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| Reflection (Small, 2022). |
I used to think that digital education was a good tool for enhancing the face-to-face component of a learning package or course. I saw it as additional to the learning, less so than as an enabler of the learning itself. As a result of this course, I see now that the development of digital technologies, particularly in the education space, has created an integral role for technologies in learning.
Now I think that digital education is a critical enabler for the modern digital learning environment. Technology has enabled learners to interact with the learning in everyday environments, as in the example by Haniya and Rusch (2017) where the child is able to google a question about the world which an adult may not have been able to answer. There is an increasing reliance on digital technologies as a response to the mindset shift towards remote learning and working after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a natural progression from the growing BYOD (bring your own device) movements (Ng, 2015).
I used to think that digital education would impact teaching in general by encouraging learners to be autonomous, and to create their own learning by researching areas of interest to them rather than a prescribed topic. I thought that digital technologies would be difficult to introduce in the learning environment due to financial constraints in addition to consideration of the digital literacy levels of learners, fellow educators, and parents - for example, many families would struggle to purchase a school device for their child and be unable to keep up with associated costs. In addition, while the assumption is that our learners will be tech savvy - particularly gen Xs and Ys - however this is not always the case (Ng, 2015; Williamson, Eynon & Potter, 2020).
Now I think that digital education has, and will, impact teaching in general by providing means to allow a more specialized and personalized learning experience. While I believe my original thoughts above still hold true, my thoughts around the future of technology in learning are much more optimistic. With more time, more educators are becoming familiar with the affordances of digital technologies, and applying them in their learning environments. I do believe that the way that educators are trained should contain more specialized practice with using digital tools in the classroom and by distance, particularly as the demand for more remote and autonomous learning grows. When designing the learning experience, teachers will still need to keep in mind what they want learners to achieve at the end of the learning block, and attempt to create a digital learning space that effectively allows learners to achieve their intended outcomes. Where remote learning is involved consideration for collaborative distance learning becomes more critical - however an understanding of the affordances again will support this (Jeong & Hmelo-Silver, 2016; Ng, 2015).
References
Haniya, S., & Rusch, A. (2017). Ubiquitous learning: Spatio-temporal dimensions of e-learning. B. Cope & M. Kalantzis (Eds.), e-learning ecologies: Principles for new learning and assessment (pp. 46–64). Routledge. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/massey/reader.action?docID=4809823&ppg=53
Jeong, H., & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2016). Seven affordances of computer-supported collaborative learning: How to support collaborative learning? How can technologies help? Educational Psychologist, 51(2), 247–265.
Ng, W. (2015). Affordances of new digital technologies in education. New digital technology in education: Conceptualizing professional learning for educators (pp. 95–123). Springer https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1761641\
Small, L. (2022). Reflection [digital visualization on the internet]. https://www.canva.com/design/DAFIguVsE7U/Ih4Id3aiEl9gE3zoFrQCOw/edit?utm_content=DAFIguVsE7U&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Williamson, B., Eynon, R., & Potter, J. (2020). Pandemic politics, pedagogies and practices: Digital technologies and distance education during the coronavirus emergency. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(2), 107–114.
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