Core Competency 4

Digital Pedagogy

This competency equips PFF participants to teach in the learning ecosystem that has been created by new digital technologies.

PFF participants will:

  • Recognize how digital technology can affect the learning environment and discuss/reflect on how the decision to use (or not use) technology may affect the student learning experience.
  • Identify ways in which technology has created a new learning ecosystem inside and outside the classroom, and understand the ways in which technology can be used to enhance learning.
  • Create and contribute to a digital pedagogical reference wiki for use by Fordham instructors.

Core Competency 4 can be fulfilled by the following:

  • Attend one of several "Introduction to Digital Pedagogy" workshops hosted by GSAS throughout the year. If students participate in this module, they will be required to choose a digital pedagogy tool to work into their syllabus the following semester, or when they start teaching. Shawn Hill, Instructional Technologist, will then work with PFF participants to introduce digital tools into their classrooms." In addition, participants will be required to attend one further conference, workshop, or other digital pedagogy event hosted by GSAS, GSAS Futures, or similar external event. If students wish to fulfill part of the competency by attending an external conference or workshop, then they must request approval for the event from GSAS.
  • Contribute to the GSAS Digital Pedagogy Wiki: This resource which will provide a digital space for collaboration on and exploration of digital tools; discuss theoretical elements of digital pedagogy; as well as provide resources for PFF participants who are unfamiliar with certain digital tools. Students will share how they use technology in the classroom; discuss how to assess its effectiveness, and enhance their knowledge of learning strategies and resources.To complement their work on this Core Competency, PFF participants will be given the option to attend cross-disciplinary, professional peer groups facilitated by GSAS. Attendance at these peer groups will not fulfill Core Competency 4, but rather will bring Future Faculty together as a learning community to discuss their experiences in fulfilling it.

The transition to online learning necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak has forced instructors at Fordham to learn and become competent in a wide range of digital tools. With this in mind, graduate teaching fellows, senior teaching fellows, and teaching assistants who can verify that they are responsible for some significant aspect of a course during the COVID-19 crisis can fulfill the entirety of the Digital Pedagogy core competency by writing a reflection statement, to be posted on the GSAS Digital Pedagogy Wiki (hosted on the Digital Praxis page of DigitalResearch@Fordham), that responds to the following dimensions:

  • The ways in which your course needed to be adapted.
  • The thought you put in to crafting an online adaptation of your course (e.g. whether to use synchronous or asynchronous learning and why; which platforms to use and why; etc.).
  • How you executed these changes.
  • Reflections on how things went, how your students responded, and what you might do differently next time (or, possibly, how you might set up your face-to-face classes in the future to make them more amenable to online transitions).

This reflection statement will replace all aspects of the digital pedagogy competency and will serve as an invaluable resource to future instructors who are looking for a blueprint of how to handle future disruptions to academic activities, or simply looking for diverse and detailed examples of ways digital pedagogy can be incorporated in the classroom.