The digital in education is interesting as it seems to cause tensions among teaching staff, scholars, educational developers and other categories of professions involved in education in different ways. A key issue is whether ‘the digital’ is to be seen as something separate from other educational activities and learning – or not. I would say that the digital in education today is interwoven in all areas of communication and as such always present in some way in educational situations.
If I now limit this reflection to higher education, I assume that students have smartphones and access to computers and internet connection (at least while in a university setting). I would argue that in contemporary (higher) education ‘the digital’ is always present. Whether we like it or not digital tools and spaces of different kinds are present. We use email, video conferencing, collaborate in writing and share documents, we store documents and media files in digital shape. Teachers and students use and make media texts – PowerPoint (or alternatives) and video (film) are common and used regulary. I find it hard to imagine contemporary (higher) education without all these digital tools and spaces.
To return to where I started – what do you think – is ‘the digital’ a special case?
multimodal study 