Digital
Technologies and Teaching-Learning:
Certain potential questions
Atanu
Bhattacharya
School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies
Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar
The
ubiquity of web-based technology either at the policy level or at the, less
discussed and yet profoundly significant, transactional level of the English
classroom has created a discourse that seems to seep into the basic framework
of all pedagogical discussions today. The contours of this discourse are shaped
by, and negotiated through, diverse terms that often circumscribe the position
of the learner (‘digital native’, ‘digital immigrant’ or ‘digital outcast’) in
the field of language pedagogy, or construct an overarching framework of
‘inevitability’ that is elevated in policy documents, or foregrounds narratives
of ‘affordance’, ‘learning environments’/ ‘syncing’ among practitioners. The
transition from web 1.0 to web 2.0, and the auguring of web 3.0 soon, has only
furthered the intensification of this discourse. This especially is significant
in the Asian context where e-learning initiatives across curriculum have gained
considerable ground particularly in the tertiary sector. Policy makers,
administrators, and educators are often engaged in shaping the possible
transactional boundaries within the language classroom. While many of these
web-based/ non-web based initiatives across Asia are top-down, a study of the
realization of these initiatives within actual pedagogic framework of
classrooms would be, to say the least, illuminating.
In
the context of Asia, however, one needs to proceed with caution. This is due to
the fact that while digital pedagogy is celebrated as liberational in certain
contexts, especially when the discourse veers around extending learning beyond
the classrooms, in some other contexts, it is often regulated through
institutional apparata (through ‘Do not use mobiles’ or ‘No Chatting’ types of
prohibitory texts). While the advocates of digital technology often proclaim
the immense benefits and possibilities that these technologies bring, the
dissenters, so to say, often delight in pointing out the lack of criticality
and absence of a coherent information retrieval framework for learners that
these technologies engender. The debate thus, seems to hinge around three major
issues:
a) Do
emerging digital technologies play a significant role in buttressing the
content-heavy pedagogy of the Asian English classroom?
b) Do we
“tweak” existing pedagogic principles to fit in digital possibilities or are
emerging technologies themselves moulding the way we teach our “digital
natives”?
c) Is
there a cultural connect between digital learners outside the classroom and the
content-digitisation within?
While
the first issue is integral to digital interventions since it touches upon
questions of negotiating the curriculum that is heavily loaded with texts that
are to be ‘completed’ and ‘assessed’, the second issue assumes that if and when
digital intervention happens, methodological concerns immediately come to the
fore. These would involve concerns not only in transactional terms but also how
to integrate and evaluate such interventions in a still overwhelmingly
‘traditional’ evaluation framework. The third issue possibly requires further
elaboration. What I intend to say here is that ‘digital literacies’ or ‘digital
engagement’ is often perceived as initiatives in English pedagogy that do not
have semiotic import. What, then, are the possible ramifications if
digitization itself is seen as a cultural construct and is located within the
socio-cultural praxis of “teaching” English? How, in other words, can we theorise
such a “construct” and “practice”? Or do we need to?
The
questions, I would wish to ask are:
a)
How do we explore the practice of technology within the English
classroom in Asian contexts?
b)
How do we probe the pedagogic principles of English “teaching”
(the methodologies) that need to be adhered to / discarded/ reattributed/
reformulated due to emerging technologies?
c)
How do we investigate the links within a particular context, however
immanently, with a view to locate digital technologies within cultural matrices
and theoretical praxes.
I
personally think that we need to bring together these three seemingly disparate
strands together in the field of English teaching: digital practice; the
interdependence/ interlinks between principles and practice; and, the
theoretical framework needed to engage with this cultural conjuncture.
Your
comments are welcome!
