Throughout a chequered career, Professor Debbie Holley has striven to make a difference for students, with a strong thread of belonging and wellbeing running throughout all her roles. Her overriding interest in technology has led her to challenge and investigate the inequalities of the digital divide, particularly since nothing seems to have changed much in the last ten years. Disadvantaged students still struggle with access, not necessarily because of the technology itself but as a result of the structural inequalities that determine who uses what and how, and how confident they feel in doing so.

For us in the Learning Development community, we must not assume that everyone can access and use all the resources we create and provide. However, there’s a lot we can do with learning design that need not require extensive training or institutional investment. Most students have a mobile phone so let’s think about bitesize learning. Isn’t this the better starting point?

Publications discussed:

Biggins, D., Holley, D. and Zezulkova, M., 2017. Digital Competence and Capability Frameworks in Higher Education: Importance of Life-long Learning, Self-Development and Well-being. EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning, 4 (13), e1. DOI: 10.4108/eai.20-6-2017.152742

Holley, 2019. https://wonkhe.com/blogs/everything-you-think-you-know-about-universities-and-technology-is-wrong/

Holley & Oliver, 2011. Negotiating the digital divide: narratives from the have and the have-nots

Kirby, A. (2009) Digimodernism: How New Technologies Dismantle the Postmodern and Reconfigure Our Culture. New York and London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Resources mentioned:

Abegglen, S., Burns, T., & Sinfield, S. (2021). Supporting Student Writing and Other Modes of Learning and Assessment. A Staff Guide. Environmental Design. http://repository.londonmet.ac.uk/6970/1/Writing-guide-2021_2021.05.25.pdf

Pauline Ridley, Drawing to learn https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/visuallearning/drawing/