Higher education students' experiences of digital learning and (dis)empowerment

Costa, Cristina; Murphy, Mark; Pereira, Ana Lucia; Taylor, Yvette

Abstract

This paper focuses on learning practices in higher education in relation to a digital participatory culture. Using key principles of critical education, the research set out to explore higher education students' sense of agency online - or lack of it -as part of their formal learning practices. The research found that although students were proficient Web users, they did not exercise their learner agency beyond what they assumed to be expected of them, thus evidencing the stability of their learning habitus in relation to the learning conventions associated with the academic field. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, is students' perception of the Web not only as a space of student participation, but also as a space of student surveillance. Such perceptions constitute real obstacles to meaningful participation as a form learning.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 30, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 20, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 20, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 13, 2018
• Journal: The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
• Print ISSN: 1449-3098
• Electronic ISSN: 1449-5554
• Publisher: Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 140-152
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3979
• Keywords: digital practices, digital education, empowerment, surveillance, habitus, doxa
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/869540
• Publisher URL: https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/3979
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is the authors accepted manuscript. The final published version is available here: https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/3979.
• Contract Date: Mar 15, 2018