Over the last 9 months, my twins (currently in P6) have spent only four months actually going to school, being taught face to face while the rest has been spend at home, being home schooled. The term home schooling has taken on a completely different meaning over the last year; where it once pointed […]

The following is a critical discussion of a small portion of the report produced by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA); ‘Baker, T., Smith, L., & Anissa, N. (2019). Educ-ai-tion rebooted? Exploring the future of artificial intelligence in schools and colleges.’ In the report, the current situation in schools and colleges in […]

The idea of a change being an enhancement or not has stuck with me and reminded me of the film Wall- E (Pixar, 2018). In the film, the humans have used so many technological ‘enhancements’ that have they have become completely dependent on all technology, you could see it as a criticism on instrumentalism. I […]

Bayne’s article ‘What’s the matter with technologically enhanced teaching?’ makes some really interesting points about black boxing and ‘enhancement’ and how we can counter these. Black boxing is a term we have also seen in the other article for this week, by Hamilton and Friesen, but Bayne’s article takes their argument further.   Technology as […]

The outcome of the technology is pre-determined; it works exactly as intended.   There is an absence where man once was.   Technology will be used in a specific way.   Humans are part of technology in the next stage of evolution.      

The terms essentialism and instrumentalism are not to be considered theories according to Hamilton, Edward C., and Norm Friesen in their article from 2013: “Online Education: A Science and Technology Studies Perspective.” Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology 39 (p 4), instead we should look at them as general orientations that have been represented in many […]

Aesthetics are a very important part of almost everything, especially in the digital world. With the instrumental approach to education, students behave like consumers when it comes to education (p29 of the Manifesto) and expect a good educational experience for the fees that they pay. Whether a course is digital or more traditionally taught face […]

According to some learning is best achieved when it takes place in the traditional, face to face setting, where eye to eye contact is often seen as the marker of authentic teaching (p87 of the Manifesto). Learning does not necessarily take place in the class room or lecture theatre though, even in the traditional setting. […]

Online teaching should not be downgraded to “facilitation.” (Bayne, Sian, et al. The Manifesto for Teaching Online) is one of the statements from the Manifesto. But is facilitation really a downgrading of teaching? Used correctly and in some settings, I think facilitation is completely appropriate for a teacher but maybe the negativity partly lies in the […]

Reflect on any specific aspects of digital environments for learning you hope to address through the course, you asked me in your comment. I have taken some time to mull this over. In a way, I am trying to understand what is different in online learning; how the learning takes place differently (if it does) […]