Our LDC concentration in the HDLC M.Ed. program is for students who are interested in learning more about theories, research and practice in the area of learning in digital cultures.
Learning in Digital Cultures (LDC) acknowledges and reflects the role of digitization in learning, developing, and everyday life. LDC represents the complexity of relationships: between people, between people and technology, and through interactions and practices in digital learning ecologies. We focus on learning using various digital technologies, networked platforms, social media, and apps. The creation of digital inequalities, and the ways in which physical and digital environments both shape and are shaped by human relationships, are at the centre of this concentration. The aim of the LDC concentration is to empower researchers and other practitioners to engage purposely with digital technologies, recognizing the ways they also transform the conduct of research itself. Ideally, this leads to intentionally designed interactions with and through technologies, and the construction of healthy digital interactions and environments, as well as capacity building to challenge corporate interests and economic systems that perpetuate inequities and improve information sharing and accountability.
In this concentration, we incorporate critical, cultural, and interdisciplinary perspectives to examine new technologies—including ChatGPT and other forms of AI—and the transformative nature of interactions with technology in research, education, and workplace contexts. We engage with approaches for navigating continuous digital innovation. Attention to issues—including cyberbullying, the hidden nature of algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and corporate factors that create risks and inequities—is linked with implications for research, educational policy and practice. Our courses include attention to culture and Indigeneity, social justice, and interdisciplinary strengths-based approaches as reflected in HDLC’s Mission and Vision.
There is a thesis requirement.
MA students are eligible to apply for Tri-Council Grants in their first year only.
Please be aware of and schedule the following prerequisites as needed, as these courses should be taken early in your degree and do not count towards fulfilling your program credit requirements.
Students with no previous coursework on research methods prior to starting an M.A. in HDLC will be required to take prerequisite courses: EPSE 481 (3) Introduction to Research in Education and EPSE 482 (3) Introduction to Statistics for Research in Education.
Students with no previous coursework on developmental sciences prior to starting an M.A. in HDLC will be required to take a prerequisite course: EPSE 462 (3): Human Development in Education.