Digital Pedagogy and Online Teaching

In my interpretation of the article “Decoding Digital Pedagogy, pt. 2: (Un)Mapping the Terrain” by Jesse Stommel, Digital pedagogy is described as something much broader than simply the use of electronic tools in the education of learners. It is a way of thinking about the process of education. Stommel says that “digital pedagogy is less about knowing and more a rampant process of unlearning, play, and rediscovery”. It “calls for screwing around more than it does systematic study”. In this sense digital pedagogy, especially when we remove the “digital” from the pedagogy, as is suggested to an extent by Paul Fyfe in “Digital Pedagogy Unplugged”, refers less to technical elements but more to the teaching and learning, the communicative, and facilitative efforts that technology can bring to the table. In “Hybrid Pedagogy”, Stommel and others argue just this – that this type of pedagogy refers more to the “communities tech engenders and facilitates”, and less to the technology itself.

Digital Pedagogy is referred to here as a discipline. A discipline in which hacking is necessary – ‘hacking’ referring to adapting, manipulating and making productive use out of a tool (Fyfe). It is about improvisation and mindfulness, as well as that instant, “vital exchange”, in which learning takes place. It is the connection between theory and practice, the investigation of learning, and is by its very nature emergent, calling for continuous learning and adaptive change.

With this broad description of digital pedagogy, being much more than the use of a singular technology, it becomes easier to understand the point that Sean Michael Morris makes in his article “Decoding Digital Pedagogy, pt. 1: Beyond the LMS”. Morris explains how the use of the LMS (Learning Management System), or online teaching, is not the same thing as digital pedagogy. On the contrary, the further I read the clearer it becomes that it is quite the opposite. Online teaching took the creativity and capacity to innovate out of teaching by turning it into a one-directional process in which information is just fed from the teacher to the learner. This creates no space for learner interaction, questioning or communication of any kind. It makes teaching and learning uninteresting and dull with no room for exploration, adaptation or novelty, which is the opposite of what digital pedagogy should do.

Unplugging Digital Pedagogy

 Digital Pedagogy, the use of electronic tools to change the way in which we educate, has become an integral part of 21^st century education. What Paul Fyfe, in his article “Digital Pedagogy Unplugged”, questions, however, is whether one must “pull the plug” on digital mediums in order to expand or make proper use of human creativity in developing pedagogy. Some fear that using digital tools too integratively in the classroom may limit the student or learner in terms of analogous information processing, or in other words, using their own brains, and their intrinsic creativity and capabilities.

Others, however, argue that we may need to reconcile electronic and analog pedagogy in order to combine and optimise their various strengths. What would this look like? According to Fyfe, this would be like “teaching naked” within technological use. “Teaching naked” is the term used to describe analog or purely human pedagogy without the use of the digital to assist in educating.

I would imagine this concept to incorporate the use of digital tools or technology in all its forms (whether electronic or not) in such a way that it encourages analog thought and human creativity in the student, instead of fulfilling certain thought processes for them.

In sum, I personally view technology, or the use of digital tools within education, as extremely vital in our development, whether it be human or technological. The possibilities are limitless in terms of what learners and students may be capable of when digital pedagogy is used optimally.