Decoding Digital Pedagogy

This article cleared up some of confusion I had about digital pedagogy and opened my eyes to its’ potential and the difference between a teacher and a pedagogue. A point that I found interesting is how whatever pedagogy any teacher employed in their classroom became digitized. This meant that just because they were working online they did not automatically become a pedagogue and that if they were not a good teacher being online would not change that.

Another idea I enjoyed is how pedagogy should be used as a way of instilling passion in learners and that this passion will resonate beyond only the classroom. A teacher teaches the curriculum and a pedagogue teaches passion and meaningful learning, this allows the possibilities to be endless. The Learning Management System, in my opinion, is only beneficial when posting necessary information, for example SunLearn. I do not consider SunLearn an interactive learning platform as it is only a site for posting the information we need and no discussions are had, until we enter the classroom. This links to how Morris describes the LMS as “settling for the least innovative classroom practice and repositioning that digitally.” I think this added to the confusion of what digital pedagogy is. It was believed that it was a matter of relocating the content to a digital source, this is not the case. It is stated that very few teachers actually used the move towards digital as a way to innovate more. This is unsettling for me as there are so many possibilities as to what can be done with the use of technology and teachers should not become complaisant and shut off by merely relocating their work onto a digital platform. Digital pedagogues keep searching and discovering new possibilities and uses of online learning – this is the difference between and digital pedagogue and a teacher.

Pedagogy seems like it is a difficult concept to define but I realized that it has many definitions for each individual. We can make our own definitions of it depending on how we use it and how much time we put into it. Digital pedagogy is something we make our own. This is important when considering the point made by Stommel where he states that “the digital pedagogue teaches her tools, doesn’t let them teach her.” The effectiveness of digital pedagogy is only as good as the way we utilize the tools we have available. Teachers should not become slaves to the tools available they should think of all the possible uses of that tool and should include the learners in all of these processes. Learners should be central in this. I learnt a lot from reading this article and I feel as though I have a broader perspective on digital pedagogy now.