Critical Technology

Educational technologies and online learning have received a lot of attention lately, as schools worldwide shifted to remote delivery. But for children and youth in refugee camps, access to education has long been embedded in digital technologies, presenting unique opportunities, and big challenges, for teaching and learning.  In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes (Director of the KMDI) chats with Dr. Negin Dahya, a professor at the University of Toronto, and the lead investigator on the Portraits of Education Change: Redefining Pedagogy & Technology in Refugee Camps project: an international research collaboration examining how technologies are being used by students, teachers, and communities in refugee camps to mediate, facilitate, and support teaching and learning in varied, social, and peer-to-peer ways. 

Type of research discussed in today’s episode: education studies, media studies, feminist research methods, critical race theory, postcolonial theory.

Keywords for today’s episode: educational technologies, ecological systems model, learning contexts, youth as information mediators. 

For more information, check out our website: http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/the-critical-technology-podcast/

Send questions or comments to: [email protected]

As the media and cultural industries have shifted to digital platforms (like Facebook, Apple, and Amazon), massive changes in how cultural content is made, distributed, and consumed have unfolded. In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes (Director of the KMDI) chats with Dr. David Nieborg, a professor at the University of Toronto, and one of the lead investigators on the Platforms and Cultural Production project: a multi-year, international research initiative that examines how the rise and spread of digital platforms is changing the cultural industries, and the implications this has on our shared cultural experience. 

Type of research discussed in today's episode: A combination of political economy of communication, media studies, and cultural studies. 

Keywords for today's episode: Platformization, cultural production, platform evolution, and boundary resources. 

For more information, check out our website: http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/the-critical-technology-podcast/

Send questions or comments to: [email protected]

A new series from the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and Director/Professor Sara Grimes, featuring interviews with Prof. David Nieborg, Prof. Negin Dahya, Prof. Beth Coleman and other experts on the intersections of digital technology and society. Premieres Fall 2020.