Half asleep last night, I realized: this is humbug. Digital culture, digital learning.... it is not utopian and it is not dystopian. It just is..... a normal development. In essence not different from other major developments, like video, radio, television, the Beatles, suffragettes, whatever. Fifty years later we find it hard to understand what the fuss was all about.
If you think that digital learning is bad for the quality of learning, you are just being old and cranky. If you think digital learning is going to solve all your problems as a teacher, you are just naive (and probably old too). The essence of good learning what students do, digital or not digital, it doesn't matter.
OK, digital learning creates new possibilities: a lecture from a teacher on sabbatical, an exercise in a simulated (safe and controllable) environment, working with fellow students from elsewhere on group assignments.... Do we use all this? Hardly. What we do most with computers has to do with logistics: providing information and access to learning material, questions and discussions maybe. There are some beautiful examples of 'opening' education in Gardner's talk, of course, but why do I secretly have the impression that the digital aspect has been far less important than the enthousiasm and skill of this teacher? He would be funny and inspirational on clay tablets.
OK, start again without the cynism :-)
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