Digital Pedagogy. Journal of Digital Pedagogy →
The concept, defined

Digital Pedagogy

What is digital pedagogy, and how does it fit within the education sciences?

Digital pedagogy A central disc reading “Digital pedagogy is a projection of pedagogy in the digital space”, surrounded by three satellites: is open, is innovative, is pedagogy. Credited to Istrate, 2022. is open is innovative is pedagogy Digital pedagogy is a projection of pedagogy in the digital space Istrate, 2022

A definition

A definition for digital pedagogy

Digital pedagogy is the part of pedagogy that studies the design, implementation and evaluation of educational situations comprising a significant component of digital technologies, as well as the necessary conditions for their implementation. It looks upon themes such as: synchronous and asynchronous interactions in virtual and mixed learning environments, learning management platforms and tools, digital educational resources, educational usage of various digital applications and tools, virtual assistants for learning and teaching, digital competences of teachers, educational policies and specific programs.

Any definition has to begin from a solid grasp of pedagogy, because digital pedagogy is, and will remain, a projection of pedagogy in the digital space.

The demarcation criterion
When a teaching, learning or assessment experience built on digital technologies cannot be transposed back into an “analogue” setting without losing its essence – its learning objectives or its teaching strategy – then we are dealing with innovation that belongs to digital pedagogy alone.

Three perspectives

Seen from three perspectives

Digital pedagogy

is an open pedagogy

Today, the idea of an open pedagogy has little substance without digital technologies.

Digital pedagogy

is an innovative pedagogy

Far from being on the periphery, digital pedagogy is today the cutting edge of pedagogical innovation.

Digital pedagogy

is pedagogy

Whether we call it digital, multimedia, remote, innovative, interactive, it is pedagogy.

Digital pedagogy brings more pedagogy into practice.


The conceptual area

Where the field begins

A situation belongs to digital pedagogy when it meets at least one of these conditions:

  • the direct use of digital technologies for educational purposes – in teaching, learning, assessment or educational management;
  • creating the conditions for using digital technologies in education – buying equipment, adapting the curriculum or running training programmes that build digital skills; or
  • weighing their potential in an educational context – when shaping an educational policy or an instructional design, or when deciding whether to use a given digital tool or resource.
One field, many names

The same field under many names

e-learning online learning / online pedagogy web-based learning cyberpedagogy multimedia pedagogy OER-enabled pedagogy electronically-enabled pedagogy hybrid pedagogy distance education computer-mediated education technology-mediated pedagogy virtual learning / training environments digital curriculum

The digital environment has opened new spaces and horizons for education – and education is pedagogy’s object of study.

Whatever we call it – digital, multimedia, remote, innovative, interactive – it is still pedagogy: lively, open to the new, transformative and, above all, useful.

Read the original article Istrate, O. (2022), Journal of Digital Pedagogy, 1(1), 3–10.
Call for contributions

Publish in the Journal of Digital Pedagogy

If your work advances the theory or practice of digital pedagogy – conceptual studies, research reports, or critical reflections on teaching, learning and assessment with digital technologies – the Journal of Digital Pedagogy would like to read it. It is an open-access journal published by the Institute for Education in Bucharest, distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, so your article reaches readers without barriers.

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Journal of Digital Pedagogy · ISSN 3008–2021 · digital-pedagogy.eu

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