Epistemology is an established area of traditional philosophy and is defined as

. . . the theory of knowledge. It is concerned with the mind’s relation to reality. What is it for this relation to be one of knowledge? Do we know things? And if we do, how and when do we know things?

(University of Sheffield, n.d.)

Within teaching and learning epistemology is an important area of metacognition, as metacognition is not simply concerned with 'thinking about thinking', but also awareness of what we constitute as knowledge and the processes that both teachers and educators go through in evaluating, deseminating and choosing sources and in their creation of their own affordances (Cope and Kalantzis, 2017). Different espitemic approaches, whether that is objective, constructivist subjective or pragmatic (Moon and Blackman, 2017) can determine the learning and meaning making of knowledge and understanding the epistemic viewpoints of your students can assist in supporting and scaffolding thier subsequent learning (Labbas, 2013). In traditional teaching practices, where students are predominantly assessed on the 'final product' or are limited to class time to investigate the cognitive reasons behind thier understanding of the nature of knowledge, developing metacognitive practices can be limited.

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/957745?ref=epistemology

Digital tools enables both teachers and students to be able to both work together to develop metacognitive skills but also create supportive environments where epistepic viewpoints can be explored and challenged through review, feedback and comments.  By enabling teachers to facilitate the exploration and challenge of their epistemological standpoints, reflecting on their own processes of thinking and learning, metacognition can be developed further. 

References

Cope, B., and Kalantzis, M. (2017). Conceptualizing e-learning, in B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (Eds), e-Learning ecologies, New York, Routledge.

Labbas, R. (2017) Epistemology in education: Epistemological development trajectory, Journal of International Education and Leadership, 3(2) Available : https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1136017.pdf

Moon, K and Blackman, D. (2017, May 2nd) A guide to ontology, epistemology, and philosophical perspectives for interdisciplinary researchers. Available: https://i2insights.org/2017/05/02/philosophy-for-interdisciplinarity/comment-page-1/

University of Sheffield (n.d.) Department of Philiosophy: Epistemology. Available: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/philosophy/research/themes/epistemology