What is digital pedagogy and its importance ?

Teaching is one of the broadest and most rewarding disciplines. When one thinks back to your own schooling career various types of teachers jump into mind – strict, fair, unfair, likable, boring etc. People often misunderstand the concept of what a teacher is and often even teachers do not understand their occupation fully.  

By now it is known that pedagogy can be expressed in various ways. According to my own definition it is the process of teaching and learning simultaneously. Wikipedia states that it is the method and practice of teaching. Another website says that it is the function or work of a teacher. This all has some truth but an article by Sean Morris defines pedagogy as praxis. Pedagogy is thus a very large concept to fully understand. It is not merely teaching or learning or the act thereof, but it is the place where philosophy and practice meet.

So taking into account the confusion of the word ‘pedagogy’ imagine the confusion relating to ‘digital pedagogy’. Digital pedagogy is not teaching online. Showing videos, Power Points and using the internet in a classroom is not digital pedagogy. Learning does not necessarily occur by showing a video. One has to really engage in class. To really be able to call yourself a digital pedagogue you need experience and have to have an absolute passion for your discipline, more importantly you need to be able to convey that passion to a group full of learners. Digital pedagogy is complex and not the easy way out when teaching.

One needs to realise that children are all different and therefore have the desire to learn in different ways. I recently watched a Ted Talk video where it was documented that learners can learn so much from the internet – but they also need their peers in order to gain more knowledge and insight into certain scenarios. To me passing a subject by having to study from a textbook and write an exam does not test ones knowledge or cognition. Having real knowledge is when you can have discussions about things that are happening around you – a general knowledge. Unfortunately our schooling system still wants learners to study Biology from a textbook, study word for word, write a test and receive a distinction because then you are labelled as clever. Even if you world knowledge but you get 50 % you will be labelled as someone who won’t make it in life.

In a documentary, Testing Hope, it portrays the fear that people have of the word ‘matric – grade 12’. This year literally makes or breaks you.

Digital pedagogy becomes important in all aspects because it equips learners for life. We all know that we forget most things we study for an exam. I only remember facts when I have had time to research it and find different ways of looking at it. We as the future teachers of South Africa need to start taking digital pedagogy more seriously as we need to shape future leaders, politicians, economists, teachers and accountants to name a few.