The Digital Academic: Critical Perspectives On Digital Technologies In Higher Education

189 Pages·2018·1.697 MB·English

by  Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn, Pat Thomson

THE DIGITAL ACADEMIC
Academic work, like many other professional occupations, has increasingly become
digitised. This book brings together leading scholars who examine the impacts,
possibilities, politics and drawbacks of working in the contemporary university,
using digital technologies. Contributors take a critical perspective in identifying
the implications of digitisation for the future of higher education; academic pub-
lishing protocols and platforms and academic employment conditions; the ways in
which academics engage in their everyday work and as public scholars and rela-
tionships with students and other academics. The book includes accounts of using
digital media and technologies as part of academic practice across teaching, research
administration and scholarship endeavours, as well as theoretical perspectives. The
contributors span the spectrum of early to established career academics and are
based in education, research administration, sociology, digital humanities, media
and communication.
Deborah Lupton is Centenary Research Professor in the News and Media Research
Centre, Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra, Australia.
Inger Mewburn is the Director of Research Training at the Australian National
University, Canberra, Australia.
Pat Thomson PSM is Professor of Education, School of Education at the Uni-
versity of Nottingham, UK.
‘If you care about the future of academic work (… and academic workers) then this
is a “must read” collection of chapters. These are some of the biggest names in the
digital social sciences, and it is wonderful to see their ideas and arguments extended
well beyond the usual 140 characters!’
– Neil Selwyn, Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University
‘The growing use of social media in academia, and the increasing importance of
maintaining a digital profile and professional online identity, should be recognised,
acknowledged and discussed. The Digital Academic brings together leading partici-
pants in the online academic environment, and we see through their analyses how
multifaceted, complex and beneficial, online experiences, reputation and identities
are within the modern higher education context.’
– Melissa Terras, Professor of Digital Humanities,
Department of Information Studies, University College London
‘Lupton, Mewburn and Thomson have brought together an international team of
renowned scholars to think critically about the use of digital media in higher edu-
cation. The many issues raised in The Digital Academic are not only notable and
engaging, but necessary for us all to explore as our institutions become more digi-
tised, more networked and more global. A highly recommended read!’
– George Veletsianos, Professor and Canada Research Chair of Innovative
Learning and Technology, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University
‘From using Twitter to running MOOCs or writing on open platforms, the mod-
ern academic identity is increasingly constructed online. While many books write
of the positive or negative possibilities this offers, few offer a balanced, critical per-
spective of the issues involved. Drawing on a wide range of the leading academics
in this field, this book is an invaluable contribution to helping us understand what
it means to be an academic in the 21st century.’
– Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology,
Learning and Teaching Innovation, The Open University
THE DIGITAL ACADEMIC
Critical Perspectives on Digital
Technologies in Higher Education
Edited by Deborah Lupton,
Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and
Pat Thomson; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-20257-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-20258-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-47361-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Brixham, UK
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements xv
1 The digital academic: identities, contexts and politics 1
Deborah Lupton, Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson
2 Towards an academic self? Blogging during the doctorate 20
Inger Mewburn and Pat Thomson
3 Going from PhD to platform 36
Charlotte Frost
4 Academic persona: the construction of online reputation 47
in the modern academy
P. David Marshall, Kim Barbour and Christopher Moore
5 Academic Twitter and academic capital: collapsing orality 63
and literacy in scholarly publics
Bonnie Stewart
6 Intersections online: academics who tweet 78
Narelle Lemon and Megan McPherson
7 Sustaining Asian Australian scholarly activism online 91
Tseen Khoo
vi Contents
8 Digital backgrounds, active foregrounds: student and 105
teacher experiences with ‘flipping the classroom’
Martin Forsey and Sara Page
9 A labour of love: a critical examination of the ‘labour 122
icebergs’ of Massive Open Online Courses
K atharina Freund, Stephanie Kizimchuk, Jonathon Zapasnik,
Katherine Esteves and Inger Mewburn
10 Digital methods and data labs: the redistribution of educational 140
research to education data science
Ben Williamson
11 Interview 156
Sara Goldrick-Rab interviewing Inger Mewburn
12 Interview 162
Jessie Daniels interviewing Inger Mewburn
Index 168
FIGURES
8.1 Word cloud depicting student responses to survey question: 111
‘What three words or phrases spring to mind when you
think of the format of this unit?’ (n=47)

CONTRIBUTORS
Kim Barbour is a qualitative new media scholar and lecturer in the Department
of Media at the University of Adelaide, Australia. Kim’s research looks at online
persona, the strategic production of identity through digital media, and particularly
focuses on the use of social media. Her research often focuses on artists or other
creative practitioners. Kim is the co-founding editor of the Persona Studies journal,
an online, open access journal. She has published articles in Celebrity Studies, M/C
Journal, First Monday and Platform: Journal of Media and Communication, and her paper
‘Performing professionalism|Validating artistness’ won the Grant Noble Award for
best post-graduate paper at ANZCA 2014.
Jessie Daniels (PhD, UT-Austin) is Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and
The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA. She is the author of five books, including Being
a Scholar in the Digital Era (Policy Press, 2016) and Cyber Racism (Rowman and Lit-
tlefield, 2009), along with dozens of articles. Since 2007, Daniels has published a
scholarly blog called Racism Review. Forbes named her ‘one of 20 inspiring women
to follow on Twitter’ and she can be found there under the name @JessieNYC.
Katherine Esteves currently works as an eLearning designer at the Australian
National University, Canberra, within the College of Law’s College Education and
Innovation Support Team. She has worked extensively as a web designer, graphic
designer and multimedia specialist as well as teaching within the higher education
sector and specialising in distance education and educational technology.
Martin Forsey is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Sociology in the School
of Social Sciences at The University of Western Australia. Martin is an educational
sociologist/anthropologist with particular interests in the social and cultural effects
of schooling and the internationalisation of tertiary education. An award-winning