Teaching and Digital Technologies Big Issues and Critical Questions

Introduction

This chapter explores the potential role of digital technologies in reshaping the activity that goes on in, and out of classrooms. In particular, this chapter addresses the potential for digital technologies to break the commonly assumed boundaries of the classroom, which include time (for example, in-class time), location (for example, the classroom), and people (teacher and students). As an illustration of this, students can still work together using internet technologies such as Google Docs outside of class time. Such technologies also enable us to ‘break boundaries’ by not restricting participants to a particular location; for instance, being able to simultaneously collaborate on a document while at a museum or at home. Finally, online technologies can also change who participates and/or contributes to learning and teaching; for example, experts or other classes can be ‘beamed in’. In these and other ways, commonly assumed boundaries can be broken, or at least redefined.

Whether traditional classroom boundaries should (or should not) be broken or redefined is contestable and it is beyond the scope of this chapter to critique this. However, it is something that should be more fully explored as you gain more of an understanding of what educators are doing. To assist with this, three examples of ‘breaking boundaries’ and redefining traditional learning environments are presented. These are: using the ‘flipped’ classroom approach to teach a class, using massive open online courses (MOOCs) and the Flat Classroom Project. Each example has been chosen not to convince you of the efficacy of a particular strategy, but rather to increase your knowledge of how digital technologies can break boundaries, reveal possibilities, and highlight issues and potential problems. This will help you to make more informed decisions about how you organise learning and teaching in your classroom.