Our digital lives: Living, learning and thriving in a dynamic digital world

The accelerated progress of digital culture is evidenced in the technological super-saturation of our contemporary lives. The access to communicate to large groups of people relatively easily and quickly has the consequence of impacting social dynamics, by reducing social inhibitions and redefining normative actions. The role of technology within contemporary life is significant and it has become a permanent fixture in many people’s day-to-day activity. Whether through technology-enhanced learning or critical pedagogy, teachers for well over two decades now have been engaging with newtechnologies as they emerge, to augment and sustain their pedagogical practice, to become better teachers and enable thebest outcomes for pupils. In January 2007 a technology company made an announcement that was to herald a significant change in international affairs. Adults throughout the world have been surprised to find that a major international technology company has records of their phone calls and their text messages.