16
Hollie Smith
Day one is over, and it’s time for some reflection. Students’ ability to be reflexive has been a key theme throughout my day, so it would only be right to consider that practice as I mull over what I have experienced.
My day started with two emotions: excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I was in an incredible position which many undergraduate students wouldn’t find themselves in; ready to hear innovate talks and network with some truly inspiring people. And trepidation… well, for the same reason. I was worried I’d feel out of my depth, and as though everybody in the room would know I didn’t ‘belong’ there. I was soon reassured. As people started arriving, the positive buzz in the room was apparent and the humble nature of the delegates was clear – there’s no room for superiority at a social science conference! After chatting with some fascinating people, I quickly realised they valued my perspective and presence just as much as I did theirs. With fear of sounding all “me, me, me”, surely I’m a prime example of who this conference is for? Sure, I’m positive the delegates will have learned some invaluable tips and been able to share ideas to improve their own practice and make their lives easier (!) but in the long run, future undergraduate students and I are going to be the ones who benefit from this, thanks to having such knowledge and practice fuelled academics teaching us, due to their attendance at such events as this.
Today’s keynote was delivered by Steve Wheeler and covered the topic of learning in the digital age. I think I can speak on behalf of everybody in attendance when I say how stimulating his discussion was. Every single person will have been able to take away at least one new perspective on digital literacies which will change the way they engage in or think about technologies. (I do though, wish I was able to listen to Steve’s talk two weeks ago – having this week submitted an assignment on ‘higher education in the digital age’!) Having grown up in the digital age, it was refreshing to hear a perspective from somebody who has not had that experience. In fact, as Steve discussed, current students are younger than Google and Facebook so have never known a world without these technologies. It is critical then for pedagogues to understand how to successfully incorporate the use of digital literacy into their teaching practice. I think it’d be fair to say, a common worry for university lecturers is that when teaching about technologies, their students will have more knowledge than they (whereas the students’ worst nightmare is a bad 4G connection). Steve examined however, that whilst children may feel they have a natural affinity to using technology, we all as learners need a digital wisdom – the ability to be digitally literate is not conceptualised by age, it’s conceptualised by context. This leads me nicely to my favourite new word of the day: paragogy. Steve used this word to express how technologies can