (2), 84-90. []

Friesen, N. (2008). Communication Genres and the Mediatic Turn. Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaften 25(1), 105–115.Draft online:

Friesen, N. (2008). Chronicles of Change: The Narrative Turn and E-Learning Research. E-Learning.5(3), 298-310.

Friesen, N. (2007). The Experience of Computer Use: Expert Knowledge and User Know-How.GLIMPSE: Phenomenology and Media, 7, 55-70. Draft available at:

Rourke, L. & Friesen, N. (2006). The Learning Sciences: The Very Idea. Educational Media International 43(4), 271 – 284. Draft available at: 

Friesen, N. (2005). Learning Objects, the Knowledge Age and the End of the World (as we know it). Special Edition of the International Society for Technology in Education. Pp. 165-170. Draft available at: 

Friesen, N. (2005). CanCore: In Canada and Around the World. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 5 (4), Winter, 2005. 

Conference Proceedings

Friesen, N. (2005). Learning Objects in Humanities Education. Association for Computers and the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing International Conference Proceedings. Pp. 24-25.

Friesen, N. (2005). Discourse Networks: 192x. Association for Computers and the Humaities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing International Conference Proceedings. Pp. 72-73. Draft available at: 

Friesen, N. (2004). Interoperability in Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Forums.Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. Joensuu, Finland. August 30, 2004. Pp. 1048-1049. Draft available at:

Presentations and Lectures

Mediatic turn – Claims, Concepts and Cases. (Panel participant with Dr. Theo Hug, Dr. Gebhard Rusch, Dr. Sybille Krämer) International Communication Association Annual Meeting. Dresden, June 19-23, 2006. Download PowerPoint: 

Didaktik vs. Didactics. (Invited presentation). Institut für Bildungswissenschaft, Universität Wien.

Microlearning and (Micro)Didactics. Micromedia & eLearning 2.0: Getting the Big Picture. June, 08 – 09. Innsbruck. Download PowerPoint: 

Microlearning: Quo Vadis? (Event summary) European Academy for Microlearning. Innsbruck. June 7, 2006. Download PowerPoint: 

Erkenntnisweisen in Alltag und Wissenschaft. Undergraduate short course May-June, 2006. Course Website: 

Exploring Collaborative Learning Environments – A Canadian Perspective. May-June, 2006. Course Website: 

Phenomenological Research Workshop (Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry and Writing). Course Website: 

Information Technologies and the Cognitive Revolution. Växjö University. March 10, 2006. Invited with travel funding.

A Journey into the FLORE Project. Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium Annual Conference. To be presented with Catherine Caws, Christian Gilbault & Martin Beaudoin. University of Michigan. May, 2006.

Metadata for Collaborative Learning: A new Standardization Approach. Presentation to Working Group Two of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36. Turku, Finland. March 14, 2005.

Canadian Standardization in ISO: Collaboration and Metadata. UQAM Montreal. January 26, 2006.

Metadata for Collaborative Learning. Special Presentation. Mount Alison University. January 23, 2006.

Future trends and directions in Learning, Technology and Standards. Presenter and panel organizer. (Panel includes Dr. Andrew Feenberg, Dr. Wayne Hodgins, and Lassi Nirhamo). E-Learn 2005. Vancouver. October, 2005.

E-learning in health – The North American Experience. (L’e-learning in sanità nell’esperienza del Nord America) I Saperi nella sanità e i nuovi media; Expo E-Learninig 2005. Ferarra, Italy. October, 2005. Invited with travel funding.

Lerntechnologien jenseits des Kognitivismus. Presentation (in both German and English) at Fachhochschule Hagenberg, Austria. June 27, 2005. Invited with travel funding

(Micro) Objects, Knowledge and the End of the World as we know it (keynote). MICROLEARNING2005 :: Learning & Working in New Media Environments International Conference, Innsbruck, June 23 – 24, 2005. Invited with travel funding.

Learning Spaces Panel, Chair. Canadian Communication Association. London, ON. May, 2005.

Experiencing Surveillance: A Phenomenological Approach. Theorizing Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond. Queen’s University, Kingston ON, May 2005. (Written with A. Feenberg, G. Chung)

Being There: Information Technologies and the Phenomenology of Pedagogical Practice. The Society for Phenomenology and Media. Seventh Annual International Conference. Canon Beach, Oregon. May, 2005.

Learning Spaces Panel, Chair. Canadian Association for Distance Education Annual Meeting. Vancouver. May, 2005.

"Ed Tech in Reverse": Information Technologies and the Cognitive Revolution. Co-presented with Grace Chung. Canadian Association for Distance Education Annual Meeting. Vancouver. May, 2005.

Learning French… from Virtually Anywhere? Panel Presentation. Canadian Association of Distance Education Annual Meeting. Vancouver. May, 2005.

The Great Methodology/Epistemology Debate. Canadian Institute for Distance Education Research preconference session. Vancouver, May 2005.

Pedagogical Neutrality and Engagement. Panel on Advances in Technology and Learning Objects at the Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning SIG, AERA Annual Meeting. Montreal, QC. April, 2005.

Lessons from LOM for E-Learning Standardization. International Open Forum: Global trends of e-Learning – Policies, technologies, and application. Tokyo. March 14, 2005.

Information Technologies and the Cognitive Revolution: 50 Years Later. Invited presentation for "the thought of the body and the logic of sensation" research group, University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy. Tokyo. March 10, 2005.

E-Learning Metadata: Latest Developments in CanCore. New Directions in Description Series, Library and Archives Canada. Ottawa. Febrary 28, 2005.

A Panel Discussion on Learning Spaces: Simulated and Mediated Computer Worlds.(Presented with Darryl Cressman, Edward Hamilton & Grace Chung). Learning and Instructional Development Centre, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV. February 11, 2005.

Workshop on the "Learning Spaces" Project. (Presented with Darryl Cressman & Grace Chung). Applied Communication and Technology Research Centre, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV. November 19, 2004.

Metadata for Synchronous and Asynchronous Collaborative Learning Environments. (with Dr. Yasuhisa Tamura). "First International Workshop on Advanced Technologies for E-learning and E-science." Beijing, China, September 20, 2004.

Data Portability and Reuse for Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication. (with Dr. Yasuhisa Tamura). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 WG2. "Information Technologies for Learning, Education and Training; ‘Collaborative Learning’ Working Group." Dublin, Ireland. September 16, 2004. Invited.

Final Report on the "International LOM Survey." ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36 WG4. "Information Technologies for Learning, Education and Training; ‘Infrastructure and Delivery’ Working Group." Dublin, Ireland. September 12, 2004. Invited.