Constructing the challenge of digital didactics: the rhetoric, remediation and realities of the UK Digital Curriculum

Abstract

This paper uses Bolter and Grusin’s remediation approach in investigating the manner in which new forms of digital media are re-casting the communicative and epistemological import of knowledge, teaching and learning. Given the considerable disparity between the rhetoric and realities of the educational implementation of information technologies to date the paper argues that particular attention should be paid to the refashioning of existing forms of pre-digital didactics in current forms of digital didactics. These themes are pursued through an examination of the UK government’s ongoing ‘Digital Curriculum’ project as a case study of remediation of didactics in the digital age.