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The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Academic Practice
While industries such as music, newspapers, film and publishing have seen radical changes in their business models and practices as a direct result of new technologies, higher education has so far resisted the wholesale changes we have seen elsewhere. However, a gradual and fundamental shift in the practice of academics is taking place. Every aspect of scholarly practice is seeing changes effected by the adoption and possibilities of new technologies. This book will explore these changes, their implications for higher education, the possibilities for new forms of scholarly practice and what lessons can be drawn from other sectors.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 9, 2011
@mweller has written a fabulous book discusses the challenges and opportunities, myths and realities of the impact of technology on higher education. The book refreshingly avoids the widespread hype about web.2.0 and instead informs about how academics use new technology in research and teaching and how and why some remain resistant to using technology in their work. I highly recommend the book to academics whether they use, plan to use or resist to use technology in their work.
I have been reading the kindle version of the book. Unfortunately, the kindle book does not have a table of content.
The book is available for free from Martin Weller's website
http://nogoodreason.typad.co.uk
I have been reading the kindle version of the book. Unfortunately, the kindle book does not have a table of content.
The book is available for free from Martin Weller's website
http://nogoodreason.typad.co.uk
July 22, 2012
Amid all the structural, political and economic changes currently weaving their ways through contemporary higher education, one of the most incessant demands (alongside the one about being more market savvy and ensuring a high quality ‘student experience’) is the one about how our students are more technologically sophisticated than we are, about how new technological forms are changing the ways we teach and research and about enhanced access to information is changing the world around us. Much of this demand takes the form either of a jeremiad, lamenting the passage of the old ways of teaching and research, sometimes becoming an eschatological proclamation, which in itself may also accompany the advocates of a brave new world of pedagogy and andragogy shaped and governed by virtual learning environments (VLE), ‘bite sized’ study units and ‘consumer-led’ engagement as students, using their technology assisted access to knowledge and information, ‘shop around’ for qualifications. As a result, it is rare to find higher education programmes that do not, in some for, exist on-line – although this is usually an in-house VLE in a market dominated by names such as Blackboard, Moodle, WebCT and other neo-tech-speak that marks the cognoscenti from the luddite.
The heated form of these demands and demands means that someone like Martin Weller, and avowed Ed Techie (to mangle the name of his blog – see http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_...) who adopts a careful and nuanced approach to open education, tech-aware pedagogy and andragogy, and resists the claims of fundamental/revolutionary change in the sector while being well aware of where and how enhanced technological sophistication and ability is likely to take us in our work and our labour is welcome. Weller has constructed an insider’s account of technological shift and development that resists the siren’s call of technological determinism, is well aware of the social and historical basis of higher education’s forms and structures, and builds on what are, to all intents and purposes, quite conventional categories for understanding modes of scholarship. It is this final point that makes to book so useful.
Scholarly activity, for Weller, turns around four basic functions – discovery (finding out stuff), integration (where discoveries are put together in social and intellectual contexts and formations), application (where integrated discoveries are ‘used’ in ‘real world’ – a term I loathe, as if higher education is somehow ‘unreal’ – social, economic and cultural contexts), and teaching (where these discoveries, integrations and applications are deployed in peda- and andragogical contexts). A specific strength of his case is that not only does he see these functions in scholarship but also in the deployment of new technologies in scholarly activity – research, learning and teaching, and ‘knowledge transfer’ as we have come to call forms of public engagement (that is, scholarly work beyond the academy).
In exploring these issues he takes us through a sceptical analysis of the impacts and meanings of abundance, of public engagement, of interdisciplinarity, of openness and of networks – noting that this is a form of scientific-method-scepticism the questions, challenges and critiques the taken-for-granteds of popular and powerful claims. In dong so he considers not only the shifts that are claimed for teaching and research, but also developments such as on-line conferencing, publications, the debates around open access journals and the implications of these shifts for the ways we understand how academics work and questions such as career development and promotion. All of this is then drawn together into a useful discussion of want he calls digital resilience at government and funding body, institutional, disciplinary and individual levels. The key point through all of this that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, which is, in a sense, the logical consequence of his rejection of any form of technological determinism.
In short, this is a compelling case that new digital forms and technologies offer us, as academics, valuable ways to work, study and teach differently all the whole noting that this difference is shaped by our social, cultural and economic worlds. Just as I am sure that the jeremiads are wrong, I am also sure that missionary zeal of those who tell us these technologies are fundamentally changing our world is also misplaced. While I accept that there may be a generational divide, I am also reminded that my students who complain that too much of my popular culture classes are only on-line suggest that it is not monolithic and may not be as great as is often claimed but this is little more than anecdotal evidence: Weller is much more rigorous in this book that is not only scholarly and big-picture, but is also packed with useful and important ways to work and apply the technological new-ness we live with.
Valuable and highly recommended.
The heated form of these demands and demands means that someone like Martin Weller, and avowed Ed Techie (to mangle the name of his blog – see http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_...) who adopts a careful and nuanced approach to open education, tech-aware pedagogy and andragogy, and resists the claims of fundamental/revolutionary change in the sector while being well aware of where and how enhanced technological sophistication and ability is likely to take us in our work and our labour is welcome. Weller has constructed an insider’s account of technological shift and development that resists the siren’s call of technological determinism, is well aware of the social and historical basis of higher education’s forms and structures, and builds on what are, to all intents and purposes, quite conventional categories for understanding modes of scholarship. It is this final point that makes to book so useful.
Scholarly activity, for Weller, turns around four basic functions – discovery (finding out stuff), integration (where discoveries are put together in social and intellectual contexts and formations), application (where integrated discoveries are ‘used’ in ‘real world’ – a term I loathe, as if higher education is somehow ‘unreal’ – social, economic and cultural contexts), and teaching (where these discoveries, integrations and applications are deployed in peda- and andragogical contexts). A specific strength of his case is that not only does he see these functions in scholarship but also in the deployment of new technologies in scholarly activity – research, learning and teaching, and ‘knowledge transfer’ as we have come to call forms of public engagement (that is, scholarly work beyond the academy).
In exploring these issues he takes us through a sceptical analysis of the impacts and meanings of abundance, of public engagement, of interdisciplinarity, of openness and of networks – noting that this is a form of scientific-method-scepticism the questions, challenges and critiques the taken-for-granteds of popular and powerful claims. In dong so he considers not only the shifts that are claimed for teaching and research, but also developments such as on-line conferencing, publications, the debates around open access journals and the implications of these shifts for the ways we understand how academics work and questions such as career development and promotion. All of this is then drawn together into a useful discussion of want he calls digital resilience at government and funding body, institutional, disciplinary and individual levels. The key point through all of this that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, which is, in a sense, the logical consequence of his rejection of any form of technological determinism.
In short, this is a compelling case that new digital forms and technologies offer us, as academics, valuable ways to work, study and teach differently all the whole noting that this difference is shaped by our social, cultural and economic worlds. Just as I am sure that the jeremiads are wrong, I am also sure that missionary zeal of those who tell us these technologies are fundamentally changing our world is also misplaced. While I accept that there may be a generational divide, I am also reminded that my students who complain that too much of my popular culture classes are only on-line suggest that it is not monolithic and may not be as great as is often claimed but this is little more than anecdotal evidence: Weller is much more rigorous in this book that is not only scholarly and big-picture, but is also packed with useful and important ways to work and apply the technological new-ness we live with.
Valuable and highly recommended.
December 2, 2012
Every aspect of scholarly practice is seeing changes effected by the adoption and implementation of new technologies (Weller, 2011). It is the effects that Weller speaks of that are challenging traditions and creating rifts within the academic world. "The Digital Scholar" explores how technology is transforming higher education and not only describes the possibilities for new forms of scholarly practice, but suggests how educators can become part of that possibility.
Weller addresses every aspect within academia [including publishing and research], how each is changing, and incorporates suggestions of how-to adapt to each. Educators will be better prepared to handle change, and even use it to their advantage when they are familiar with how a given technology is influencing an established practice within academia.
Though this book is available from Amazon in various formats (e-book, softcover and hardcover), you can read it free of charge through Bloomsbury Academic [Bloomsbury publishes a select number of its research publications under open content licenses].
I highly recommend this resource for educators working within Higher Education. At least one chapter, if not more, would be relevant to educators, whether technology devices are used or not. The author writes from the perspective not of the user of technology, but from the academic practice's point-of-view, and how it is affected by technology. A subtle but effective approach that sheds light objectively on the changes within each scholarly area. I am optimistic that each reader will find something of interest and value.
Read my full review here at http://wp.me/p1N30w-1kg
Weller addresses every aspect within academia [including publishing and research], how each is changing, and incorporates suggestions of how-to adapt to each. Educators will be better prepared to handle change, and even use it to their advantage when they are familiar with how a given technology is influencing an established practice within academia.
Though this book is available from Amazon in various formats (e-book, softcover and hardcover), you can read it free of charge through Bloomsbury Academic [Bloomsbury publishes a select number of its research publications under open content licenses].
I highly recommend this resource for educators working within Higher Education. At least one chapter, if not more, would be relevant to educators, whether technology devices are used or not. The author writes from the perspective not of the user of technology, but from the academic practice's point-of-view, and how it is affected by technology. A subtle but effective approach that sheds light objectively on the changes within each scholarly area. I am optimistic that each reader will find something of interest and value.
Read my full review here at http://wp.me/p1N30w-1kg
November 3, 2012
I am so disappointed. I have been looking forward to reading this book for weeks. I am teaching a course titled Scholarship at the moment, and I was hoping for an innovative, punchy, creative and imaginative engagement with the potentials of digital scholarship. What I found - in a book published in 2011 - was the conventional discussions remaining in place. In reading each chapter I hoped for new ideas. I found Prensky, a celebration of open access, a discussion of the destruction of the music industry, the challenges to publishing. The usual drill. It did read like a series of blogs, without the expansive and connected argument that I hoped would emerge.
Martin Weller is a great scholar. I have so enjoyed his research in the past. In this book, it simply appears that old ideas are being rehearsed and re-stated. I learnt nothing new. If digital scholarship demands anything, it is a rigorous, passionate and provocative connectivity. That was the propulsion missing from this book.
Martin Weller is a great scholar. I have so enjoyed his research in the past. In this book, it simply appears that old ideas are being rehearsed and re-stated. I learnt nothing new. If digital scholarship demands anything, it is a rigorous, passionate and provocative connectivity. That was the propulsion missing from this book.
October 15, 2016
The world is changing rapidly; is higher education adapting as fast? Martin Weller explores this topic in his book
The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice
*. I found this book to be prophetic as I watch what is happening around me in both higher education (HE) and Extension. As Weller pointed out, and I totally agree, we (HE) can be doing more to adapt to the effect that technology is having on the education profession. Read more
*. I found this book to be prophetic as I watch what is happening around me in both higher education (HE) and Extension. As Weller pointed out, and I totally agree, we (HE) can be doing more to adapt to the effect that technology is having on the education profession. Read more
January 20, 2013
Will cite this book in Ph.D
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews