Challenges of Digital Professional Learning: Digital Technology Systems Are No Substitute for Human Agency

Abstract

Digital technology is changing how people work and learn, as technology systems accelerate the growth of work roles and practices. These changes open up opportunities for professionals to learn in new ways while working. Research provides evidence of the ways professionals learn in work, emphasizing the importance of different forms of agency. However, those who design digital learning systems have yet to develop an understanding of how professionals learn, particularly with respect to the personal and relational agency needed to learn through work. This chapter aims to bridge this gap by reviewing examples of digital professional learning systems and then, drawing on a set of case studies, setting out a model to support future developments. A set of three case examples are used to derive a model that takes into account forms of agency: the Workplace Learning Agency Model. The purpose of this model is to aid computer scientists and systems architects in building use cases that better inform the design of future digital systems that support professional learning.