2021 Conference Highlights
About:
In light of ongoing concerns related to COVID-19, the 2021 Digital Pedagogy Institute was scheduled to be hosted virtually by the University of Toronto Scarborough Library (UTSC), in collaboration with our partners (Brock University, Ryerson University Library and Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, the University of Waterloo, and UTSC’s Centre for Teaching and Learning).
The DPI was virtually relocated to the University of Waterloo and Ryerson University based on the CAUT censure of the University of Toronto. To learn more about this matter, visit the CAUT website.
The two-day virtual conference took place on Tuesday August 10th and Wednesday August 11th, 2021. The conference featured keynote addresses, presentations, workshops, and digital tool training in support of undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning.
While broadly focused on Digital Pedagogy, the conference themes included:
- digital pedagogy best practices in STEM, the Humanities, and the Social Sciences;
- digital pedagogy collaborations between faculty, educational developers, librarians, and/or graduate/undergraduate students;
- digital pedagogy collaborations with organizations outside the academy;
- the state of digital pedagogy education in higher education;
- digital pedagogy case studies, including course and assignment innovations;
- innovative new uses for traditional digital pedagogy tools.
Themes
DPI 2021 included four streams:
- Critical Ideologies and Digital Pedagogy: How do we question and challenge dominant beliefs and practices in the field of Digital Pedagogy? What underlying approaches and questions should we engage with more deeply? How can our pedagogical practices help support new educational priorities and social change?
- Digital (de)colonialism: How have digital pedagogy techniques and tools helped instructors and students address anti-racist and decolonization practices in their curriculum and research? What are the challenges and opportunities? Do you have any best practices to share?
- Inclusivity, Accessibility, and Digital Pedagogy: Issues related to inclusivity and accessibility are at the forefront of Digital Pedagogy. What barriers have you encountered in your research and practice? How have you resolved them? What barriers remain? This is an opportunity to reflect on and share frameworks and best practices that have helped to reduce pedagogical barriers and integrate digital pedagogy approaches.
- Sustainability, renewability, and environmental costs in the digital sphere: Digital pedagogy is not immune to environmental critique. There are environmental impacts associated with generating the power and equipment needed to support digital initiatives. How should we reconcile the benefits of digital pedagogy with its environmental costs? Can digital pedagogy proponents be good environmental stewards?
2021 Keynote speakers
Hannah McGregor is an Assistant Professor of Publishing at Simon Fraser University, where her research focuses on podcasting as scholarly communication, systemic barriers to access in the Canadian publishing industry, and the history of magazines as serial media. She is the co-director of the Amplify Podcast Network, Canada’s first peer-reviewed podcast network, and the creator of the network’s pilot podcast, Secret Feminist Agenda. She is also the co-creator of Witch, Please, a feminist podcast on the Harry Potter world; the host of The SpokenWeb Podcast; and the co-editor of the book Refuse: CanLit in Ruins (Book*hug 2018).
Chris Friend is an Assistant Professor of English, the Director of Hybrid Pedagogy, and producer of the HybridPod podcast. His research work explores the interactions among teaching, learning, and course delivery. He is particularly interested in how technologies of connection and communication influence pedagogy. His recent edited collection, Hybrid Teaching: Pedagogy, People, Politics, looks at modern social and academic challenges through the lens of critical digital pedagogy. He tweets @chris_friend and posts his digital work to chrisfriend.us.
