Digital Touchpoints (Issue #3, Fall 2025)

Abstract

The increased mediation of digital technologies in all sectors of our global society naturally impacts teaching and learning practices and norms in today’s P-12 classrooms. As a teacher educator who primarily teaches coursework centered around educational technologies, my students are naturally curious about the ways technologies can and cannot be effectively leveraged to transform teaching and learning processes in their future classrooms. Such critical mindsets are further stoked by the developments of generative artificial intelligence and its proliferation in our lives, a disruptor (in positive and negative ways) of how instruction is designed, meaning is constructed, and academic achievement is evaluated. This semester, I asked my students to consider how to teach with technologies ethically and effectively. Issue #3 of Digital Touchpoint features my students’ reviews of current literature on contemporary teaching and learning, focusing on the ethical and pedagogical implications of educational technologies. 30 students chose to publish their work, which is organized in two thematic sections: “Ethics” and “Effectiveness,” highlighting these importance considerations for pre-service and in-service teachers as they weigh the affordances and constraints of integrating technologies with their students. -- Dr. Aaron R. Gierhart