Digitalization presents the world with new opportunities, but also with significant challenges. Digital technologies can have both beneficial and adverse effects on their users. This dual nature is encapsulated by the term “pharmakon”, as described by contemporary thinker of technology Bernard Stiegler (2010; 2012), since in Greek, pharmakon denotes both a poison and a cure, reflecting thus the dual characteristics of digital technologies.
Stiegler’s work offers valuable insights on the impact of digitalization on education and society. He argues that digital technologies transform not only the way we access information but also the very fabric of our cognitive and social structures. For this reason, Stiegler (2010; 2012) emphasizes the need for a critical approach to digital literacy that goes beyond the mere teaching of technical skills to include an understanding of the broader implications of digital technologies. This perspective aligns with the main objectives of the Teachers 4.0 Digital project.
For this reason, this article relies on the thought of Bernard Stiegler in order to explore:
a) the nature of digitalization,
b) the challenges digitalization poses for education and educators (with an emphasis on misinformation and disinformation),
c) the alignment of these challenges with the aims of the Teachers 4.0 Digital project, and
d) the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute’s (CPI) involvement in the Teachers 4.0 Digital project.
A) The Nature of Digitalization
Digital tools offer numerous opportunities and challenges for education. The simplest effect of digital tools is their ability to convert analog information into more accessible digital formats, a process known as digitization.
Digitalization, however, is a broader phenomenon involving the restructuring of environments, processes, objects, interactions, and behaviors through the creation and use of digital tools. Digitalization offers increased accessibility and connectivity, leading to greater efficiency and productivity, and new opportunities for data management, analysis, personalization, remote work, learning, and healthcare. Digitalization fosters innovation and creativity by providing new ways to create, share, and collaborate on content. Digital tools also enable interactive and user-friendly services that improve user satisfaction and engagement, provide 24/7 services and support, and facilitate online learning platforms that make education accessible to a broader audience through interactive and engaging experiences using multimedia and gamification.
The benefits of digitalization rely on characteristics such as increased accessibility, connectivity, speed, automation, and enhanced information storage. These characteristics interact between them to create new human environments and processes. For instance, the material book, a traditional technology, stores specific information and conditions the reader’s time and thinking patterns. Similarly, digital technologies, or “mnemotechnologies,” as Stiegler (2010; 2012) calls them, store memories and are available anywhere at any time, having thus a dual nature: they can enhance cognitive capabilities but also pose risks for human cognition.
B) The Challenges Digitalization Poses for Education and Educators
Misinformation and disinformation are significant challenges related to digitalization. Digital mnemotechnologies accelerate the production and dissemination of information, which can enhance knowledge sharing but also lead to information overload and difficulties in discerning credible sources from disinformation. This highlights the importance of carefully designed digital literacy educational programs and the crucial role of educators.
The role of educators is both difficult and important because education takes place in a society already conditioned by digitalization. Educators thus need to understand how digitalization affects their world and how their students’ worlds possibly differ from their own. Furthermore, educators must find innovative ways to teach about and through digitalization, help students critically understand it, and encourage critical thinking in general. Educators must therefore explore the pharmacological potential of digitalization – that is, the possibility for smart and creative uses – with their students.
An example of such exploration could take place with the case of large language models like Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4), which can potentially automate students’ thinking processes. Educators should respond to this by cultivating skills for critically understanding such technology, addressing ontological concerns (what is the nature of this technology) and ethical concerns (what should one do with such technology).
Such approach is quite aligned with disclosive ethics that is not simply invested in the investigation of possible uses of technology but also in the ‘deciphering of embedded values and norms in computer systems, applications and practices’ (see Brey 2000, 10). Teachers then should encourage students to think of digital objects as ‘culturally-embedded artefacts’ (Falloon, 2020, 2457), which carry not only affordances but also diverse values and even biases, and experiment with new, thought-provoking questions, ones not already questioned.
C) Teachers 4.0 Digital Project
As already discussed, the digital age presents significant challenges for educators worldwide. In response, the Teachers 4.0 Digital Project, run under the auspices of the European Union, aims to create a comprehensive framework for digital literacy and critical thinking in European classrooms. The project aims to:
– Develop a comprehensive curriculum that will guide teachers and educators in the ways they may teach their students the necessary skills to thrive in the digital age.
– Design a University course on the topic of combating disinformation and digital literacy: In addition to integrating elements of digital literacy into all initial teacher education courses, a specific course on combating disinformation, building resilience, as well as digital and information literacy will be developed as a separate course.
– Develop an e-Learning platform for the upskilling of thousands of primary and secondary school education teachers and educators that will offer the Teachers 4.0 Digital course in a blended learning format in six European languages: Bulgarian, English, Greek, Italian, Polish and Romanian.
As evident the project employs various strategies to equip preservice and in-service teachers with knowledge and skills (see Hobbs, 2017). It will thus offer a curriculum with specially designed modules for preservice teachers’ education and for in-service teachers’ training accordingly, and an e-learning platform for collaboration and interaction, giving emphasis to both skills and cultural practices involving digital tools. The education provided by the project will help both current and future teachers to offer their students key skills, knowledge and attitudes for the development of their digital competence (European Commission, 2019).
D) The CPI’s involvement with the Teachers 4.0 Digital project
The Cyprus Pedagogical Institute (CPI), particularly its In-Service Training Department, has evolved its approach to teachers’ professional growth over the past decade. The focus has shifted from traditional top-down methodologies of “teacher training” and “professional development” to more dynamic “professional learning” programs (Eracleous et al., 2020). This new approach promotes educational models that enhance teachers’ professional autonomy, initiative, and capacity for change (Kennedy, 2014). As a result, teachers’ professional learning has increasingly become school-based, incorporating action research, lesson study and quality-teaching methodologies (Eracleous et al., 2020). It also emphasizes the establishment of learning and professional communities and school networks.
CPI’s participation in the Teachers 4.0 Digital project presents a significant opportunity to enhance the digital literacy and critical thinking skills of participating educators. By providing comprehensive professional learning, a relevant curriculum, and valuable resources and tools, the project will enable Cypriot teachers to effectively teach matters of digital literacy and tackling disinformation (vertically and transversally) in their classrooms. This, in turn, will empower teachers to provide students with educational experiences that foster discernment and resilience in the digital age, contributing to a more informed and resilient society.
For more information, check out the Teachers 4.0 Digital project website.
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References
Brey, Ph. (2000). Disclosive computer ethics. Computers and Society, 30 (4):10-16.
Eracleous, M., Kouppanou, A., Paparistodemou, E., Pitzioli, M., Savva, P., Stavrou, H., & Hadjitheodoulou-Loizidou, P. (2020). Teachers’ Professional Learning Programme in Schools. A Guide for Planning, Implementation and Support. Nicosia: Cyprus Pedagogical Institute.
Falloon, G. (2020) From digital literacy to digital competence: the teacher digital competency (TDC) framework. Education Tech Research and Development, 68 :2449–2472, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09767-4.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Approaches to teacher professional development in digital media literacy education. In B. De Abreu, P. Mihailidis, A. Lee, J. Melki & J. McDougall (Eds), International Handbook of Media Literacy Education (pp. 88 – 113). New York: Routledge.
Kennedy, A. (2014). Models for continuing professional development: a framework for analysis. Professional Development in Education, 40(3), 336–351.
Stiegler, B. (2010). Taking Care of Youth and the Generations. Stanford University Press.
Stiegler, B. (2012). States of Shock: Stupidity and Knowledge in the 21st Century. Polity Press.
Teachers4digital (n.d.). project. https://teachers4digitalage.eu/en/project/ (accessed 18 June 2024).
European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (2019). Key competences for lifelong learning. Publications Office. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/569540 (accessed 18 June 2024)