CRITICAL DIGITAL PEDAGOGY - Teaching Thoughtfully with Technology
21st CENTURY TEACHING
As part of our mission at Fairfield University, we aim to prepare students for success beyond the university. "With an emphasis on innovative, experiential learning and a focus on developing the whole person, we produce graduates who are future ready" (Fairfield University). By engaging students with digital literacy-based projects in the courses across the curriculum, we can prepare students for the future while building their knowledge in the classroom.
Fosters Co-Learning Dynamics
Encourages Student Agency
Offers Opportunities for Connections
Practices Critical Approaches
Engages Flexible Assignments
Promotes Intentionality in Tech Use
Supports Active Collaboration
Revels in the Messiness
21st CENTURY TEACHING
Digital media, technological tools, and online spaces are no longer separate from what we do outside or inside the classroom; they have now become central to what we do and so we must prepare our students to become responsible digital citizens.
21st CENTURY WRITING
To teach writing or composing in the 21st century, it includes alphabetic texts AS well as multimodal texts. To learn more about composing (writing) in the 21st century, watch the video presentation on "Multimodal Composing, Sketchnotes, and Idea Generation" as published in the academic e-journal, Kairos.
TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY - OUTCOMES
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PROMOTES 21st CENTURY LEARNERS
As illustrated by the COVID-19 Stay at Home orders, students are expected to learn and engage in online spaces like never before. By practicing responsible digital pedagogy and teaching students the necessary frameworks for approaching digital media, they will become more responsible digital citizens in an increasingly technological world. No matter where they go once they graduate, 21st century students must learn how to navigate new media in thoughtful ways after they leave the university.
BUILDS AGENCY & AUTHORITY
By incorporating digital media projects into your course, especially those with online audience, students become more accountable over their work. Digital projects create a greater sense of authority for students since they are making decisions over so much of the process often including tool selection, content choices, and design options. When students have more agency and authority over their work, their learning process becomes enhanced and more meaningful.
ENCOURAGES STUDENT INNOVATION
Incorporating digital media projects into your course offers students a safe opportunity to practice innovation in both their thinking and their production. Innovation occurs when students are able to make their own choices about what tools to use and how they will use them - digital media offers a prime opportunity for innovation because it forces students to learn and compose in ways like never before.
BUILDS CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
Rather than using digital media projects or technological tools as a way to regurgitate what they learned, students can use digital media to engage in the learning process. Whether it's creating a five-minute vlog about a particular concept, using collaborative platforms such as Padlet or Flipgrid to answer questions, or editing a Google Slide for a group activity, using digital media platforms as part of the learning process can increase creativity, problem-solving, and the retention of important class concepts.
ENHANCES CRITICAL
THINKING
SKILLS
As part of the Magis Core curriculum and the mission of Fairfield University, students should engage critical thinking in their courses. When selecting and/or using new media during their learning process, students practice analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing course content as well as with the technological tool. Employing critical digital pedagogy frameworks (students practice asking "why" and "how" for any learning situation) will not only enhance their digital media literacy skills, but it will enhance their critical thinking skills as well.
PREPARES STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS
According to Forbes in 2019, the most important skill a new graduate needs for the workplace is "learnability" (12 Most Important Skills) or the ability to adapt to new learning situations. By encouraging students to learn in new and differing ways with digital media, they are able to hone this skill of adaptability. Working with various technological tools and practicing critical reflection on the learning process encourages students to become flexible with any learning situation.
BUILDS ON
CORE WRITING PRINCIPLES
Part of the Core Writing curriculum relies on the principle that all writing is rhetorically situated. When students write in a digital space, they must become much more conscious of the rhetorical situation. Students must ask themselves how the purpose, audience, context, and medium of the writing task will affect how they compose the piece. The choices a student makes when composing digital projects will affect the meaning of the text, which encourages careful reflection on the rhetorical situation of the project.
DEVELOPS MULTIPLE MODES FOR LEARNING
When students learn and practice new information in multiple modes, they are more likely to retain that content. Aside from the retention benefit, incorporating digital composition that is MULTIMODAL and therefore MULTI-LAYERED, students also invest more time and more of themselves into digital pieces. Students develop a connection with and an authority over their work as well as the content because they have worked toward such a deep and individualized extent.
CREATES CONNECTIONS & PROMOTES TRANSFER
Using digital media or digital writing activities in your class offers students the opportunity to make connections among ideas conceptually and logistically by incorporating hyperlinks in their projects. Hyperlinks demonstrate a more holistic representation of what the writer was thinking when they composed the piece. Furthermore, knowledge is more likely to transfer to new contexts if it is connected from one context to the next. Using digital media to connect learning contexts will encourage knowledge transfer across the disciplines.
DIGITAL PEDAGOGY - Some Things to Consider
PEDAGOGY FIRST
Teaching should ALWAYS come before technology.
Before you select a particular tool or digital media to use with students, you need to determine what learning objectives you want to accomplish. The tool shouldn't drive the pedagogy, but it should be determined by it. You should ask yourself what you want your students to learn and then choose which tool will help them accomplish that learning goal. Also, keep in mind that you don't have to know the ins and outs of every technological tool out there - your job is to create the learning opportunity and the critical frameworks necessary for students to select and engage with the right technological tool.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A TECHNOLOGY EXPERT to teach with technology.
It would be impossible (and ineffective) to teach every tool to every student. Instead, focus on providing and practicing frameworks for learning new technologies with your students or lean into the collaborative model and have students teach each other. See the PRAXIS page for practical methods of addressing the issue.
HIGH TECH doesn't mean it's BETTER.
It's important to remember that just because something is digital or technology-based, it does not mean that it's necessarily superior. If a technology doesn't facilitate the learning objectives in a meaningful way, then it won't be useful for your students.
AVOID Student Tech ASSUMPTIONS.
It is always important to remember that not all students have equal access to technology. Be sensitive to students' technology resources when designing assignments in terms of access to hardware, software, and environment. Also, please keep in mind that students' technological abilities will vary. Even though students may have competencies in particular areas of technology, they may not have knowledge or skills in others.
Keep ACCESSIBILITY and UNIVERSAL DESIGN in mind.
When considering technology use in your course, design projects and select tools that can be accessed by all users of all abilities. This practice should be extended to digital documents, hardware, software, websites, audio or video elements, document design, and other technologies. Practice principles of Universal Design by assuming a full range of diverse users when creating your technology-based assignments rather than altering assignments on the back end. Visit the Office of Accessibility for more information.
Practicing Digital Pedagogy Opens Opportunities for Your Role as an Instructor to Be:
Interactive
Vulnerable
Multimodal
Intentional
Recursive
Networked
Collaborative
Choric
Process-based
Critical Maker
Multivocal
NO LONGER SAGE ON THE STAGE
"Any pedagogical situation should be considered as a scene for inventions to come into appearance by creating the conditions for participation. We relinquish the discourse of mastery. We place value on the aspect of chance and emerging networks. We access a choric space for writing and teaching" Sarah Arroyo, Participatory Composition
Dynamic
Risk-Taking
Participatory
Heuretic
Interconnected
Flexible
Transparent
Know Your STUDENTS' LEARNING NEEDS.
In addition to accessibility concerns, it's important to think about the ways in which your class receives information best. Do they need continuous feedback loops to understand concepts? Do they need tangible examples? Do they need to verbalize particular information? Depending upon a particular group of students' learning needs, your use of technology will vary just as your teaching methods do. Tailoring technologies to students' needs can increase their level of engagement and improve student learning outcomes. Check out the TECH IN USE page to find a tool that best suits your learners.
Maintain RIGOR for Tech-Based Work.
Since technology ultimately functions as a tool, sometimes technology-based work can be perceived as "easier" or "simplistic." To combat this negative perception, be sure to maintain rigorous standards and expectations for multimodal or technology-based projects. Try to be explicit and transparent with students about why and how technology-based work achieves the learning outcomes. Since technology-based work is multimodal and interactive, it often has a more professional "feel" to it more than its analog or traditional counterparts.
Be Cautious of the BELLS & WHISTLES TRAP
When composing on digital platforms or using technological tools that are multimodal and interactive, students' work often has a more professional "feel" to it more than its analog or traditional counterparts. Avoid the flash of the "shiny" tech object and focus on achievement of the learning objectives.