Petra Petersen disputerar via Zoom Foto: Niklas Hill
Petra Petersen in dispute via Zoom Photo: Niklas Hill

 

"I think doing a digital dissertation went well far beyond expectation. Of course, it took a lot of preparation for everything to flow, but when it works it can actually bring benefits. It opens for opponents from other countries, for example", says Petra Petersen, Ph.D. at the Department of Education at Stockholm University.

New opportunities

Petra Petersen hopes that the opportunity to follow dissertations via link will become possible even after the current situation with covid-19.
"I know several who could follow the dissertation now, that would never have come to a regular dissertation, since it is in the middle of the day."

Suitable theme

The theme for the thesis was, appropriately enough, digital accessibility in teaching. The study "Agency and Digital Resources: Children’s multimodal expressions of agency in preschools in multilingual areas" examines, among other things, the benefits of children's use of digital resources in preschool, in the teaching of minority languages.

Tablets support in teaching

"Tablets can play an important role in preschool where Swedish-speaking staff may find it difficult to help children with minority language communication, in their mother tongue. By talking and interacting with other children over the Internet, a more developed language is used than would otherwise be possible."