Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

11.29.06 | How is higher education evolving to accommodate digital technologies in the classroom, changing sensibilities among students and new forms of knowledge, learning and expression? In our contribution to the MacArthur volume on Innovative Uses and Unexpected Outcomes, Anne Balsamo and I address these questions as time-travelers to a not-so-distant future in which students are absorbed in networks and games; where they learn from informal peer networks as readily as from university-sanctioned curricula.

In order to think about possible strategies for anticipating the future of digital education, we convened a panel to discuss some of the challenges that are emerging from current experiments with digitally-enabled teaching. In keeping with the futuristic theme of this chapter, it seemed fitting to hold this panel in the virtual environment of Second Life.

Prior to the discussion, audio interviews were conducted with each panelist (MP3 files are linked to their names below). The panel consisted of Rebecca Nesson of Harvard Law School, Doug Thomas of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication, Michael Eisenberg of the University of Washington Information School and Henry Lowood of Stanford University. The panel spoke from a wide range of recent experiences with teaching in virtual or hybrid learning environments and addressed a range of challenges posed by the use of digital media, social networks and games within educational contexts.

The panel took place on November 13, 2006, in a virtual amphitheater on Harvard Law School’s Berkman Island, where Rebecca Nesson currently teaches an extension course called CyberOne: Law In the Court of Public Opinion. Complete transcripts of the panel are here.