Networked Learning and Digital Equity
This strand acknowledges the powerful role of digital technologies in our everyday living and learning with a focus on the ways technology can be used to promote connections, participation, co-creation and knowledge building. Drawing on networked learning theory and on design for learning, projects in this strand conceptualize learning activity in connection to networks of multiple actors, who are usually engaged in particular ways of knowing, whilst interacting with digital and material elements. Our projects foreground analysis and design of multi-layered assemblages of artefacts, tools, places, ideas and people, looking at how multiple elements come together to influence the overall quality of a learning environment and the ensuing experiences of learners.
Projects in this strand also investigate ways of promoting digital inclusion, emphasizing the need for building up human capability, for creative initiatives and innovative ideas that promote digital equity – where all in the community would have the same ability to meaningfully participate in our digital world. This includes both access to digital technologies and processes, as well as having the knowledge to meaningfully use them.