{"id":4295,"date":"2022-06-20T14:06:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T12:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/?p=4295"},"modified":"2022-07-25T09:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T07:25:10","slug":"post-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/post-digital\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-digital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Thoughts about post-digital in edtech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Post-modern<\/strong>” was a smug term I encountered 30 years ago at the end of my studies. It represented a questioning of the grand narratives associated with the enlightenment (and my 4 years of higher education). It picked apart the stability that modernity had promised me and my future. This phrase both annoyed and intrigued me. It offered a new way of arranging my paradigms. But it also felt like a trendy buzzword, with little analytic power, that could assist me, as an educator, about to set out into the world of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 30 years later, I experienced (at first) a similar reaction to the term “post-digital<\/strong>“. It also seemed smug, especially when we clearly (at least in South Africa), were slowly going nowhere in our digital journey. Then I heard @SBayne<\/a> explain the concept in an interview with @Neil_Selwyn<\/a> on his podcast entitled “Meet the education researcher<\/a>” in 2020. Further Googling led to @PetarPjandric<\/a>‘s memorable presentation & paper entitled: “Postdigital: a term that sucks but is useful<\/strong>“. My reaction changed. Surprisingly, the \u201cpost digital\u201d offered hope to repeated bleak disappointments. Light heartedly, he had captured the ambivalence I feel about such weighty meta analyses. Here, I hope to articulate what shifted. My thoughts (below) are my ongoing attempt to reflect on the concept and see if it does anything for my ontological core. The ideas are based on what was shared. But they also have also morphed and grown and this page is changing as I clarify my position. I’d appreciate your thoughts too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: The word “post” implies that there was something prior, there had been previous exposure? Aren’t we only getting started with digital? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Digitalization is frequently seen as something linear. Am implementation road trip from the present to to an imagined future destination. We are regularly exhorted to look ahead, at our next steps, to avoid being left behind. We are not often asked to look at this \u201cdigital everything\u201d – the stack of tech, data, media, people, organizations & practices etc (each with their particular assumptions & coded logics) that combine in peculiar ways. To see the ways in which this imagined future is constructed, coordinated and aligned within ed settings. We tend to focus on the destination and this frames a hegemonic use. Instead of seeing how the “digital everything” is constructed now, and in the future. “Post-digital” is a reminder that there are many uncertainties. Much effort is being made to position and configure this “digital everything” in particular ways. So apart from adjusting to digital in our lives, we ALSO need to see the paradigms that are being built and maintained. Try to locate mindsets that have shaped the frame wherein I am pictured. To explore these uncertainties and paradigms, with dialogue. That’s a more appropriate educational approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word “post”, then, isn’t a point on a timeline. A marker of the period “before computers” and “after digital” (BC\/AD). Rather, “post” is an assertion that I should look beyond the “digital everything” in the now and the future. See how this frame might limit my assumptions & actions. Talk about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially when the digital frame encapsulates the schoolhouse, I inadvertently see a picture with digital as instruments of my practice. I translate what is desired from the perspective of the \u201cdigital everything\u201d, and incorporate it into my context and language. I am less likely (at least initially) to notice the harms associated with algorithms, devices and data. And what is really valued, is often neglected, by likes (translation: I appreciate<\/em>) or clicks (translation: I am curious<\/em>). However, if I only examine the \u201cdigital everything\u201d through this frame, then I forget that everything isn’t digital. I limit the scope of my study. Instead of exploring how the digital everything is studying us. This is one alternative way of seeing “post digital”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word “post” is also used to recognize that my efforts to improve or transform teaching practices, have also become somewhat hijacked by data, number and metrics, that are generated & promoted from within higher education. To note that education has become awash with reform, quality improvement or transformation efforts that are being driven from a range of different actors. Post digital allows me to remember that being \u201ctech savvy\u201d isn’t a goal, but a means to be creative, skeptical, weird, exploratory, crazy etc. Not shy away from the awkward and ask uncomfortable questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way that digital is currently being pictured \/ deployed is as mechanism or lever by those who wish to re-calibrate our professional practices. \u201cPost digital serves as a reminder that the application of digital in education offers intense creative or personally transformative opportunities. That this is something that I can build upon. Ownership of and agency with can lead to something different. But it\u2019s not digital, by itself, that\u2019s the global vehicle for reform or renewal. It\u2019s me, a professional educator, adapting to a set of circumstances and purposefully \/ intentionality using what is available. The conclusions that I draw from my use of these resources are not generalizable. “The digital everything (to adapt Michel Foucault) is not bad. But the digital everything is dangerous” Best practices or normative assumptions deserve skepticism. Instead of focusing on the \u201cwhat\u201d or \u201chow it works\u201d. I am then reminded, with \u201cpost digital\u201d, that despite my well intentioned efforts to use digital as a mechanism for others, there\u2019s a choice to look only at its use and usefulness. And that we all are unwittingly and\/or unwillingly, choosing to avoid scrutiny, discussion, contestation (the why). This is another alternative way of seeing “post digital”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So “post-digital” isn’t like “post-mortem”. We’re not moving onto an alternative plane that comes after our digital life has ended. The phrase indicates that 1) we shouldn’t only limit our gaze by only looking at the “digital everything” and 2) we also need to move away from the analogue or digital, online or offline binary. Instead of asking how we straddle the divide, reform, solve and improve. We need to put ourselves up to scrutiny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What does “post-digital” mean for ed techies or learning designers who are integrating technology in their courses? <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Neil Postman’s insights about new technologies are helpful. An ed tech office, that is removed from the many other aspects associated with teaching & learning, is focused on removing the old and replacing it. Ed techies become short sighted because they can’t see the ongoing infusion of tech into the environment. Because they are mandated (with a budget) to use the latest innovation for efficiency, engagement or motivation or are naivly enthusiastic about a new tool. They fail to see previous and new infusions and the resulting mixture. While it suits the organization to position the new \u201cdigital everything\u201d as a home for innovation. Curmudgeons (like me) are seeing that they need to let go of their savior complexes, look away from their screens and notice that everything isn’t digital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to admit the ways which digital has (temporarily) privledged us with shaping power . How political agendas, capital’s interests or our collective consciousness are changing our own and our colleagues offices and practices. Our screens are secondary. What matters more is how ideologies, values and prejudices of their designers and purchasers are being replicated and amplified. And how we might need to counter or subvert these ideologies, values and prejudices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For learning designers, the digital everything isn’t seamless or virtual. It’s also bumpy, material, broken, messy, intertwined, require labour. That break or distinction that others like to draw between the analogue and the digital world not as clear than we hope. Digital isn’t an isolated element, inserted into the teaching and learning status quo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: There’s so much change happening. What happens to the overwhelmed, the one on the margins?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Post digital does not minimize the effects of change. It probably makes things more challenging. But we have also seen how, during the past two years of ERT, digital skills and competencies have been developed. Old and new forces are working in tandem, combining their intents exponentially, both reinforcing and destabilizing. Perhaps it might be a good idea to self assess your own prowess. In an education setting, there’s still some measure of agency available to marshal these forces. On-campus, lecturers are taking advantage of the new mobilities, different knowledge practices, peer networks etc and incorporated them into every day to day scholarship. But this agency is also being subverted, when we fail to look beyond the “digital everything” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sian suggested that it always seems to take a while for us (in education), to catch onto something that is quite “old hat”. But I think that the pandemic gave us an insight into how mistaken the common juxtaposition between analogue vs digital is. This hard binary of online and offline was as distinct a hurdle to traverse. As I look at my education experience, its becoming clear that “digital” is no longer the preserve of geeks or those who are technologically inclined. Neither is it that easy to separate “analogue”, or distinguish it as something different from normal, its become woven into every day life. And perhaps this is a better trajectory for ed techies. To try and understand the relationships among technology, humans, politics, social relations etc. Instead of trying to disrupt with the digital everything <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last words <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Much like post-modern, I don’t quite think that I have figured out what the term means. However, unlike my reaction “post-modern”, I have discovered that “post-digital” perspective is a relief from the “digital everything”. It seems seems to be a generative piece of jargon, by being a placeholder for uncertainty and enquiry. I’ve enjoyed it as route to connect to others, to be rewilded, inspired by people, who offer a counter narrative, who work together as a community that value people and not scale or stuff. Post-digital reminds me that my screen is just one frame. There many other windows, letting light in here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This buzzphrase under discussion is explored in a wide ranging interview about navigating uncertainty in a post-digital world (Cramer, F., Jandri\u0107, P. Postdigital: A Term That Sucks but Is Useful. Postdigit Sci Educ<\/em> 3, <\/strong>966\u2013989 (2021). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s42438-021-00225-9<\/a>). Theres a plenty of rabbit holes that lead onto the weird internet from here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Post-modern” was a smug term I encountered 30 years ago at the end of my studies. It represented a questioning of the grand narratives associated with the enlightenment (and my 4 years of higher education). It picked apart the stability that modernity had promised me and my future. This phrase both annoyed and intrigued me. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Post-digital”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-file","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4295"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4859,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4295\/revisions\/4859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblearning.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}