E-DIDACTICS

Reconceptualization of the traditional didactics is important in the light of rethinking its role in the digital age towards engineering of learning. New didactics of e-learning is called e-Didactics (D’Angelo, 2007).

Broadly defined, e-Didactics is an ICT-integrated didactics. In order to identify its

key characteristics, let us summarize the evolutionary development of didactics. As we mentioned earlier, didactics had several cornerstones in itsdevelopment. We consider the following main stages in the conceptual evolution of didactics:     • Pre-didactics

• Didactics-dialectics

• Classical didactics

• Digital age didactics.

The difference between classical/traditional didactics and e-Didactics is stipulated by a paradigm shift in the primary focus of didactics: from teaching to engineering of learning. This shift becomes more visible in online education where teaching in a

traditional sense is limited by the structure of the format: if in traditional didactics primary delivery format is face-to-face (and hybrid, in some cases), in e-Didactics — it is mostly blended and online.

Along with the changing delivery format, the learning and teaching space is changed: classroom is replaced by the virtual space represented by various learning management systems (LMS) and social networks.

Moreover, there is a significant change in the role of a teacher in the digital age

Chapter 1. e-Didactics: Digital Age Didactics 23

didactics: from a transmitter of knowledge to an engineer of student learning. In turn, transformation of teacher’s role influences the change in student role: from an information receiver to a connected learner.