Maggi Savin-Baden is Professor of Education, University of Worcester, UK. She has researched and evaluated staff and student experience of learning in higher education for over 20 years.

Digital connectivity is a phenomenon of the 21st century and while many have debated its impact on society, few have researched relationship between the changes taking place and the actual impact on learning.

Engagement with digital media and slipping through digital spaces with ease is something that many (young) people appear to do well, although the tangible benefits of this are unclear. Research to date has largely focused on the negative effects of the 'always on' culture, characterized by engaging with Facebook, Twitter, and 24 hour texting, but few have examined the advantages of this constant 'digital tethering'. Further there are also unfounded negative opinions about it that reverberate across not only the media but also academia.

Introduction

Chapter 1 Useful tethering

Chapter 2 The landscape of learning

Chapter 3 Piracy and Pedagogies

Chapter 4 Learning on the move? Liquidity and Meshwork

Chapter 5 Being digitally tethered

Chapter 6 Learning together alone

Chapter 7 Digital fluency

Chapter 8 Tethered Identities?

Chapter 9 Digital Surveillance and Tethered Integrity

Chapter 10 Wizards and brinkmanship

Glossary

References