Digital Pedagogy Identity Networks and Scholarship

#DigPINS

Week 3: Digital Pedagogy

We are moving right along in #DigPINS and once again thank you to everyone for your thoughts, insights, questions, comments (and Tweets!) as we work through the PINS. This week we concentrate on the one everyone has been waiting for…

Digital Pedagogy

It is important to recognize that digital pedagogy is different from online learning. Digital pedagogy can, and often does, take place in face to face courses but of course online learning is a form of digital pedagogy. 

Some of the guiding questions for this week are:

  • How do different digital spaces shape your teaching and students’ learning?
  • What does “the digital” give to teaching and learning and what does it take away?
  • How do we create learning communities in online spaces?

Let’s think for a moment about the digital spaces we have been using to communicate during DigPINS. Compare the style of say Slack vs. blogging style vs. Twitter style. We use shorter messages in Slack but isn’t it interesting that, unlike Twitter, it is not because of an imposed character limit. The possibility for longer messages exists in Slack and it does happen but not as often. Slack, if you are using the app and get notifications, feels faster somehow. And what about blogging? Even when they are shorter, blogs somehow feel more like a “conversation by letter” – email kind of feels that way too but email is more private (or at least it seems that way – though emails are forwarded with no notification all of the time).

The affordances and limitations of different tools – what they allow you to do and where they put up barriers – shape the way you present yourself, communicate, interact, and even just… are. So, of course they affect the way you teach. But this should not be a surprise, even our physical classrooms affect the way we teach. Is there a chalkboard or a whiteboard? Does the furniture move? What is the lighting like? Answers to these questions impact how we teach and digital environments are no different. 

Things to Do This Week

1) Watch our welcome video for the week

2) Activity: “Critical Uncertainties” In Digital Pedagogy

This exercise will take place in multiple steps over the course of the week. We are all grappling with the uncertainty of what teaching this fall will look like. Will we be teaching remotely online, meeting face to face, or doing some mix of both? Will our students have access to reliable internet? Will all of our students be in the same time zone?

We are going to refer to these as spectrums of “critical uncertainty” and we’ll be exploring these spectrums this week as we consider possibly ways to change them.

Part 1: Identify your Spectrums of Critical Uncertainty

To start this activity, we are asking you to identify a spectrums of critical uncertainty for fall of 2020. Which uncertainties about teaching in the fall feel most worrisome to you? Review this list of spectrums of uncertainties that other DigPINS participants have identified. Add your name to a spectrum that’s already there, or create one of your own.

Part 2: Synchronous Meeting to Explore Spectrums

We will have an optional synchronous meeting on Thursday June 18 at 10am ET. (See below for ways to participate asynchronously).

During this meeting, we will work in in groups to map the spectrums and write about overlapping scenarios. The main session and break out groups will be recorded and added to a YouTube playlist.

If you can make it to the sync meeting let us know if you will be coming by filling out this short form

Ways to Participate Asynchronously

If you are unable to make the synchronous meeting, feel free to dive in to to the activity using this slide deck to map two critical uncertainties.  

On Thursday – sync: those who can attend our sync session will wor

3) Readings on Digital Pedagogy

There is a lot of information on digital pedagogy – we are providing you with this list to get started. Read two of the articles from this list or tell us about a reading that inspired your digital pedagogy through on Twitter (using the #DigPINS), in Slack or in a blog post.

Technology is not Pedagogy – Sean Michael Morris (personal website, 6/10/20)

The Digital Literacy of Hybrid Teaching (Sean Michael Morris 6/3/20)

What an Ed-Tech Skeptic Learned about Her Own Teaching in the Covid-19 Crisis – Manya Whitaker (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/28/20)

How to be a better teacher online – Flower Darby (Chronicle of Higher Education Advice Guide)

Values Centered Instructional Planning (Robin DeRosa 5/13/20)

How to Create Engaging Online Courses – Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast with Laura Gibbs (10/25/18)

Decoding Digital Pedagogy Pt2: (Un Mapping the Terrain) – Jesse Stommel (Hybrid Pedagogy, 3/5/13)

4) Continue to converse with others through blog posts and Slack

Remember you can check discuss.digpins.org to read posts published by all DigPINS participants.

Looking for More?

More Content to Explore

Larger Projects to Possibly Join

These projects utilize similar “connected learning” principles as DigPINS.

  • Equity Unbound “is an emergent, collaborative curriculum which aims to create equity-focused, open, connected, intercultural learning experiences across classes, countries and contexts.”
  • The Digital Polarization Project – Working with students to build a fact-checking wiki
  • Marginal Syllabus – Online academic reading group that collaborates once a month to do social annotation on journal articles that have a focus on equity issues in education

css.php