Learning Tech 15 (English introduction)
The theme and title of this issue of Learning Tech is Teaching Materials, Learning Spaces and Learning Design
Preface
By Rasmus Leth Jørnø, Susanne Dau og Stig Toke Gissel
Denmark is known for having one of the most digitized education systems in the world, which is the result of extensive efforts to digitalize the educational resource market, including a government subsidy program that covered 50% of the costs of digital learning materials from 2012 to 2017. According to PISA 2022, Danish 15-year-old students spend an average of 3.8 hours daily using digital tools during school hours, placing Denmark firmly in first place among OECD countries. Furthermore, the ICILS study from 2018 showed that Danish students’ computer and information literacy skills rank among the highest in the world.
This increasing digitalization has led to debates about the advantages and disadvantages of using digital learning tools, including concerns about whether screen time takes up too much of school life and whether a return to more analog teaching could promote deeper focus and concentration. But what does the research actually say?
With this special issue, Learning Tech is pleased to present four research articles that provide both empirical studies and theoretical reflections, aiming to qualify the public debate and offer insights into the consequences of both digital and analog learning tools, as well as the associated instructional designs for teaching, learning, didactics, and education in general.
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In the article From Physical to Virtual Teaching – The Impact of Interactive Tools on Participation and Social Interactions, Kaspar Roland Kjemtrup and Christine Nadja Suadicani explore the significance of interactive tools and didactic methods for students’ participation and social interactions in online teaching. The study, based on a netnographic investigation of two 100% online schools, shows a significant connection between the use of cameras and digital interaction tools and the degree of engagement and social interactions in teaching. The authors highlight the re-didactization of online teaching as the key to better and more engaging online education.
The article Magic Wands in School – On Desire and Entangled Materialities in the Danish Language Subject by Michael Peter Jensen & Thomas Roed Heiden introduces a posthuman perspective on how non-familial materialities, such as magic wands, can generate a desire that disrupts the learning space with unpredictability and imagination. The authors argue for the importance of the unpredictable as a counterbalance to a more controlling design perspective on education and teaching. Theoretically, the authors draw on posthuman theories of desire and assemblages. The article examines video-based empirical data from Danish language classes in grades 1 and 7, where both analog and digital learning tools are represented. The analyses reveal how magic wands can liberate learning spaces and facilitate agency among students. The authors contend that there is a need to free up learning spaces to make room for the unpredictable and for student agency.
In the article Prototyping in Science – “It’s Not a Bridge If It Doesn’t Look Like a Bridge”, Stine Ejsing-Duun, Lasse Stege Bredgaard Hansen, Maria Damlund, Peter Stenkilde, and Anne Gottlieb investigate how prototyping can be used in science teaching to promote students’ investigative and modeling competencies through a design process in which both digital and analog technologies play a role. Through three cases from Danish primary schools, the article shows how students, using an engineering approach, create prototypes of bridges. Prototyping serves both as a way to explore and manifest design ideas, and the case study highlights that this method not only promotes hands-on learning but also strengthens students’ ability to critically choose and apply technological resources.
Happy reading!
Theme editorial
