Digital Metacognition

       “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change.  And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” (Peter Drucker)

 I have been thinking for a while now about how students learn with digital tools and in digital environments - and, of course, what we are doing to help them.

         In GEMS schools, we aim to normalize the safe, appropriate and effective use of digital technologies to enhance learning in all areas of the curriculum and beyond.  We are teaching our students how to learn with these tools and to think deeply about how they can build their own digital ‘learnflows’ to become lifelong, independent, digital learners and successful digital citizens.  This is a constantly developing programme of digital metacognition or ‘learning to learn digitally.’

         Defining and Refining 'Learnflow'

         “A learnflow is when the individual steps of a workflow are not viewed as individual steps, but are rendered unconsciously, smoothly and effortlessly.The learnflow is part of the fluency the iPad user has attained in order to not see using individual apps as a goal, but their use has become merely a tool in the pedagogical aim of learning.”  (Sylvia Tolisano, 2013)

         http://langwitches.org/blog/2013/10/12/workflow-and-learnflow/

         Tolisano’s groundbreaking work is currently limited to learnflow with the iPad, but we need to refine and build on this to accommodate the ever-expanding range of tools available.

         Moreover, effective learnflows need to be perpetually and consciously constructed.

         In short, our students need to ‘learn how to learn digitally’ and, as educators, we need to actively facilitate this process.  

         Metacognition and Digital Metacognition

        “Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them…” (Flavell, 1976, p. 232).

        “Metacognition also thinks about one's own thinking process such as study skills, memory capabilities, and the ability to monitor learning. This concept needs to be explicitly taught along with content instruction. Metacognitive knowledge is about our own cognitive processes and our understanding of how to regulate those processes to maximize learning… strategic knowledge (conditional knowledge)… is one's own capability for using strategies to learn information.”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition

         Accordingly, it is proposed that ‘Digital  Metacognition’ may be defined as:

         ‘The conscious process of thinking about how one learns with digital tools and in digital environments, including  the impact of procedural choices on cognitive processes, with the aim of constructing the most effective learnflow in any given situation.

        This needs to be explicitly  taught to students  to help them develop their digital study skills and understanding of how procedural decisions affect cognition, ensuring they are independently capable of perpetually and consciously constructing, and employing, effective strategies in leveraging digital  tools  and environments to maximise learning outcomes .'  

I hope to learn more about this concept in the coming weeks and months, as I work with teachers and students across our network of schools.  There's a lot to think about.