In this talk I will attempt to provide a new(ish) way of thinking about learning technology. Starting with a summary of what psychology really tells us about learning in both educational and training contexts, I will attempt to derive a framework which identifies the important requirements for learning support. This will lead to the idea of supporting "vicarious learning" through the capturing of learner-tutor dialogues. I will present this as a possible alternative to intelligent tutoring systems, and will give a brief account of our initial attempts to develop the idea. A new project, called MANTCHI (Metropolitan Area Networks-based Tutoring in Computer Human Interaction), involving the Glasgow CS Dept as one of four partners, will attempt to apply the idea in real teaching.