Developing Digital Student Selves: Using an Inquiry-Based Approach to Explore Digital Confidence in Creative Learning

This chapter reflects on the outcomes of the Digital Student Selves project at a small, specialist arts institution in the United Kingdom. The project aimed to promote increased student understanding of the research process as well as increased reflexivity by engaging students in an inquiry-based approach to unpacking experiences and perspectives of the role of technology in learning. Specifically, students were asked to consider the contribution of programme-specific learning technologies and social media to their creative identity and lifelong professionalism.

Discussion within this chapter outlines strategies that students employed in adopting blended approaches to learning and also presents key aspects of students’ negotiation of digital selfhood. The discussion therefore has relevance in considering current practices in support of digital confidence and how these might be refined or augmented. In this way, the student contributors become co-creators in the learning environment, influencing recommendations for institutional change and best practice.