Beyond a ‘noticing stance’: Postdigital research and implications for practice

As educational technology researchers and practitioners who support technical systems and design academic development opportunities for lecturers, questioning and disrupting the ‘digital dualism’ entailed in how others understand our role and various forms of hybrid learning presents complexities. In this presentation we share our experiences, recent publications and discuss what conducting postdigital research and engaging with the work of others during the pandemic in this field means to us as educational technology specialists working at a resource constrained, yet research intensive South African university. We share our research approaches and practices as well as opportunities and challenges encountered along the way. These include different approaches to collaborative research, autoethnography and case studies. In particular, we discuss how sociomaterialism and posthumanism shapes our postdigital perspective and informs how we understand and conduct postdigital research and the different relationalities involved. However, sociomaterialism on it’s own is not enough. We argue for the need for additional concepts and approaches to recognise digital inequalities and social justice implications in particular contexts through better understanding the entanglement of the micro and systemic. Once you develop a ‘noticing stance’ (Gourlay, 2021; Gravett, Taylor & Fairchild, 2021) what do you do with it? We discuss implications for practice to inspire fellow researcher-practitioners who are embarking on (or already travelling) the journey of postdigital research.

References Gourlay, L. 2021. Posthumanism and the Digital University. London: Bloomsbury. Gravett, K.; Taylor, C.A. & Fairchild, N. 2021. Pedagogies of mattering: re-conceptualising relational pedagogies in higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580

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