Rethinking Learning in an Age of Digital Fluency : Is being digitally tethered a new learning nexus?

Digital connectivity is a phenomenon of the 21st century and while many have debated its impact on society, few have researched relationship between the changes taking place and the actual impact on learning.

Engagement with digital media and slipping through digital spaces with ease is something that many (young) people appear to do well, although the tangible benefits of this are unclear. Research to date has largely focused on the negative effects of the ‘always on’ culture, characterized by engaging with Facebook, Twitter, and 24 hour texting, but few have examined the advantages of this constant ‘digital tethering’. Further there are also unfounded negative opinions about it that reverberate across not only the media but also academia.

"This is a book that I am going to have to own, and will work to find contexts in which to recommend.　 It cuts obliquely through so many important domains of evidence and scholarship that it cannot but be a valuable stimulus" -Hamish Macleod, University of Edinburgh　

Digital connectivity is a phenomenon of the 21st century and while many have debated its impact on society, few have researched relationship between the changes taking place and the actual impact on learning. Rethinking Learning in an Age of Digital Fluency examines what kind of impact an increasingly connected environment is having on learning and what kind of culture it is creating within learning settings.

Engagement with digital media and navigating through digital spaces with ease is something that many young people appear to do well, although the tangible benefits of this are unclear. This book, therefore, will present an overview of current research and practice in the area of digital tethering, whilst examining how it could be used to harness new learning and engagement practices that are fit for the modern age. Questions that the book also addresses include:

• Is being digital tethered a new learning nexus?
• Are social networking sites spaces for co-production of knowledge and spaces of inclusive learning?
• Are students who are digitally tethered creating new learning maps and pedagogies?
• Does digital tethering enable students to use digital media to create new learning spaces?

This fascinating and at times controversial text engages with numerous aspects of digital learning amongst undergraduate students including mobile learning, individual and collaborative learning, viral networking, self-publication and identity dissemination. It will be of enormous interest to researchers and students in education and educational psychology.