Toward the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework: A Multi-Site Analysis of Pedagogy and Digital Technology in Contemporary US Higher Education

This dissertation argues for integrating contemplation into pedagogical decisions regarding digital technologies in US higher education. Digital technology permeates contemporary US higher education. Despite the ever-increasing presence of digital technology, various higher education stakeholders give inadequate attention to matters of pedagogy. The uncritical adoption or dismissal of digital technology at any scale can substantially influence higher education teaching-learning environments. Contemplative approaches to digital technology and pedagogy provide the potential to positively shape the trajectory of higher education technopedagogy. Scant research exists regarding the influence of contemplation on technopedagogy. Therefore, this dissertation combines a critical empirical analysis of the use of digital technology in contemporary US higher education with practical interventions to demonstrate the value of contemplative technopedagogy. A science and technology studies (STS) toolkit is used to investigate four research sites at three interconnected levels of analysis – national, institutional, experimental teaching-learning environments. National level analysis focuses on discourse (1993-2016) within The Chronicle of Higher Education to understand the development of conceptions regarding digital technology and pedagogy in contemporary US higher education and uses inductive methods to create new knowledge, discourse, and practices by proposing the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework. Institutional level analysis involves ethnographic case study research to examine the sociocultural dynamics significant to the development and dissemination of a particular technopedagogical ideology at Virginia Tech's Faculty Development Institute that championed the educational promise of digital technology without sufficient consideration of pedagogy. Experimental teaching-learning environments level analysis presents two practice-oriented case studies of academic librarian as technopedagogical innovator. Each involves collaboration with actors across campus(es) and a novel application of the Contemplative Technopedagogy Framework to exemplify the roles that librarians can play to stimulate contemplative approaches to technopedagogy amidst a changing landscape in US higher education. Taken together, the manuscripts in this dissertation explore how technopedagogical ideologies are created, contested, and disseminated within and beyond communities in US higher education. Findings from this multi-site analysis of technopedagogy demonstrate how a contemplative approach to digital technology can more effectively and holistically augment teaching and learning in US higher education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Science and Technology Studies

Department dc:contributor.department

Science and Technology Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Shanks, Justin Donald

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wisnioski, Matthew
• Fowler, Shelli B.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Patzig, Eileen Crist
• Clark, Susan F.

• contemplation
• digital technology
• pedagogy
• technopedagogy

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:14981

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/94641