Wicked Problems in Digitisation of Learning Modalities

Abstract

This paper takes the Spencerian question “What knowledge is of Most Worth?” as its point of departure to discuss the future of learning with regard to unresolved wicked problems that pose challenges to digitisation of learning modalities. There are problems that originate from the juxtaposition of digital media and classical content. There are issues requiring just apportionment of intellectual property rights between designers, creators, developers and deliverers of content, that are unresolved. The interpretation of what constitutes ‘fair use’ is subject to doctrinal variations across national jurisdictions because its enforcement involves a combination of policy, technology and law. The limits to tactile learning substitutability need understanding, accepting or transcending because knowing and connecting in real time and space involves unconscious connections of consciousness that can get diluted in disembodied transfers of images and sounds. The uncertainty and ambiguity that each of these wicked problems introduces, when combined, adds manifold to the complexity, chaos and vulnerabilities associated with design and delivery from digital learning platforms for the future of learning .