Centre members investigate learning technologies, and the role of technology and data in learning, developing methods to evaluate this impact.
We view the relationship between technology and learning as dynamic, reflecting that how we learn (with technology) is fundamentally intertwined with what we learn (about technology). In the research strands below, there are 4 key themes, which we have broken down to address this dynamic interaction, these themes focus on:
- Understanding digital learning in a digital society: Our broad approaches to understanding learning needs and addressing these through technologies
- Digital learning for digital literacies: The ways technology introduces new challenges and needs in digital literacy from tackling misinformation to understanding how algorithms shape our social media; and that technologies may be used to support these literacies
- Our datafied world and tools to understand it: That there is an impetus for us to learn new technologies and approaches to data that help us understand our world for a sustainable future, and that there are new tools to support us in this, including simulations and extended reality to develop our data literacy
- The digital teacher: That teachers play a central role in learning in society, and that their own learning needs have been impacted by digital tools, but that digital tools also offer opportunities to support teacher learning
How technology is changing what we learn
Members of the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society explore the following questions through a series of research projects:
- What are the implications of the changing nature of work and society for what we learn about technology and data?
- How do we scrutinise, model, and measure changes in learning needs in an increasingly technologically-mediated society?
Understanding digital learning in a digital society: Modelling changing learning needs
Our research models what our learning needs around technology and data are in the context of the changing nature of work and society. We do this through data informed approaches, and close qualitative analyses of professional practices. Key researchers in this area include Associate Professor Kirsty Kitto, and Professor Lori Lockyer.
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Digital learning for digital literacies: New literacies for a digital society
A body of work focuses on the impacts of technology on literacy, from the role of technology in civic life such as the impact of facebook on elections, to how we understand technologies to share and build our knowledge together through platforms like Wikipedia.
Key researchers in this area include Associate Professor Heather Ford, Dr Keith Heggart, Dr Simon Knight, Professor Simon Buckingham Shum, and Associate Professor Dilek Cetindamar Kozanoglu.
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Our datafied world and tools to understand it: The role of data literacy, numeracy, and maths subjects
A strand of our research focuses on the data, numeracy, and mathematics skills required in the 21st century in the workplace, civic participation, and day-to-day life, particularly focusing on the numeracy needs of educators.
These projects include the Maths Inside project which supports engagement in mathematics (and science) by Australian students, projects to support engagement with mathematics by secondary teachers who are not mathematics specialists, and projects to understand educator’s data literacies and perspectives on data to support learning and ethical issues in this use.
Key researchers in this area include Associate Professor Mary Coupland, Dr Simon Knight, Dr Jane Hunter, Associate Professor Kirsty Kitto, and Professor Lori Lockyer.
The digital teacher: Teacher professional development for technology and data
A body of Centre research investigates the evolution of teacher professional development needs, and approaches to addressing this. In this area, we have conducted research focusing on innovative technology-mediated learning in K-12 and teacher education contexts, particularly the specific pedagogical features or affordances of mobile devices to support learning. Other centre members have investigated a framework to understand key enablers for technology integration, grounded in exemplary teachers’ knowledge of technology integration in K-12 classrooms.
Key researchers in this area include Associate Professor Matthew Kearney, and Dr Jane Hunter.
Find out more about their research at the following project websites:
- Mobile pedagogies:
- High Possibility Classrooms
How technology is changing how we learn
Centre members explore the following research questions through a series of research projects:
- What are the implications of the changing nature of work and society for how we learn with and through technology and data?
- How do we evaluate learning technologies, taking a critical perspective on the learning they foster?
Understanding digital learning in a digital society: The design of technologies to understand and support learning
In this area of research, centre members have developed technologies including learning analytics tools to understand student learning, and support student reflection on their learning. In the ReView project, Centre researchers have developed a capability development framework (CAPRI) and innovative self-review and capability development platform that supports improving assessment and learning for 21st century skills. Another body of work uses data science approaches to support learners’ writing capabilities by providing automated feedback to them, and uses multimodal activity traces to support learners’ teamwork capabilities through providing actionable insights from computational traces.
Key centre researchers in this area include Dr Darrall Thompson, Dr Simon Knight, and Professor Simon Buckingham Shum.
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Digital learning for digital literacies: The role of technology in critical and creative thinking
Research in this area investigates the ways particular sets of technologies – from social media, to search engines, and specific learning technologies – impact the ways we think, particularly focusing on learners’ critical and creative thinking, across formal, informal, and workplace learning contexts.
Key researchers in this area include Dr Simon Knight, Associate Professor Heather Ford, and Dr Keith Heggart.
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Our datafied world and tools to understand it: Technology integrated learning across STEM and beyond
Research in this space has explored both the ways that technologies from particular disciplines – such as engineering tools – and other technologies drawing on mobile, immersive, and wider digital technologies, can support experiential learning across discipline areas. Key researchers in this area include Dr Damian Maher, Associate Professor Matthew Kearney.
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The digital teacher: Technology for teacher professional learning across disciplines
A strand of Centre research investigates teacher professional development using technologies to support their learning. This work analyses professional’s design practices, and the ways in which technologies support design for learning, the specific affordances of learning technologies such as mobile devices and social media platforms for professional learning and developing personal professional learning networks.
Key researchers in this area include Professor Lori Lockyer, Associate Professor Matthew Kearney, Dr Damien Maher, Dr Keith Heggart, Dr Jane Hunter.
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