We are deeply immersed in a digital age in the present time. Despite only developing within the last few decades, digital technology is now integral to our society . I could not list a single daily task where I don’t use digital technology, at least as a supplement. If I am cooking, I am most likely following a recipe from Pinterest. When I read, I either grab a book or open a fanfiction on Archive of Our Own. The likelihood of either is equal. If I am talking to friends, I am messaging them on Discord on my laptop or phone.
Tech In(stead) of the Classroom
Given how saturated our lives are with technology, it only makes sense that it would also play a role in our education. Oftentimes students are given access to the internet for research. They may also use them to complete assignments and hand them in on sites like Canvas or Blackboard. However, these uses of technology in an educational context are not as effective as students are made to believe.
Is There Agency in a Learning Management System?
In her piece “Messy and Chaotic Learning”, Martha Fay Burtis discusses Learning Management Systems (LMS) and how they restrict students in their learning. Burtis posits that “… all of these tools…[have] been designed and coded and engineered by companies to provide functionality in very particular ways. And that design and code guides our students’ and our experiences through their use”(Burtis). From my own personal experience using Canvas, this is exactly what I can observe through discussion board assignments. Each week, our online discussion is graded based on if we follow the set requirements. We are meant to make one post, and respond to at least two of your classmate’s posts. Sometimes, even more restrictions were added. We may have had to post over the course of three days to ensure that we were “engaging in the discussion” and not just submitting three responses a half hour before the assignment was due.
This may not seem to be a particularly ineffective format for an online assignment. After all, every assignment has requirements, even those conducted in the space of a physical classroom. By requiring a set amount of responses, you ensure that students contribute to the conversation, right?
Real Life Application
Imagine this format translated to an in-class discussion. A topic or question is presented to the class. Before the discussion begins in earnest, the teacher reminds the students of the rules. Each student is required to make one point, then respond to at least two of their classmates.
This isn’t a natural discussion, and may actually hinder your students’ understanding of the conversation. If they focus on coming up with responses, they won’t really be absorbing the entire conversation occurring around them. Additionally, once they have met the required amount of responses, there is no incentive for them to continue engaging. They can sit back and zone out with no penalty. They could be missing valuable insight and thought provocation, something that is just as important to learning as understanding given material as is.
As opposed to this model, Burtis seems to favor giving students agency over their online learning experience. She mentions WordPress (the same host we use for this blog) and a project her university created called Domain of One’s Own. By giving students their own domains, they were given more agency. This came in the form of freedom to shape their own learning experience. The requirements of an LMS could not restrict them. They were allowed to explore the tools at their disposal and learn from experience.
Agency
Agency, or having some semblance of control over your online experience, is important for digital learning, but also for digital privacy and safety as well. Lindsey C. Kim references Virginia Woolf in her piece “Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing with Digital Technologies“. Specifically, she refers to Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own, where Woolf describes the need for a woman to have privacy, a room with a door she can close, in order for her to write. The digital space we inhabit does not have this same privacy. There is no door you can shut that will keep all of your information safe and private. Despite limits, your agency online is present.
You are in control of what you post online, and you are able to influence the algorithms in place on the internet. Just as Kim mentions in her piece, “…having the ability to enact agency over our data, to restrict access to it, not only allows us to exert control over the digital spaces we inhabit, but also allows us to distance ourselves from digital structures that may be reproducing and imposing the same harmful prejudices that exist offline” (Kim).
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