(Post) Digital potentialities for early becomings

Description

Akonga (conception to 8 years of age) across the globe are born into childhoods that are rich with potentialities for transforming ‘what is’, to ask questions of ‘what if’. In this (post)digital space technology and machine are not merely tools to be acquired, but an integral way of life that shapes and defines early becomings. Yet they are often out of scope in early years thinking and practice; and their relevance is seldom contemplated from diverse cultural perspectives in these spaces. In this course students will be introduced to the re-purposed field of (post)digital learning with a view to contemplating its relevance and accountabilitites in and beyond early years contexts. Students will explore and respond to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for future generations, and their own practice accordingly. Students will critically engage with the literacies (visual, sensing, digital and media) that shape akonga becomings across Kaupapa Maori, Pasifika and Western ways of seeing and doing, undertaking a small research pilot that will test and expand these in light of digital technologies now at our disposal. As a consequence, they will acquire a much-needed sensitivity to the impacts of (post)digital that cultivate learner appreciation of the living nature of all things and the potentiating spaces in between when diverse cultural and ethical perspectives are taken into account.