Teaching naked? What?

What makes digital pedagogy an effective tool in teaching?

This topic of digital pedagogy is way out of my league but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating. To answer my question above I first have to explain some terms. The first term is digital humanities. With some research and my own understanding, I determined that digital humanities is a collection of the following:

• ·         Learning material in a digital form e.g PowerPoint presentation
• ·         Learning that includes information about technology
• ·         Learning that is empowered by the use of digital methods or tools
• ·         Learning that includes experimenting with technology and
• ·         Learning that criticises or aims to improve technology

The second term is hacking which can be used to describe the productive use or manipulation of the technology that is available to you.

The link between my question and these terms is relatively simple. Teaching with technology is unreliable without digital pedagogy. You cannot be a digital humanist or hacker without applying some form of pedagogy. A purpose needs to be present in your use of technology in a classroom or learning environment.

I’m going to make use of an example in the article to explain this further. The lecturer made the notion with his class to have theory lessons on a Friday called “No-reading Fridays” The classroom activity involved a projection screen and the topic of discussion at that time was “The Question concerning Technology”. The learners didn’t read any material in advance, they simply took turns and read from the text projected on the screen during class. The lecturer then stated that after two Fridays, the class discussions he had with his learners had been motivating and informative. This shows us that even the simplest use of technology can add variety to a lesson and be a powerful motivator to learners to gain information which is what we as educators strive for.

I therefore conclude that using some form of technology makes digital pedagogy an effective tool but in moderation. If technology is over-used, the learning part of a lesson can easily be lost. What i like about using technology as a tool is that it targets all types of learners and it ensures that they all are engaged in the lesson