Digitally situated knowledge: Connectivism, anthropology and epistemological pluralism

Abstract

The paper proposes that an effective response to the emerging paradigm of digital education entails a transdisciplinary approach, which integrates insights from education with concepts and methods from social anthropology. It argues that certain flourishing models of knowledge production in digital environments (communities of inquiry, communities of practice) can be comprehended by online participant observation and by critically interrogating dominant western models of formal education. It further supports that situated learning can shed light on the processes and dynamics of online collaborative learning in the digital era, in which theories of connectivism tend to overshadow human agency. Acknowledging the historically and culturally contingent character of our epistemologies, the paper introduces epistemological pluralism as paramount for educational research on digital education.