TECH4ALL#2

E-cologies of digital learning

Progress so far: TECH4ALL#2’s contribution to Networking Event

Ecologies are living systems containing a diversity of factors that interact with each other that are self-organising, adaptive and fragile. (Jackson, 2015:1)

TECH4ALL#2 conceptualises digital literacy as the product of an ongoing learning process of adaptation taking place in and across multiple ecological spaces. Within these spaces, digital literacy is not an essentialist concept, but both the planned and serendipitous application of learning opportunities. These, in turn, change and shape an ever evolving definition of digital and of literacy in which the nexus theory-practice is, explicitly or otherwise, intertwined with the acquisition of skills, competencies, behaviours and attitudes conducive to the adaptation to but also the transformation of that ecological space.

Siemens (cited in Jackson, 2015:2) highlights the following characteristics of learning ecologies:

  • Adaptive, dynamic and responsive;
  • Chaotic;
  • Self-organising and individually directed;
  • Alive;
  • Diverse;
  • Structured informality;
  • Emerging

Many of the above features apply to the way TECH4ALL#2 was conducted as shown in a previous post. They do so because any research project is fundamentally a learning process whose dynamics align, by nature, with Siemens’s features.

This post is however more practical in nature and aims to share with others the team’s experience, challenges and good practice tips. It draws from the presentation to be given at the Networking Event, 24th February, The Hide, University of Northampton.

What we have achieved so far

Each member of the team, individually or in collaboration with other team members, has contributed to achieving 5 key milestones. Three tasks relate to the process of data collection, and two to the goal of disseminating our work to a general audience through the blog and to an academic audience via the abstract to the European Conference on Educational Research 2020 which will take place at the University of Glasgow.

What good practice can we share?

There are three areas we have learned much about: project management, data collection, and interim findings (see at the bottom of this blog). Below we report the views and experiences from the perspective of the PI (principal investigator) and research assistants.

and …

What have our challenges been?

 We have faced a number of challenges, some shared across the members of the team and some which were more specific to the different roles team members played. It is important to note that while challenges are usually perceived as negative experiences, within an ecology of learning construct challenges are opportunities for innovation as solutions are found to adapt to a new learning environment.

and …

What have we learned about digital literacy?

Cristina Devecchi • 21st February 2020


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