Professional Development resources on Dover: Digital issues

Is the Internet making us stupid? In this book, Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet is changing dramatically how we think, remember and interact.

How is the internet changing the way you think? That is one of the dominant questions of our time, one which affects almost every aspect of our life and future. And it's exactly what John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to more than 150 of the world's most influential minds. Brilliant, farsighted, and fascinating, Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? is an essential guide to the Net-based world.

In "Stratosphere," Michael Fullan takes a close look at the fast-paced world of emerging technologies and argues that the inevitable influence of technology on teaching and learning must not be resisted, but rather embraced and applied in meaningful ways to positively impact school classrooms.Examines connections-and disconnections- between pedagogy, technology, and change knowledge in education

Based on a major research project (the InterActive Project), this book explores and illustrates how digital technologies can transform learning across the curriculum. Using a wide range of educational settings - primary, secondary, school and home - it will help practitioners think about, plan and execute effective learning in their classrooms and beyond. It will show teachers how they can 'harness technology for the future' by covering important topics such as: personalised learning using ICT for pupils with special needs personal use of ICT and home-school links designing 'digital' classrooms. By weaving 'evidence based practice' into each chapter, the book will provide extensive guidance, practical advice and insights into working in the 'digital classroom' for all primary and secondary school teachers.

New technologies offer new ways for families to connect, access ideas and entertainment, and manage the risks faced by children and teens, but they also bring more responsibilities, choices, and challenges. Texting, sexting, Net Nannies, Facebook, mobile phones with GPS, and cyberbullying allcreate everyday conflicts parents and children must manage while balancing questions of authority and autonomy, and trust and risk. Just how are digital, mobile, and more traditional media changing family life today? Drawing on over ten years of observations and interviews with families, The Parent App analyzes why digital and mobile media play such a large role in the lives of children, what most concerns parents, and what approaches to new technologies prove most successful for both parents and kids. LynnClark argues that middle class and lower income parents have markedly different experiences with digital and mobile technologies in their children's lives, especially during the preteen and teen years. Middle class parents incorporate new technology into what has been called their "concertedcultivation" style of parenting by utilizing the control and monitoring systems available to them, while also limiting the amount of time and type of activities their children may spend with technology. The "natural growth" approach to parenting typically observed in lower-income families meansparents trust their kids to know right from wrong, but the mediated environment complicates this trust. For one, parents know far less about the latest technology than their children, yet they consciously use media to keep children in the home and avoid risks outside it. They often associate mediawith leisure time and staying connected, rather than with work or school as middle class families do. In contrast to middle class families who feel they should do something better with their time than watching television together, less advantaged families value the time together, and view televisionand gaming with less ambivalence.Whatever the parenting style or economic bracket, parents experience anxiety about how to manage new technology, especially how to assert authority while respecting the wishes of young people. Clark's book provides the kind of guidance backed by thorough research that today's parents desperatelyneed.

The Flickering Mind, by National Magazine Award winner Todd Oppenheimer, is a landmark account of the failure of technology to improve our schools and a call for renewed emphasis on what really works. American education faces an unusual moment of crisis. For decades, our schools have been beaten down by a series of curriculum fads, empty crusades for reform, and stingy funding. Now education and political leaders have offered their biggest and most expensive promise ever—the miracle of computers and the Internet—at a cost of approximately $70 billion just during the decade of the 1990s. Computer technology has become so prevalent that it is transforming nearly every corner of the academic world, from our efforts to close the gap between rich and poor, to our hopes for school reform, to our basic methods of developing the human imagination. Technology is also recasting the relationships that schools strike with the business community, changing public beliefs about the demands of tomorrow’s working world, and reframing the nation’s systems for researching, testing, and evaluating achievement. All this change has led to a culture of the flickering mind, and a generation teetering between two possible futures.

Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education. His talk, 'How Schools Kill Creativity', is the most viewed in the history of TED and has been seen by millions of people all over the world. In Creative Schools he sets out his practical vision for how education can be transformed to enable all young people to flourish and succeed in the 21st century.In this inspiring, empowering book, Robinson argues for an end to the outmoded, industrial systems of mass schooling and proposes a highly personalized, organic approach that draws on today's unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students and develop their individual abilities and love of learning.Written with Robinson's trademark wit and engaging style, and filled with practical examples, anecdotes and groundbreaking research, Creative Schools highlights the people and projects that are already revolutionizing education through innovative approaches to teaching, learning and school culture.

The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today's Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? In Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Allan Collins and Richard Halverson argue that the knowledge revolution has transformed our jobs, our homes, our lives, and therefore must also transform our schools. Much like after the school-reform movement of the industrial revolution, our society is again poised at the edge of radical change. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation or America will be "left behind." This groundbreaking book offers a vision for the future of American education that goes well beyond the walls of the classroom to include online social networks, distance learning with "anytime, anywhere" access, digital home schooling models, video-game learning environments, and more.

Look around at today's youth and you can see how technology has changed their lives. They lie on their beds and study while listening to mp3 players, texting and chatting online with friends, and reading and posting Facebook messages. How does the new, charged-up, multitasking generation respond to traditional textbooks and lectures? Are we effectively reaching today's technologically advanced youth? Rewired is the first book to help educators and parents teach to this new generation's radically different learning styles and needs. This book will also help parents learn what to expect from their "techie" children concerning school, homework, and even socialization. In short, it is a book that exposes the impact of generational differences on learning while providing strategies for engaging students at school and at home.

This book aims to focus the minds of teachers and school leaders to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the online revolution and the emergence of blended learning.

All professional learning communities agree that there is added value in utilizing technologies to enhance and facilitate student success. This volume seeks from us a critical and informed answer to one of the most important educational questions of the day: how successful will learners be in the digital age? Here, writers with real hands-on experience in the field challenge many of the assumptions about teaching and learning in the digital age. It is relevant and important for all those interested and concerned about the kinds of debates, arguments and ideas which are influencing and changing the nature of teaching and learning in the early decades of the 21st century.

How can you create an authentic learning environment--one where students ask questions, do research, and explore subjects that fascinate them--in today's standards-driven atmosphere? Author Larissa Pahomov offers insightful answers based on her experience as a classroom teacher at the Science Leadership Academy--a public high school in Philadelphia that offers a rigorous college-prep curriculum and boasts a 99 percent graduation rate. Pahomov outlines a framework for learning structured around five core values: inquiry, research collaboration, presentation and reflection. for each value, she presents:* a detailed description of how the value can transform classroom practice and how a "digital connection" can enhance its application.* a step-by-step outline for how to implement the value, with examples from teachers in all subject areas.* Solutions to possible challenges and roadblocks that teachers may experience.* Suggestions for how to expand the value beyond the classroom to schoolwide practice.* Anecdotes from students, offering their perspectives on how they experienced the value in the classroom and after graduation.The framework is a guide, not a prescription, and middle and high school teachers--individually or as a team--can use it to structure whatever content and skills their current school or district requires. the book also includes suggestions for how to integrate technology into inquiry-based education, but the principles and approaches it describes can be applied successfully even in places without abundant technology. Both practical and inspiring, Authentic Learning in the Digital Age is an indispensable handbook for reinvigorating teaching and learning in a new era.

Incorporating a variety of contexts – face-to-face, self-directed, blended and distance learning modes – this book examines different perspectives on effectively designing and delivering learning activities to ensure that future development is pedagogically sound, learner focused and accessible. It considers key topics including:specific activities for achieving learning outcomesclassifies and clarifies technologies’ uses for learning and role in educational designcurrent systems and future developmentslearners’ competencies and approachesdesigning for mobile technologiespractitioner developmentsustainability, organisational barriers and learning communities. Illustrated by case studies from the disciplines and with a helpful appendix of tools and resources for researchers, practitioners and teachers, this book is an essential guide to effective design and implementation of sound e-learning activities.

The author offers exercises, examples, handouts, and basic tips to help both learners and educators find and evaluate information on the Web for quality and validity.

Expand classroom experiences and spark student excitement with learning adventures powered by technology! Demonstrating how technology can improve school performance, this second edition of the bestseller shows how computer and Internet technologies enhance students' critical thinking, research, and problem-solving skills; level the learning field for disadvantaged students; and open doors for children who are disabled.

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? In this eye-opening book, youth culture and technology expert danah boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens' use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Ultimately, boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers’ ability to become informed, thoughtful, and engaged citizens through their online interactions. Yet despite an environment of rampant fear-mongering, boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity. Boyd’s conclusions are essential reading not only for parents, teachers, and others who work with teens but also for anyone interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society, culture, and commerce in years to come. Offering insights gleaned from more than a decade of original fieldwork interviewing teenagers across the United States, boyd concludes reassuringly that the kids are all right. At the same time, she acknowledges that coming to terms with life in a networked era is not easy or obvious. In a technologically mediated world, life is bound to be complicated.