No abstract

This article is a multi-authored response to an editorial ‵Postdigital Science and Educa-tion′ published in 2018 by Petar Jandrić, Jeremy Knox, Tina Besley, Thomas Ryberg, Juha Suoranta and Sarah Hayes in Educational Philosophy and Theory as a mission statement for the journal Postdigital Science and Education. Nineteen authors were invited to produce their sections, followed by two author-reviewers who examined the article as a whole. Authors' responses signal the sense of urgency for developing the concept of the postdigital and caution about attempts at simplifying complex relationships between human beings and technology. Whilst the digital indeed seems to become invisible, we simultaneously need to beware of its apparent absence and to avoid overemphasizing its effects. In this attempt, authors offer a wide range of signposts for future research such as 'the critical postdigital' and 'postdigital reflexivity'; they also warn about the group's own shortcomings such as the lack of 'real' sense of collectivity. They emphasize that postdigital education must remain a common good, discuss its various negative aspects such as smartphone addiction and nomophobia, and exhibit some positive examples of postdigital educational praxis. They discuss various aspects of postdigital identities and point towards the need for a postdigital identity theory. With these varied and nuanced responses, the article opens a wide spectrum of opportunity for the development of postdigital approaches to science and education for the future.

Exploring staff attitudes to distance learning-what are the opportunities, challenges and impacts on engineering academics and instructional designers. Higher Education Institutions often see distance learning as a means of expanding student numbers and increasing global reach and reputation. Much of the academic literature, however, remains focused on the impact of distance learning on students and the technologies that support it, rather than considering the impact on those staff that are tasked with designing and delivering it. We describe a qualitative study across two engineering departments in a research-intensive UK university, which examines staff perceptions of the impact of converting programmes from successful on-campus ones to distance learning. The findings provide a rich picture of the practical concerns that individual academics have over the impact of distance learning on pedagogy, on technology, on their institution, on students and on themselves. This is an important contribution to the literature that should benefit other engineering departments around the globe who are also grappling with the opportunities and challenges of distance learning.

No abstract

He is also a member of the Centre for Technological Futures, and Lancaster's Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning. His research background takes in Psychoanalysis, Continental Philosophy and Literary Theory, and is particularly interested in how, at the intersection of these diverse intellectual traditions, there is a critically unique engagement with technology. His current research reads that engagement in the context of higher education, and addresses the impact of digital technologies on academic identity and practice, particularly in terms of automation, surveillance and the organisational structures of the university.