Digital Learning

More than a decade ago, in 2007, a Futures Lab report asked whether we as a society and as educators are prepared for the massive changes in human capabilities that digital technologies are likely to enable in the next few years. They concluded that we are not, in fact that our models of society and of education require reassessment if they are to adequately reflect the kinds of changes that are now taking place in our modes of communication. As research within many areas of the social sciences and humanities show, digital (or ”new) media are ushering in a post-print paradigm, shattering established frameworks of thinking about research, teaching, and learning.

1. How can interdisciplinary research and development in educational uses of new technologies contribute to progressive teaching and learning methods and to the lowering of threshold levels for teachers and students in critically applying social media competences from outside of school, inside the classroom?
2. To what extent and in which direction does multimodal communication platforms challenge or support current pedagogical paradigms – given societies’ increasing media immersion?
3. How can the notion of a “digital pedagogical paradigm” successfully be wed to classic humanistic concerns with narrative, curation and performance, meeting current societal challenges?
4. How do questions such as these invite analysis of organizational demands in a globalized education system, where the classroom no longer has a closed architecture?