The Misunderstanding of Digital Pedagogy

After intense debating with myself, I have to agree with the statement that digital pedagogy is misunderstood by many. Thinking back on my own experiences in previous classes made me realize that most educators have wrongfully classified themselves as digital pedagogues.

The fact that you use a computer, PowerPoint slides or the internet in your lessons, does not make you a digital pedagogue because pedagogy does not mean to merely give information. In order for a person to engage in digital pedagogy, he/she needs to use digital tools to enhance the learning experience of students and not just use it because it is available and to make their job easier. Pedagogy is concerned with the vital exchange that takes place in order for learning to occur. This usually takes place between 2 or more people, for example: a teacher and a student or two or more students.

I believe in order for someone to be a digital pedagogue that person should be actively engaging in research about this subject because digital pedagogy is a discipline that is continuously developing and changing. Digital pedagogues need to constantly think of ways to use digital tools to better their education styles. Digital tools should inspire us (digital pedagogues) to use them in ways that no one ever thought of using them, rather than dictating us into ways of using them.

We shouldn’t think of students as merely being receivers of information but we should include them in the process of teaching. That’s why we can’t just feed them with information from Power Points. We need to use the technology available to create a flipped classroom where students are part of their own learning experience. This will help them get the capacity to learn things for themselves. Digital pedagogy should therefore be used to our advantage by including the students in the process and using technology to engage with each other and thus enhance the learning experience.

There is clearly a lot of space for improvement when it comes to digital pedagogy, but with the right mindset and the will to better our skills when it comes to this practice, I am sure that we can be the generation of educators that change the current misunderstanding of digital pedagogy.

Till next week…J

Digital Pedagogy: Yay or Nay?

Like me, the word digital pedagogy probably threw you a bit off. No worries, I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible and by the end we will all hopefully have a better understanding of what digital pedagogy is. Pedagogy is the process of teaching and learning and digital pedagogy is there for the process of teaching and learning with digital aids.

This piece is being posted in relation to the article,  Digital pedagogy unplugged by Fyfe. The question is whether we need digital pedagogy in the classroom and whether it has a positive or negative impact on the way we teach? We have to consider that everything has a positive and negative impact and that we should therefor weigh both the positive and negative up against each other, in order to determine which is greater. The writer of this article clearly thinks that unplugging the classroom is the way to go forward and that digital pedagogy is putting a strain on the way we teach.

I do agree with this view to some extent. Teaching has become detached in the sense that teachers are just feeding learners with information without really educating them. This is being aided by PowerPoint presentations that over-saturated are and teachers that neglect to communicate personally with their learners. Large amounts of information are being fed to learners and they are becoming more and more detached with regard to posing questions and engaging in class activities. However, digital pedagogy is not all bad and it mostly depends on the way we use it.

I’m personally not a big fan of technology because it always seems to fail me but I also can’t imagine my life without it. My first class on digital pedagogy really took me out of my comfort zone and it also opened my eyes to the value and world of possibilities that technology brings with it. We live in a world that is constantly changing and we as teachers have the responsibility to keep up with the world and our learners. Most learners probably know more about technology than you and by teaching them in ways that they understand and in an environment that they are familiar with, will definitely make them more acceptable to your subject.

I therefor believe the best solution is a digital classroom that is being used in a way that benefits everyone and that does not constrain teaching and learning but rather enhances it.