Distance Learning and the Question of Educational Justice: A Dialogic Approach to Digital Diversity in Schools

Abstract

This chapter introduces a theory of postdigital recognition that highlights the vulnerable, empowered, critical, and resistant learner in transformative education via co-creative learning settings. It problematizes digital learning in online scenarios fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly drill-and-practice routines, and shows how, while e-portfolios can overcome the schematized self-guidance demanded by drill-and-practice scenarios, they can also exercise a more harmful form of control as a result of postdigital practices that norm creativity. This can be particularly harmful to disadvantaged students. Similarly, while video conferences provide a digital space in which processes of transformative education can be inspired, these are also prone to the postdigital pressures of control and contingency. The theory of postdigital recognition proposed by the author empowers students to interact with digitality in a meaningful and responsible manner.