Media and Digital Interface: Designing Learning Spaces and Knowledge

Abstract: Many people live a reality in which everything happens online through worldwide connections, i.e., the “global village” (McLuhan 1964). These individuals are connected most of the time, and the pace of their connections increasingly accelerates. They have access to a lot of information from all areas, as well as access to digital platforms. This seems to be fair, as they think that they are informed. However, it’s not quite like that. Without understanding how to discern, these individuals will have access to information that is nothing more than a source of misinformation. In this sense, the role of communication and information technologies and their meaning is discussed, as well as the pedagogical methodologies to enable individuals to discern content, learning, and knowledge formation amid the complex digital interface. Some essential observations in this process have been analyzed, specifically how technology is changing teaching, based on Seymour Papert’s constructionist theory of learning (1980) and his idea of the “art of intellectual model building.” One of them, and the most dominant since we started the digital era, is the digitalization of the whole system, mainly in the press and education. For this analysis, three points will be addressed. The first and most significant is the understanding of the process of knowledge construction in the digital interface. Next, the central pedagogies related to this process will be explored. Finally, the sense of this dynamic of the networked information age, specifically how cultural diversity in its social, economic, and political aspects are related to the individual’s new behavior, will be addressed. The analysis will also discuss the socio-cultural context regarding the evolution of psychological and pedagogical theories, scientific and technological development, and the possibilities of innovation and implementation of resources aimed at constructing the data for virtual visual, textual, and auditory content.