Learning Tech 13 (English introduction)

The questions we want to address with this issue include:

— What didactic justifications and implications are associated with using technology in teaching and training?
— Do technologies promote and/or hinder particular purposes in education?
— Hvordan begrundes brug af data i undervisning?
— How is the use of data in teaching justified?
— What impact do technologies have on student participation?

The issue contains 6 research contributions, which together take a broad perspective on the concept of technology and its role in various aspects of educational and didactic practice.

In the first two articles, the teacher is put at the center of studies of how the presence of technology influences and develops the role of the teacher. First, Rasmussen and Mikkelsen focus on how teachers understand and handle the content-related complexity found in project-oriented teaching. Through the analysis of a number of interviews, the authors arrive at findings which shed light on, among other things, the importance of digital technologies for the courses and focus on the demands placed on the technologies’ functions and design in that context.

In his article, Andersen tackles the concept of teacher authority and presents a theoretical analysis of how this pedagogical concept is affected by the presence of digital technologies in the classroom. In addition, the article also contributes with conceptual tools to reflect on and plan how one’s own teaching and authority can be influenced by and supported with the help of technologies.

In the third article, Kiær and Albrechtsen present a study of professional ethos in the reading guide with a special focus on data use. In the analysis, it is argued that the teacher’s use of data implies the exercise of a professional ethos, where the reading advisor’s professional responsibility takes on new dimensions in connection with the use of data.

In article 4, the focus shifts to a more professional and didactic perspective on the concept of technology, where Hachmann discusses the concept of computational literacy. The article unfolds an understanding of the concept as containing three intertwined aspects: the cognitive, the social and the material. The article concludes with two examples of computational literacy in a school context, which discuss how materiality here plays an important role in relation to the material and content criteria that are the basis for teaching.

In article 5, Riis focuses on how the relationship between theory and practice – and learning in different contexts – can be understood and designed for. Based on border crossing theory, the focus is on didactic design principles for border crossing in exchange education (here vocational education). Digital technology is considered mediating artefacts that also have potential as boundary objects, if they are indeed used as such.

The theme issue concludes with an article by Jensen, which focuses on the concept of literacy and the relationship between literacy and digital technologies. The overall approach is a posthuman perspective, and the author argues that there is a need for an updated approach to the concept of literacy. The article offers a theoretical and philosophical perspective on this discussion and introduces, among other things, the concept of responsiveness as an alternative to the more widespread concepts of empowerment and authorization.

Happy reading!

Theme editorial