1. Shaping the Future of Digital Humanities:
Off the Rails and Other Critical Tales
Professor Mark Brown
Lausanne, Switzerland
23rd March 2017
#dariahTeach Open Education Workshop

7. To whom were these questions
addressed B.G.?
…before Google

8. Fernglen 1876Omagh Napier

9. Special Edition

12. Outline
1. Digital literacies
2. Refocusing the lens
3. Designing for better futures
Shaping the Future of Digital Humanities:
Off the Rails and Other Critical Tales

13. Key messages
The Rhetoric Reality Gap

14. Key messages

15. 1. Digital literacies…

16. 1. Digital literacies…
• What is digital literacy?
• Who is defining digital literacy?
• What is missing from definitions?
Framing questions…

20. “As the chapters that follow
attest, the most immediately
obvious facts about accounts
of digital literacy are that
there are many of them
and that there are
significantly different kinds
of concepts on offer”
(Lankshear & Knobel, 2008, p.2).

21. Identified over 100 models and frameworks which to
greater or lesser extent purport to encapsulate the
various dimensions of digital skills, literacies or
competencies.

26. “I’ve been asked many times for a diagram of
the eight essential elements, something that
will fit nicely on a PowerPoint slide. While I can
do so I feel that this perpetuates a problem I’ve
seen time and time again... People over-specify
an answer to a question that differs massively
according to the context”
(Doug Belshaw, 2015, p.58).

27. DigComp

28. For the purpose of this report we can define digital skills, literacies or
competencies as ....
“the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning
and working in a digital society, with the knowledge
that a digital society is ever evolving” (p.18).

30. The uncertain future
requires us to get off the rails

31. Critical
Consumers
Critical
Citizens
RECONCEPTUALIST
FRAMEWORK
(Delors Report, 1972)
LEARNING
TO BE
LEARNING
TO KNOW
LEARNING
TO DO
LEARNING
TO LIVE
TOGETHER
Critical
Thinkers

32. 2. Refocusing the lens…

33. Running
to catch a
moving train...
2. Refocusing the lens…

34. “It is theory that
decides what we can observe”

35. Knowledge Economy
Mark Brown, 2016
• Openness
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES

36. “Frankly, all the computers and software and
Internet connections in the world won’t do
much good if young people don’t understand
that access to new technology means…
access to the new economy”
(President Bill Clinton; cited in Cuban, 2001, p.18).

37. Knowledge Economy
Learning Society
Mark Brown, 2016
• Openness
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES

38. “Higher education has a crucial role to play in
laying the foundations of a society that is
more inclusive, participatory and
equal...” The President said “…the role of
the university in enabling citizens to develop
the tools to address the great challenges of
our time – global poverty, climate
change and sustainability – was vital.

39. Different interest groups and stakeholders borrow
the same ‘language of persuasion’
to legitimize their own agenda

40. Learning Society
Knowledge Economy
Mark Brown, 2016
• Openness
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
Reproducing
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Social cohension
• Cultural heritage
Reschooling
• Competencies
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology as progress
• Increased market competition
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES

41. https://about.futurelearn.com/press-releases/futurelearn-delivers-the-largest-mooc-ever-as-nearly-400000-learners-convene-for-english-language-learning/

42. “UK MOOC snatches world
record for sign-ups. UK quality
beating US $$?”

43. Learning Society
Knowledge Economy
Mark Brown, 2016
Deschooling
• Democratic
• Opening access
• Micro credentials
• Personalized learning
• Openness
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
Reproducing
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Social cohension
• Cultural heritage
Reschooling
• Competencies
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology as progress
• Increased market competition
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES

48. Personalised Learning

49. ReconceptualizingDeschooling
ReschoolingReproducing
• Democratic
• Opening access
• Micro credentials
• Personalized learning
Learning Society
Knowledge Economy
Mark Brown, 2016
• Competencies
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology as progress
• Increased market competition
• Just society
• Lifelong learning
• Pillars of learning
• Education for citizenry
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Social cohension
• Cultural heritage
• Openness
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES

52. 3. Designing for better futures…

53. What type of
sustainable society do we
want the use of new
digital technology
to serve?
Framing question…
3. Designing for better futures…

54. Digital Humanities 1.0
- Online repositories
Digital Humanities 2.0
- De-centrering knowledge
Digital Humanities 3.0
- Education for active citizenry

56. The Placenames Database of
Ireland, developed by Fiontar &
Scoil na Gaeilge, DCU and The
Placenames Branch (Department of
Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and
Gaeltacht Affairs).

59. Conclusion

60. Conclusion
Three final remarks….
• Questions about literacy
• Not on independent trajectory
• Promote citizenry for better futures

61. Conclusion
Critical Future Makers

62. Conclusion
(adapted from Barnett, 2011)
“Digital Humanities
should allows us to
explore new frontiers
in the service of
big ideas,
not as a big idea
in itself”

63. Go raibh
maith
agaibh!

64. Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
www.dcu.ie/nidlmark.brown@dcu.ie
@mbrownz www.slideshare.net/mbrownz