What kind of learning do we want to promote? A didactical approach to online and digitally enhanced in-class learning in the fields of Humanities and Social Sciences
Thursday 24th May. 12-1.30pm. Charteris Land room 2.03, Moray House School of Education
Professor Nicole Durisch Gauthier (University of Teacher Education, State of Vaud, Switzerland)
Nowadays a large range of concerns are competing with optimistic discourses on the development of digital technology and media in our societies. At the same time, there is a strong demand on educators to develop learners’ ability to use digital technologies. In this double-bind context how is a teacher trainer expected to position herself? What didactical project can she propose to future teachers who have to educate their pupils to live in a digital world that is in many regards worrying?
This seminar will discuss models of and approaches to active learning as a way to face this double-bind. It will present various examples of tasks using or related to digital culture and technologies within Humanities and Social Science disciplines - tasks which aim to foster creativity and critical thinking. Finally, drawing from ethnographic data on MOOCs, it will debate this issue: can we consider MOOCs as counterexamples of “good practice” for 21st century learners?
Nicole Durisch Gauthier is a professor at the University of Teacher Education, State of Vaud (Switzerland). She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Research in Digital Education of the University of Edinburgh where she is working on digitally enhanced teaching and learning in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences, especially on MOOCs. As a specialist in didactical issues, she focuses on the analysis of learning designs, tasks and contents. Her research interests also include political and ethical aspects of digital education. She is member of an international research programme (France, Switzerland, Brazil and Canada) devoted to religions, discrimination and racism in the school context, and part of an interdisciplinary team working on digital culture and innovation from a didactical perspective.