Dr. Rupert Wegerif

Professor, University of Cambridge, UK

Education and work experience

Rupert Wegerif is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge and director of the Digital Education Futures Initiative at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. He is the author of several influential books and articles in the area of educational theory, educational psychology and education with technology. He offers a new approach to education for the Internet Age: education as expanding dialogic space.

Research Specialty

• Digital Education Futures
• Dialogic theory of education
• Dialogic approaches to teaching and learning with ICT
• Applying a dialogic model of reason in education
• ICT and teaching for thinking and for creativity through induction into dialogue
• Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
• The nature and promotion of collective intelligence

Topic:

From representation to relationship: rethinking education in the digital age

Abstract

In this talk I will argue that the technology that we use to communicate is not neutral but shapes us from within, it shapes how we understand knowledge and how we understand education. Knowledge understood as representation or as picturing reality emerges strongly from the development of the printing press and text-books in Europe. This understanding of knowledge can be seen in many of the practices of the global education system today, especially in how learning is assessed. New digital technology, including the Internet, mobile devices and the use of AI in education, has the potential to support new ways of thinking about knowledge and new ways of doing education. Increasingly knowledge can be understood more in terms of relationships than in terms of representations: knowledge as building networks, participating in networks and expanding social identities in a way that gives meaning to lives. The Digital Age then requires that we rethink what we mean by knowledge and by education. I illustrate some projects that exemplify a new approach to education for the Digital Age and I propose a programme of design-based research in education with technology to see how best to promote collective intelligence and collective wisdom.