I first pitched this column for NTLF under much different circumstances. I don't want to be hyperbolic, but in a lot of ways, it feels like a different lifetime. I'm sure a lot of you are feeling the same way: There is the time before COVID‐19 and the time after, when we all—very quickly—had to get quite familiar and comfortable with digital learning. Suddenly, the impetus for this column, bringing together discussions and practices across the variety of areas of digital learning, was thrust into the forefront of all of our minds.
And once you are reading this column, things will have undoubtedly shifted again.
The Intersection of Digital Learning
Digital learning is a broad term that can (and, I argue, should) contain and include multiple stakeholders: campus IT, online learning, open‐education resources (OERs), faculty development, digital humanities, and academic technology. But rarely are these seemingly disparate but interconnected disciplines or units or professions put in conversation with one another. It is the nature of the institutions we work in, siloed not only by discipline, but also by service units on campus. These areas are represented by individuals carrying a variety of titles, from faculty to staff to administrator, often acting under different administrative structures within the university.
There are few people who sit at the intersection of what makes up digital learning. The purpose of this column, then, is to help increase the number of people at that intersection by pulling together what all of these various stakeholders are recommending and doing about a challenge or issue.
What can we learn from our colleagues in the library doing OER work, academic technologists working with faculty to integrate technology, instructional designers working on hybrid and online classes, digital humanists designing born‐digital assignments and research projects, and IT professionals who are hearing daily from the students and faculty while also making purchasing decisions for our institutions?
The Impact of COVID‐19
Because of COVID‐19, there's an unprecedented move to online spaces for distance learning. (We are carefully not calling these online classes, as a true online class would take months to design and build.) This shift has amplified the interconnectedness of these various units and experts on our campuses. On my own campus, there has been, in response to this needed shift to distance delivery, a level of collaboration between units and the individuals therein that I have never witnessed before. The silos have necessarily come down, and we are all working together to help faculty and students be as successful as possible. We are bringing our individual expertise into conversation with one another, with one goal in mind: to make the best of an unexpected and less‐than‐ideal situation for our students.
My hope is that after this crisis, we continue to see the value in having these conversations. The generosity and openness I have seen and experienced not only on my own campus but across all of higher education is inspiring. It, I keep saying, could be like this all the time. And yet, it also feels like we won't be able to return to business as usual once we're allowed to leave our homes again. So then, how do we keep these conversations—these collaborations—moving forward?
Digital learning isn't about the tools but about our shared humanity and community as we all navigate an increasingly digital environment.
This column was initially meant to start these conversations about digital learning, but now it feels more urgent than ever to create spaces to keep these conversations alive, to amplify them in spaces where they may not have been as visible previously.
Unequal Access
One thing this crisis has brought into sharp focus is the unequal access to support and resources across institutions. I now work at an institution that has a robust digital infrastructure as well as a large staff to support those who are using it for teaching and learning.
Previously, however, I worked at an institution much like the ones where the majority of faculty work: regional public institutions that have faced year after year of cuts. The COVID‐19 crisis highlights how these cuts have impacted teaching and learning on the ground. I have heard from so many colleagues who are overwhelmed while also feeling unprepared and undersupported.
Our students face challenges due to unequal access, and we are finally taking those considerations seriously as institutions. As we move to distance delivery, our students are moving into spaces where they may not have access to the tools, technology and infrastructure necessary to keep learning this semester. Advice like “Just go to the public library or Starbucks” is no longer useful or relevant, as entire cities, states and countries are shutting down. Faculty, too, are facing these limitations in infrastructure, especially adjuncts who are already in precarious labor situations. They are now in a situation as bad as, if not worse than, the one facing our students.
Learning Together
This column, then, isn't about any one specific technology. Instead, I'm writing about how we can learn from one another and adapt given our and our students' realities. While we all want to do what's best for our students and ourselves as educators, the current crisis makes that hard to achieve. And I am increasingly wary of ed‐tech companies swooping in in times of crisis like this one, offering their services for free for the moment and exploiting desperate institutions, faculty and students. Digital learning must take ethical considerations such as data management, privacy and intellectual property into consideration.
For me, digital learning isn't about the tools but about our shared humanity and community as we all navigate an increasingly digital environment. Your learning is already digital, whether you like it or not. For example, the word processor and electronic library databases have fundamentally shifted what we expect and require from our students when it comes to research essays and projects. We have been adapting and adopting and integrating digital technologies into our teaching for decades now, but the pace has been accelerated, even more so as of March 2020. This column is a place for us to slow down, reflect on and be mindful and purposeful about how we're using digital technologies in teaching and learning.
I hope that when you are reading this that the rest of your semester or quarter went as smoothly as possible given the circumstances. I hope that you and your students found ways to learn and support one another through these difficult, confusing times. I hope you were kind to yourself, your colleagues and your students, and found connection through digital tools. I hope this experience didn't sour you completely on digital technologies and pedagogy, because we have an opportunity now to carry these lessons, discoveries and experiences forward in a critical and responsible way, improving teaching and learning for all of us.