The digital and technological lifeworld, teaching and learning in the21st CenturyNathan Hutchings (Director of Information and eLearning Technologies)

Lifeworld, what is it?

• Edmund Husserl (1858–1938) used the term “life-world” (Lebenswelt)

• All the immediate experiences, activities, and contacts that make up the world of an individual or corporate life.

• The life-world includes individual, social, perceptual, and practical experiences.

How do we reveal a lifeworld?• Phenomenology, the study of structures of

consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object.

Which version of revealing?• Transcendental constitutive phenomenology • Naturalistic constitutive phenomenology• Existential phenomenology• Generative historicist phenomenology• Hermeneutical phenomenology• Realistic phenomenology

Philosophy of Science & Technology• “Science concerns itself with what is, whereas technology

concerns itself with what is to be” (Skolimowski 1966)• Technology is an ongoing attempt to bring the world

closer to the way one wishes it to be. Whereas science aims to understand the world as it is, technology aims to change the world.

• But who controls the change in technology and then possibly the world?

• How do these changes effect the way we see and interact with the world?• Questions for Philosophers of technology.

Human technology relations

• Seeing through the device• How is what is seen changed by the

device?• Who has access to the device?• What happens when the gaze is turned

towards us?• What is left out is equally as important

as what is included

Philosopher of technology

• Don Ihde’s phenomenology of technics helps us understand technology as it mediates our interaction with the world

• Our lifeworld is shaped by technology and how we interact through and with it

Digital life world, critics

• Sherry has a distinct point of view as a mother, grandmother and psychologist

• Susan sees things through the eyes of a neuroscientist

Our students digital life world at home • Is this familiar?• What is the digital lifeworld of each person at

the table?• Each is using a different device and so their

experience ismediated in subtle and not so subtle ways

• Filter bubbles curate what you see likea fine tuned TV channel

Our students digital life world at home • Computer Game culture• Hex from ABC goodgame is a positive move

towards giving girls a voice• Girls are a sizable part of the gaming market

but outdated gender stereo types stillproliferate

Our students digital life world, at school• Many students have more than one

device• The mobile phone is the most private of

devices • Multiple devices being used at the same

time• Internet connectivity expected, like

water and power• Expectation that an individuals devices

share data topersonalize the experience

• Technology as fashion, Apple being a primeexample

• Girls very under represented in IT subjects and industry

Technologies accessible to our students,mediation of their digital life world• Multiple technologies and digital devices available for

use in the curriculum• Coding using age appropriate tools • Mobile Telepresence• Robotics• 3D Printing• Drones• Online learning management system• Virtual environments • Programmable electronics

Mobile Telepresence

• Middle years student unable to attend due to illness.

• Attend school via the Double using a College supplied device.

• Remotely attend English and Math classes for one week

• Socialised with friends during homeroom and morning tea

• Connected via Mac Air using Chrome Browser using home Wi-Fi

Humanoid robotics• Programmable on both Windows

and Mac platforms• Programming requires thinking

about multiple sensors and environments

• NAO platform currently used at many universities and increasingly secondary schools

• Programming tools are accessible for year 5 and more advanced programming possible for senior years

3D Printing

• Used for rapid prototyping • Designing in 3D software then

creating an artifact• Scanning existing objects and

modifying or reproducing them

Drones• Capture images and video otherwise recently impossible at

an affordable price• Students rethink how they frame and use action when

creating video• Use at School sporting events • Rapid uptake in use in primary industries and marketing

Online Learning, anywhere anytime• Accessible across

different platforms• Online timetable for

students and teachers

• Upload and download assessment

• Video• Polls • Quizzes to check

for understanding

Virtual environments

• Minecraft Edu, like Lego but in a virtual world

• Girls created a Minecraft version of our College

• Working in 3D immersive environments which a commonin many emerging industries and establishedindustries such as computer game development and movies FX

• Girls also practice appropriate online behaviors within a safe environment

Their technological and digital lifeworld

• Experiences that we see as innovative are quickly seen as ordinary

• Digital devices are a consumable good • Ubiquitous access to the internet • Social advantage and disadvantage delineated

by digital network and technology access• Technological literacy is about using the

device to create and manipulate experience,to become the creator rather than the consumer and the manipulated

Human technology relationsRich descriptions of human technology relations shed light on how we act, react and form new ways of being human in a world embedded with technology in all its variety.

The future…

• Convergence of networked devices • Robots, but not as we know them • Increase in speed, resolution and

immersiveness of technology mediated experiences

• Prosthetics and human technology interfaces

• Increased use of semi -autonomous and fullyautomated drones in civilian and military environments

Thank you for listening

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