Paradox, promise and public pedagogy: implications of the federal government's Digital Education Revolution

The use of digital technology in the classroom is a significant issue for teachers as they are under increasing pressure to teach in technologically mediated ways. This ‘digital turn’ in education has culminated in the Australian federal government’s Digital Education Revolution, which represents a multi-billion dollar commitment to putting computers in schools and the implementation of technological pedagogical practice. This paper focuses on the confluence between globalised economic process, the Digital Education Revolution, and the discourse of the digital native; and describes the way in which students’ use of digital technologies is identity forming. I examine the Digital Education Revolution policy and related discourse in order to sketch out some of the educational implications. Drawing upon Giroux’s (2004) notion of ‘public pedagogy’ I argue that using digital technologies could potentially open up an educative space to allow students to author their own digital identity. While the Digital Education Revolution is a product of the influence of globalisation upon education, it, nonetheless, contains contradictory prohibitions and possibilities that can be utilised to take the use of digital technology beyond that of preparing students for work in a globalised information economy.