Document Type
Article
Disciplines
5.3 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
Abstract
In this paper, we explore academic identity, specifically the identity of the educator in higher education and academics’ conceptualisations of the digital educator. We suggest that the concept of a digital educator is not only about technology, tools and uses. The context for this exploration is academics’ participation in an online professional development module, Digital Education, and the “pivot online” (Weller, 2020a) during campus closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Through qualitative research, we explored participants’ sense of teaching identity, whether they had or have a concept of being a digital educator and the extent to which these identities might have shifted while the campus closure continued. We present analysis of their accounts and reflect on the implications of this analysis, particularly in relation to organisational digital capacity defined as “the skills, competencies, attitudes, infrastructure, and resources that enable people to work, live and learn in a world that is increasingly digital world” (National Forum, 2018, p. iv). We consider how higher education institutions will cope with the complex challenges facing us and suggest ways in which the implications of this research could better enable institutions to navigate change and build organisational digital capacity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.7316
Recommended Citation
Schalk, A. McAvinia, C. & Rooney, P. (2022). Exploring the concept of the digital educator during COVID-19. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 38, no. 2, pg. 129–141. doi:10.14742/ajet.7316
Funder
No funding was received for this work.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.