EDITORIAL: Digital Tools as Platforms

Gerald P. Ardito
Editor, ITLT

I am sure that your social media news feeds, like mine, have been filled with news of the promise and problems with educational technologies in the wake of our collective responses to the learning disruptions caused worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of that news has focused on new and shiny tools (or new and shiny applications of older tools). Recently, I have found myself often thinking that our designation of “tools” is too limited, given the ways that these tools are embedded within learning environments, pedagogies (tools themselves, as conceived by Dron (2022), and cognitive processes. I found myself thinking more about platforms. I am in the midst of formulating these ideas for a paper of my own. More on this later.

In the meantime, we are publishing two articles in this issue that offer some insights into this distinction. The first is research by Torrey Trust and her colleagues on the large and engaged learning community that has sprung up around Hyperdocs. The second is a review by Musa Nushi on the HiNative Global Q&A Platform. Lauren Hays’ review of the book Beginning with Digital Technology by Joanne Blannin (2021) provides valuable insight into Blannin’s book. Lastly, Tripp Harris explores technological tools that support the visualization of student behavior learning in physical classrooms.

This release of this issue of ITLT marks my first year as Editor. I am deeply appreciative to the current staff, Pamela Amendola and Samantha Grant, the network of reviewers who contribute so much to this journal, and to the authors who have submitted their work.

Excelsior!

References

Blannin, J. (2021). Beginning Teaching with Digital Technology. SAGE.

Dron, J. (2022). Educational technology: what it is and how it works. AI & SOCIETY, 37 (1), 155-166.