Learning in sociomaterial practices -a case of embedded systems development

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Embedded systems are an important element of internet of things. Embedded systems development and learning are inseparable. Hence, this paper presents a study of wind turbine control systems and the developers’ learning and hope to contribute to the understanding of embedded systems development and practice based learning. Our approach focuses on the sociomaterial practices including the interaction between constitutive means and the developers’ individual experience; central matters in this framework involve the concepts of anchoring of indeterminate situation and strip of doings towards determinate situation. The case of embedded systems development addresses hardware, software, their integration and the design and production of the physical product. Learning does occur, enabled by converging anchoring of the indeterminate situation and the systems developers’ different experience. The case shows the embedded systems developers’ concerns over intellectual property, which limits learning. The contribution is the understanding of the individual systems developer’s learning and the mechanisms of enablers and obstacles in the learning processes.