Open AccessDigital Scholarship Considered: How New Technologies Could Transform Academic Work
Author(s) -
Nick Pearce,
Martin Weller,
Eileen Scanlon,
Samuel Kinsley
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
in education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1927-6117
DOI - 10.37119/ojs2010.v16i1.44
Subject(s) - scholarship , argument (complex analysis) , the internet , emerging technologies , new media , computer science , work (physics) , social media , digital media , world wide web , public relations , sociology , political science , engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , law
New digital and web-based technologies are spurring rapid and radical changes across all media industries. These newer models take advantage of the infinite reproducibility of digital media at zero marginal cost. There is an argument to be made that the sort of changes we have seen in other industries will be forced upon higher education, either as the result of external economic factors (the need to be more efficient, responsive, etc.) or by a need to stay relevant to the so-called "net generation" of students (Prensky, 2001; Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005; Tapscott & Williams, 2010).This article discusses the impact of digital technologies on each of Boyer’s dimensions of scholarship: discovery, integration, application and teaching. In each case the use of new technologies brings with it the possibility of new, more open ways of working,although this is not inevitable. The implications of the adoption of new technologies on scholarship are then discussed.Keywords: internet; digital technology; technology in education; social media; higher education; Web 2.0