PHUV9510 Kunnskap og desinformasjon: Undervisning og læring i et digitalt samfunn Emneplan

Children and young people are growing up in an increasingly digital society, and research is needed to understand how they navigate and live with ubiquitous technology permeating the fabric of their everyday lives. Digital technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners. Simultaneously digital technology can bring with it several challenges, such as the spread of misinformation, online harassment, and overall ethical concerns. Ultimately digital technology can tremendously impact how people communicate and engage with each other while also increasing the knowledge available. This course seeks to deepen understanding of how digital technology, schools and society interact.

Historically, the culture of education has tended to be local, rooted in neighborhood schools, yet the problems facing education today are no longer confined to local issues and concerns. This is partly due to the increasing use and importance of digital technology in society, which now means that the boundaries of the classroom have been expanded and can include input, information, and knowledge from outside the classroom. What happens outside of school can also affect what happens inside the classroom. As a result, educators are confronting challenges in a variety of areas, from the onslaught against democratic practices the rise of nationalism and populism, as well as the continued inequities made all the more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this course, we are concerned with an understanding of, in general, citizenship but particularly, digital citizenship. For practitioners, scholars and policy makers, it is crucial to understand how education and society can enable children and young people to manage and be resilient to many of the challenges that arise due to digital technology including issues such as safety, health, cyberbullying, and misinformation (fake news) while also being aware of their rights and responsibilities in the digital world as digital citizens.

This course will be taught in English.

After completion of the course, the student will have acquired the following learning outcomes, defined as knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• has knowledge of the historical and epistemological issues connected to different perspectives on the role of digital technology in terms of information and misinformation
• has and understanding of the methodological, philosophical and interdisciplinary topics that are embedded in digital spaces and can distinguish between related methodologies and philosophical standpoints
• understands and can critically evaluate the mechanisms and research around the challenges facing education in relation to digital spaces

Skills

The student

• can identify, examine and analyse current issues and challenges facing education in addressing issues around the influences of digital technology and polarised discourses
• is able to analyse and discuss complex methodological, philosophical and interdisciplinary issues in their own thesis in light of the course content

General competence

The student

• can recognize how trends and patterns in micro, mezzo and macro discourses shift practices in education
• can identify and discuss relationships and conflicts between more general scientific theories and this particular field of research
• can critically evaluate complex issues related to the effects of digital technology on information and misinformation

Course sessions include lectures, discussions, small group exercises, and text feedback sessions. The course is planned to take place over three consecutive days. In lectures and discussions, students will be introduced to relevant theories and methods. Candidates are expected to participate in all learning activities. Candidates are expected to give oral feedback on other students’ work.

Preparations for the course

Candidates are expected to read the syllabus and prepare a ten-minute presentation on their dissertation work related to the course topic before the course to be able to participate in discussions and activities.

The coursework requirements

Mandatory participation, an oral presentation, a paper draft and oral feedback to a co-student’s paper.

1. Mandatory participation: During the course days, full participation is required. If a participant has attended at least 75% of the course, but less than 90%, they must submit an extra paper of at least 2000 words, plus a reference on a given topic.
2. The oral presentation is to be prepared before the course starts and presented on the second day of the course. The oral presentation should be no longer than ten minutes. The topic of the presentation must relate to the course topic in a way that is relevant to the student’s PhD projects. Following the presentation, there will be a five- to ten-minute discussion.
3. The oral presentation will serve as the foundation for a paper draft. The paper draft should be a minimum of 1000 and a maximum of 1500 words.
4. Oral feedback: Each student will comment orally (3-5 minutes) on one co-student’s presentation.

The candidate will write an individual paper based on the presentation and the comments by the student and staff, of 3500 words (+/- 10%) plus a reference list. The paper must be written in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.

New and postponed examination

In case of a failed exam/valid absence, the candidate may have a new exam under the same conditions when a new/postponed exam is arranged. If the paper is graded with "fail", the candidate must submit a revised version within a given time limit.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

The learning outcomes serve as criteria for assessments. The grades are "pass" or "fail".

The paper will be assessed by two course coordinators, except in cases where the exam is written in Norwegian, Danish or Swedish the essay will be examined by one of the course coordinators and a member of the academic staff involved in the PhD-program with relevant expertise on the course topic.