Digital Enlightenment: The Myth of the Disappearing Teacher (original) (raw)
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19. Digital Enlightenment: The Myth of the Disappearing Teacher
Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 2011
This paper argues that the emerging post-print digital culture of knowledge creation and dissemination in higher education is even more demanding of effective and committed teaching than hitherto. This may run counter to a widespread view that the digital environment reduces the need for a strong culture of teaching, to be replaced by an educational culture of independent, self-sufficient learners. However, evidence for the precariousness of this outlook is provided by many recent reports in the United Kingdom that have illustrated how the assumptions of a ‘digital natives’ perspective on students and academics are largely inaccurate. While acknowledging the phenomenal expansion of the cultural horizon that has been afforded to students and academics in the post-print digital environment of university learning, the crucial role of the academic in the creative use of digital technology in teaching should not be underestimated, or higher education may be rendered incapable of supporti...
The Digital Turn in Higher Education: A Try to demystify the Myth of the “Digital Natives”
International Journal of Research in English Education, 2019
Digital technology has recently become a ubiquitous feature of the modern era posing problems to higher education institutions. Digitization of the academic life has brought forth the claims that there is an evident disparity between the digital naturals and digital immigrants and that the myth of the former is "undemystifiable." The claim that the new digitized generation has its own distinguished learning preferences, skills of learning and beliefs about learning should make higher education authorities revisit their curricula and "reshuffle the academic cards" so that the digital immigrants could catch up with the fast-running pace of the digitized train and provide the digital natives with what they need for a successful academic life. The overall aim of the present work therefore is to investigate the extent to which the so-called digital natives really have control of the use of educational technology either as part of their self-directed learning practices or as part of formal tertiary teaching, the type of technologies they prefer to use, whether they possess the required digital skills that are important for their future careers, and how vital the digital skills are in boosting their employability. A questionnaire survey was used for doing the objectives of this study. 218 students participated in this study and completed the questionnaire. Then the data were collected and analyzed through frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The findings of the present study indicated that the media change under the created discourse of "moral panic" has unveiled the singularity of this generation and has forced academic authorities to reconsider learning, teaching as well as both skills and employability of such a generation for a better academic higher education system.
The Digital Turn in Higher Education: “Digital Natives” Mythbusted
2019
Digital technology has recently become a ubiquitous feature of the modern era posing problems to higher education institutions. Digitization of the academic life has brought forth the claims that there is an evident disparity between the digital naturals and digital immigrants and that the myth of the former is “undemystifiable”. The claim that the new digitized generation has its own distinguished learning preferences, skills of learning and beliefs about how learning in such an era should make higher education authorities revisit their curricula and “reshuffle the academic cards” so that the digital immigrants could catch up with the fast-running pace of the digitized train and provide the digital natives with what they need for a successful academic life. The overall aim of the present work therefore is to investigate the extent to which the so-called digital natives really have control of the use of educational technology either as part of their self-directed learning practices ...
Digital technology and the culture of teaching and learning in higher education
This paper discusses how the use of digital technologies may support a shift of cultural practices in teaching and learning, to better meet the needs of 21st century higher education learners. A brief discussion of the changing needs of the learners is provided, followed by a review of the overall impact of digital technologies on teaching and learning. In the final section we suggest how digital technologies may provide a more active and flexible learning experience by adopting a participatory pedagogical approach and by blending formal learning with informal learning.
Teaching with technology and higher education: a brave new world?
PRACTICE, 2019
This paper explores the application of technology to pedagogy in higher education. The data are gathered from 21 academics who apply technology to their teaching with University students in England. The research is based on a qualitative inductive methodology. The findings reveal that a complex range of personal, social and professional factors influence pedagogy with technology in higher education. The paper makes an original contribution to knowledge by outlining some of the challenges that exist in using technology to teach in higher education. The research participants do not think that applying technology to teaching is necessarily representative of best pedagogical practice. Caution and thought are recommended if pedagogy with technology in higher education is to be developed effectively. The research reveals that transformative pedagogy is possible when technology is applied to teaching in higher education; however, this necessitates considering the needs of the students alongside reflecting on the personal, social and professional backgrounds of those who are teaching in higher education. This innovative approach to professional development with technology is developed in the paper.
Postdigital Science and Education
This paper examines what the term 'postdigital' might mean for education through the discussion of human-technology relationships. It begins with a summary of two general interpretations of the postdigital: firstly, to understand the 'post' as meaning simply 'posterior to' the digital, suggesting a different stage in the perception and use of technology; and secondly, to consider the 'post' as signalling a critical appraisal of the assumptions embedded in the general understanding of the digital. Subsequently, the paper outlines three critical perspectives on the digital with specific relevance for educational concerns. The first examines the economic rationales underpinning digital technology, focusing on the idea of the platform and the assumed benefits of sharing. The second discusses the role of the digital in educational policy and the compound effects of the metrification of institutional quality. The third section explores the digital as 'material', and the increasing attention paid to issues of labour and the exploitation of natural resources required to produce digital technologies. These perspectives suggest an understanding of the postdigital in terms of profound and far-reaching socio-technical relations, which have significant consequences for thinking about the purpose, focus, and governance of education in contemporary times.
The Digital Turn in Higher Education
Digitalization is affecting our world and thus our individual lives to an increasing extent. We may envisage a digital turn leading from the book-based Gutenberg Galaxy to the `internet-based´ Digital Age. This ongoing change affects the academic field as well as all other parts of society. Not only research and knowledge communication but also teaching and learning in higher education are increasingly `going online´. The digitalization process alters the media upon which learning processes are founded. In higher education, digitalization permits decentralized, action-and product-orientated teaching and learning. To implement this kind of modern, digitally based learning, it is essential to develop scientifically grounded approaches to teaching and learning in a digitalized world. This challenge requires suitable theoretical, epistemological and ethical foundations as well as practice-oriented methods. Alongside such possibilities, digitalization also presents a challenge for higher education. One objective of modern higher education is to ensure that students acquire the media skills they need for professional life in the Digital Age. Apart from the harmonization of Europe´s higher education, the employability of students is a major concern of the Bologna Process. The harmonization process itself requires an international and interdisciplinary discourse on changes in higher education at the dawn of the Digital Age. This discourse necessitates critical thinking-an essential feature of any scientific perspective on the world. Drawing on Derrida´s concept of an unconditional university, the university can be understood as a space in which to reflect on digitalization and its effects on society. From this perspective, universities could provide the discursive space for analyzing the societal impacts of digitalization and discussing the ethical dimension of changing media. Consequently, the university may be expected not only to react to digitalization but also to become an actor in its own right. As a forum for scientific, critical thinking, universities also represent a space for innovation. Higher education can itself play a key role as a driver of innovation. Learning scenarios implemented and evaluated in higher education can become best practice examples to be adapted for the professional world. It is clear that digitalization challenges higher education on multiple levels. One aim of this book is to address the challenge by providing a multidisciplinary , international perspective on higher education during the digital turn. It therefore presents epistemological, ethical and theoretical approaches, and best practice examples, from universities in different countries (Poland, Denmark, France, Germany and the USA) using different learning strategies (including problem-based learning, mobile learning, heutagogy, and inquiry-based learning). The book can be understood as an international and interdisciplinary collection providing heuristic strategies for handling the digitalization of higher education in theory and in practice. Individual contributions are introduced below.
Interchanging Aesthetic and Technical: The Digital Narratives in Higher Educational Pedagogies
English, 2020
The role of learners and the process of learning have abruptly changed across the Nations and boundaries. Until yesterday, we lived in a Knowledge system with centuries old lecture-based instructional approaches, ensconced institutional biases and outdated classrooms. Today in a globalized context that is adopting quarantine and other individualised measures as major components of public health responses and lifestyle, a Digital approach to Learning and Humanities can help clarify the concerns of educators and academicians. The time requires a strategy that finds a balance between individual interests and public measures. But currently in a scenario where the learning would apparently alternate between home and portals, Learning should be considered as a habit, which would be integrated into daily routines. An extended survey of digital initiatives in educational practices was undertaken by The Centre for Internet and Society on various academic and technical parameters. The data re...
Title: The Next Challenge and Frontier: Digital Learners and Digital Teachers
Higher education is rapidly changing, and nowhere is this more evident than in how information (the grist of higher education) is obtained, processed, disseminated, and forged into knowledge. During the last decade digital technologies have radically changed how individuals, groups, and universities manage, store, access and process information. Technological advances have resulted in an explosion of new information in all fields and raised new challenges for teachers and students. How internet/digital connectivity and the near universal access to information will reshape higher education is largely unknown. This uncertainty arises from many sources including students who are digital natives, new technology based social structures, virtual environments such as Second Life, and the need to serve more students and ensure they are technologically literate global citizens. This paper will discuss some of the issues surrounding digital learning and teaching, briefly outline some current digital learning tools, and discuss some of the issues and challenges facing faculty and students as we move to the second decade of the 21 st century.