Speaker Biography and Abstract...

Jean Underwood, formerly Reader in Education at Leicester University and now Professor of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, started her career as secondary teacher before becoming a teacher educator. She has spent more than thirty years investigating factors leading to effective learning at all ages, particularly the role of digital technologies for learning. One current research theme concerns risky behaviour in and around digital technology use resulting in two commissioned reports on academic dishonesty for the QCA and a scoping of paper on children’s understanding of digital risks for UKCCIS Better Education Working Group.

Return to Sin City? Living and Learning with Digital Technology.

Our 2008 paper entitled “Students in Digital Worlds: Lost in Sin City or Reaching Treasure Island?” was a response to the perceived negativity surrounding the use of technology by the younger generation. While acknowledging the potential dangers we highlighted many of the very real advantages of digital technologies for learning. This was a simple argument concerning the good and bad impacts of technology, a case of the old cowboy analogy of white hats and the black hats. However, the issues surrounding technology use are much more complex than this and in this paper I will discuss some of the factors that as educators we should be considering when employing technology for learning. For example, the degree of alignment of and individual’s chronological, cognitive and biological ages can leave some students vulnerable to the ills of the Internet while their peers remain unharmed. I will draw heavily on new research in cognitive neuroscience, health studies and social cognition.

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