1. The digital and technological lifeworld,
teaching and learning in the
21st Century
Nathan Hutchings (Director of Information and eLearning Technologies)

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 is
mediated in subtle and not so subtle ways
• Filter bubbles curate what you see like
a fine tuned TV channel

10. 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 still
proliferate

11. 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 to
personalize the experience
• Technology as fashion, Apple being a prime
example
• Girls very under represented in IT subjects and
industry

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 3D Printing
• Used for rapid prototyping
• Designing in 3D software then creating an artifact
• Scanning existing objects and modifying or
reproducing them

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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 common
in many emerging industries and established
industries such as computer game
development and movies FX
• Girls also practice appropriate online
behaviors within a safe environment

19. 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

20. Human technology relations
Rich 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.

21. 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 fully
automated drones in civilian and
military environments

22. Thank you for listening
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