Design as a Discipline for Postdigital Learning and Teaching: Bricolage and Actor-Network Theory

Abstract

Digital technologies for learning and teaching have promised much in higher education (HE). There has become, however, a dualism between digital and non-digital and a technological determinism which in some cases promotes digital technologies as being innately superior to the non-digital. There is pressure on universities to provide learning and teaching in new ways in the face of regulation, as well as increased numbers and diversity of students. The postdigital perspective allows for the appropriate approaches and tools to be used. Design for learning and teaching in HE has developed interventions which promote use of digital resources, but for some have not yet met the promise of 'enhancing' learning. Moving outside of education, approaches from design as a discipline are sketched out, including design thinking and the epistemology of design. All of these show how designers (in general) go about their work. How designs come about can be analysed by using the framework of people (epistemology), processes (praxeology) and products (phenomenology) in design. Actor-network theory is used as an approach across each stage of this framework, and those designing in HE are encouraged to be bricoleurs, using a variety of tools for the job at hand and to think of the designs as assemblages. The ideas described here are useful for the practices of those involved in the design of learning and teaching.

Review of Mark Andrejevic (2020). Automated Media

“…However, a key debate and further work from a postdigital perspective could prove fruitful in taking critical perspectives to framelessness as a reaction to automated media. For example, when adopting a flat ontology between humans and technologies with actor-network theory, a key decision for researchers and practitioners (in many fields) is where does the frame begin and end in a sociology of assemblages between the human and non-human, space and time, analogue and digital, and disciplinary perspectives (Matthews 2019 ). The issue of frames is key for a future of blurring boundaries between human and non-human (Matthews 2020 ) and academic disciplines (Jandrić 2021 ).…”

On Semiotics Perspectives of Computational Thinking: Unravelling the “Pamphlet” Approach, a Case Study

“…In general, two design paradigms can be mentioned. The first, positivist, is based on the work of Simon [30], which argues for systematic approaches to design, and the other, pragmatic, is constructivist, which leads to a kind of "bricolage" approach to design [31]. The latter, a constructionist [32] vision, gives us an idea of how to consider the aspects of designing CT: we should design it from "materials" and "blanks" that are available and "at hand regardless of the digital/non-digital aware of critical pedagogy, not to be seduced by the technological determinist discourse and to increase agency for all involved" [31].…”

“…The meaning of "network" further refers to a number of considerations related to ANT and its design applications [29,31]. In line with all this, the following program could be implemented in the design of a CT:…”

Developing Inclusive Pedagogies in HE through an Understanding of the Learner-Consumer: Promiscuity, Hybridisation, and Innovation

“…Understanding and valuing students' motivations and expectations, (rather than seeing them as a 'problem' to be solved), would allow us to co-create learning experiences which reflect the values of diverse consumer groups (i.e. to become more inclusive), and to promote diversity as a way of providing choice through a pluralised approach to learning and teaching which accommodates and enhances students' abilities as 'bricoleurs' (Matthews 2019), in the hybrid spaces of postdigital culture. This is to adopt a market-led approach to curriculum development, in contrast with the established 'research-led' approach which has largely failed to drive innovation in learning and teaching, and requires a new approach to student engagement which recognizes the value of diverse sets of knowledges and competences which students have already acquired, and accommodates a far wider range of learning styles.…”

“…Learner-consumers makes new meanings through a process of 'bricolage', i.e., by re-assembling whatever is available to them (Matthews 2019). New meanings (and identities) emerge when consumers 'appropriate' cultural products whether they are intended to or notthis is a common occurrence in everyday culture.…”