Learning in the digital age: how are the ways in which we learn changing with the use of technologies?
Contemporary
theories
associated with
educational technologies
Constructivism
Constructionism
Connectivism
Digital learners
Young people today live immersed in a world of social networks, text messages, blogs, wikis, online games, music and videos.
The current generation of tech-savvy learners
must learn to use the technologies they are used to
As a result
Educational institutions will prosper.
Digital literacy
It is essential to be an active and contributing citizen in today's society.
It must be understood in a sociocultural context and not as a decontextualized cognitive capacity.
Students and teachers lack the digital literacy skills necessary
to fully exploit the potential of new technologies.
Digital citizenship
A digital citizen is someone who:
Participate in a variety of activities.
Employs critical thinking skills when interacting with digital content.
Interacts with others through digital technologies in positive and meaningful ways.
Demonstrates ethical digital behavior.
Respect the concepts of privacy and freedom of expression in digital contexts.
Promotes the values of digital citizenship.
Teachers must understand and enact the principles of digital citizenship
to be able to educate students in the development of ethical and positive behaviors in cyberspace.
Adopting uncritical slogans like the digital native
Leads
poor teaching based on unrealistic and erroneous expectations of the future of the digital age.
Tools of teaching
Purposes
The use of Digital tools
Answer the questions:
How can teachers and learners use digital tools to enhance the learning process?
The Vigettes
These illustrate the ways in which teachers can attempt to create more collaborative, interactive, media-rich and personalised learning experiences.
Vignette 1 – E-portfolios for Learning in Early Childhood Education
"An early childhood education teacher uses online portfolios as a way for children to share their learning with parents, family members."
The children capture learning moments with photos, videos and words, using different devices.
Vignette 2 – Formula One Racing
"A secondary maths teacher engages her students in an authentic maths scenario to foster engagement, collaboration and a deeper understanding of the maths concepts being
taught."
The students work in a project constructing a (virtual) formula one rancing car. They use apps of race cars. They work with other gropu of students of another country through a online meeting.
Vignette 3 – Video Linked Teaching
"John and Tamati, two professors from the same university decide to co-teach their undergraduate course together, by implementing "state-of-the-art" video-linked teaching facilities on both campuses."
They teach their classes synchronously using approaches that focus on "real-time" discussion, interaction, and collaboration between campuses.
Places and spaces of learning
structured spaces of learning (schools)
are transmitted by specialised members of the community (teachers)
Digital Technologies
learning both personally meaningful and collaborative
The inconvenient truth is that most use of digital technology in formal education is still largely
framed around the traditional space of the classroom
The two most commonly known of those technologies are virtual and immersive environments,
and mobile (handheld) devices.
Online discussion does is create a
larger or different, space for continual communication and information exchange. Similar to social media and video games that need interact with each other.
Learning leads to a layer of information being laid over the traditional patterns of in-class interaction and a need tounderstand how these layers are joined together in student learning experiences.
The technologies that create these spaces are taken up to a greater extent is
dependent on the approaches, beliefs and expectations of teachers and students, as we shall see the next section.
digital technologies can be explored through the lens of learning spaces
these spaces how do learners make