Over the last five years in particular, there has been a tremendous emphasis placed on the speeding-up of both information work and of knowledge work, part of a much longer-run emphasis on the increasing tempo of modern societies. In this paper we review the rhetoric of speeding-up with particular reference to some of its negative dimensions for our particular focus on knowledge work. We focus on two contrasting dimensions of knowledge work: team debriefing and individual learning. We conclude by arguing that electronic learning media need to draw on both traditional and on re-designed knowledge creation processes, with particular reference to appropriate tempo, if they are to rise above the purely instrumental types of learning experience.

Over the last five years in particular, there has been a tremendous emphasis placed on the speeding-up of both information work and of knowledge work, part of a much longer-run emphasis on the increasing tempo of modern societies. In this paper we review the rhetoric of speeding-up with particular reference to some of its negative dimensions for our particular focus on knowledge work. We focus on two contrasting dimensions of knowledge work: team debriefing and individual learning. We conclude by arguing that electronic learning media need to draw on both traditional and on re-designed knowledge creation processes, with particular reference to appropriate tempo, if they are to rise above the purely instrumental types of learning experience.