Copyright: The War against Piracy is Stifling Creativity

As an educator who utilizes technology in her teaching, I had so many questions about copyright that no one seemed to be able to answer: 

What does copyright mean?

Where can I find free-to-use content?

Do Fair Use principles cover me as an educator?

My pursuit of answers that led me down a rabbit hole of information, contradictions, and legal jargon. Unfortunately contemporary copyright laws are convoluted and full of “grey areas”. The hypocrisy of how most laws have been established (through large corporations looking to cash-in) has stunted culture and put limits on creativity in the digital world. While I do believe direct copy and paste piracy should be illegal, today’s restrictions may be crippling today’s Creative Class of learners.

See original slides with image / music sources here.

Finding Free-to-Use Content for Multimedia Projects

I once tried what I thought was a fantastic idea as an English teacher: have students create a movie trailer for a book they had read to present to their classmates. Students did an excellent job carefully piecing together images, footage and background music using a variety of editing software. When they presented in front of their peers, we filmed their presentations and posted them privately on YouTube.

Then YouTube took down the majority of my students' videos 
for copyright infringement. Oops.

I had to backtrack and learn more about copyright laws and teach this information to my digital citizens:

I also created a student-friendly printable "cheat sheets" to help students find content for their multimedia projects:

How to Find Creative Commons Music / Sound Effects

Please feel free to copy these materials and use them for educational purposes.

Digital Literacy is Crucial for Reading and Writing Instruction

Literacy is known as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently, and think critically about a language. The emergence of new technologies has brought about a need for the addition of digital literacy which refers to the ability to select appropriate technological tools and use them effectively. Though digital literacy goes beyond the use of specific tools to encompass a whole set of skills needed to flourish in today’s technology rich environment. 

The Future Lab’s report Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum defines digital literacy as having “access to a broad range of practices and cultural resources that you are able to apply to digital tools. It is the ability to make and share meaning in different modes and formats; to create, collaborate and communicate effectively and to understand how and when digital technologies can best be used to support these processes.” (1) It’s about collaborating, staying safe and communicating effectively; it’s about cultural and social awareness and understanding; it’s about being creative.

Digital literacy can be envisioned as a number of interrelated components:

The Components of Digital Literacy from Futurelab report

However, the education systems - and schools on both sides of the digital divide - have been slow to adapt this new type of literacy in reading and writing instruction. Troy Hicks (Central Michigan University) and Kristen Hawley Turner (Fordham University) offer a passionate plea for teachers to incorporate technology in more meaningful ways in their article No Longer a Luxury: Digital Literacy Can’t Wait (2). They offer some examples of how teachers commonly integrate technology tools in the classroom in an ineffective manner:

Hicks and Turner claim that educators should not just focus on students learning how to use specific technology tools, but we should be teaching students how to be literate across multiple forms of media and in a variety of contexts.

Students should be able to:

• critically consume information and share across time and space
• co-create and collaborate to solve problems
• persevere in light of setbacks
• maintain flexibility

Understanding how technologies enable new literacies and meaningful communication should be a core curricular and pedagogical function of English education (3). Henry Jenkins (MIT Media Lab) calls this ability to function in online networks a “participatory culture” which has a relatively low barrier to artistic expression and civic engagement (4). Benefits of this digital culture include peer-to-peer learning, a changed attitude towards intellectual property, diversification of cultural expression, modern workplace skill development, and an empowered conception of citizenship. Jenkins further claims that participatory culture is the new “hidden curriculum” in schools.

Digital literacy is a crucial component in modern literacy instruction and is necessary for today’s students to be productive members of a digital world. Teachers should focus on the skills related to digital literacy, not specific tools which will soon be obsolete in the ever changing world of technology.

1. Hague, C. & Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Bristol, England: Futurelab.

2. Hicks, T. & Turner, K. H. (2013). No longer a luxury: Digital literacy can’t wait. National Council of Teachers of English. English Education, 102(6), pp 58-65.

3. Grabill, J. T. & Hicks, T. (2005). Multiliteracies meet methods: The case for digital writing in English education. National Council of Teachers of English. English Education, 37(4), pp 301-311.

4. Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media Education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Using the Power of the Internet to Connect People

Online performance artist Ze Frank's discusses his "web playroom" in the video below. Traditionally, art endevours have been transmissive and do not involve the audience, whereas Ze Frank utilizes technology to connect humans to one another. What resonated with me was his pursuit "to feel and be felt." This is not a new idea, but rather a long time need for humans which has been augmented by the development of new technologies. It is a concept I think our Generation Z students struggle with on a daily basis.

I find the idea of interactive art is very common in Asia. Around the city there are frequently art exihibtions which encourage interaction from the audience. Holiday decorations are even built as small cities meant to be walked through and experienced. Last November, there was a participatory show in Hong Kong called MURS described as an immersive, interactive outdoor Smart show.

This show really hit home with me because it brought a crowd of complete strangers together in an engaging manner. In a city like Hong Kong, with one of the highest population densities in the world, a place where you are NEVER alone (quite literally unless you are in your home) there is an overwhelming sense of disconnect among the people. I still cannot believe how lonely it can feel standing in a large crowd of people. Hong Kong is a city always on the go: people are in a rush to commute, aggressive to close a business deal, storefronts and buildings are in a constant renovation cycle, and the workforce is transient. All these factors contribute to a place where no one feels grounded and are aching to connect. I think this is one of the reasons an interactive show like this was so popular, and why art which brings people together goes viral.

In my eyes this is one of the greatest capabilities of new technologies for educational purposes. Teachers can transcend the walls of their classrooms to reach audiences around the globe. I have long been a fan of Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR Model which helps educators to think about HOW they are using technology. 

Is a technology just a different way of doing the same old task or it is adding something and transforming the learning experience? 

I often refer back to this model when working with teachers to help them move up the ladder. Technology seems a bit less daunting when there are clear goals laid out to assist tech integration.

Utilizing the Tech You Have: Mobile Devices in the Classroom

If 1:1 laptops have not yet reached your classroom, there is most likely other tools which can be utilized for learning. Many students in the intermediate secondary levels already have their own cell phone and are often able to use them at school for educational purposes thanks to many school boards' BYOD policies.

Are you utilizing this tool to improve learning?

5 Tips to get a mobile program up and running:

1. Clearly define when, how and why mobile devices are being implemented


2. Consider the digital divide - will some students be left out not owning a device?


3. Co-create a clearly defined set of rules with students which compliments the school's established Responsible/Acceptable Use Policy.


4. Practice using devices in group settings first to ensure students are familiar with the technology and can effectively use it.


5. Ongoing reflection of your teaching practice: Is the use of technology modifying or transforming the learning task?

There are many softwares which support the use of mobiles in the classroom. The following are not limited to use with mobiles, but can easily be integrated into a BYOD setting:

    See the original infographic at VennGage

Alternatives to PowerPoint: Web-Based Presentation Slide Programs

I used to teach Grade 8 English for 90 students. That meant whenever there were class presentations....I watched 90 of them. Thus, one would understand why I absolutely refused to let my students create boring, unengaging presentations using static, simple technology.

I didn’t restrict what software my students could use, rather I restricted what they couldn’t use by banning PowerPoint.

However, I learned as a teacher to be sure to direct students to programs that fit the criteria of the assignment. Since my oral presentation had to include a live speaking portion, students who chose the PowToons option were left starting and stopping their video. You can imagine how NOT smooth my nervous 13 year old students were in doing this in front of an audience of their peers.

When providing options for students to create a presentation, it makes sense to me to seperate technology by presentation slides and presentation videos. 

See my review of various technology to create slides (could also be used as a student resource):

See the slides here.

To create short videos or animations to accompany presentations, see my Pinterest board of Video Creation Resources:

Follow Cris's board Video Creation Resources on Pinterest.

Flipping the Classroom: Don't Re-Invent the Wheel, Find Pre-Made Video Resources Online

There has been a lot of talk lately around the theory of ‘flipping the classroom’. Essentially, students preview lesson material and lectures at home to make time to do more hands-on, collaborative activities in class. 

Watch the following short video or view this infographic for more details.

Source: Center for Teaching and Learning

However, what teacher has the time to create a high quality video for each lesson?

Allow me to be so bold as to say: no teacher. 

Though I have seen success from teachers who simply record themselves teaching a lesson at the front of the class or from an aerial view then posting it in a place students can access such as on YouTube or school LMS. This simple act allows the student to pause or rewind any confusing parts of a lesson which promotes self-regulation in the learner.

Further, I have also seen success from teachers who record their screens during a lesson using tools such as EduCreations or the recording feature on SmartBoards. What’s great about this format is the accompanying online learning community of educators who have posted their own lessons to share. You could further check out places such as OpenEd or Share My Lesson for lesson sharing in a video format. 

Flipping the classroom has many benefits: instead of students listening to a transmissive, passive lecture, teachers can utilize the collaborative environment of the classroom by guiding cooperative and exploratory tasks. It also frees up the teacher’s time to provide personalized instant feedback to students and differentiate instruction by pulling small groups of learners to work with. 

However, there are many problems to the flipped classroom as well. What if the students don’t do their homework? What if there were technology issues? What if every subject teacher expected a student to learn lesson content the night before (how many hours of homework is that??)

The more prominent downfall I spotted in my sideline analysis of the flipped classroom is that student grew tired of the format. Making an educational video entertaining is a hard feat! Creating even a simple animation or instructional video to accompany or substitute a face-to-face lesson takes much effort and time on the teacher's part. 

What I realized is that I did not have to create the video myself - what it came down to is finding the best resource to fit my teaching needs. Why re-invent the wheel? Luckily there are many free educational video resources available online. 

Follow Cris's board Video Resources for Lessons on Pinterest.

I’ve also learned when it comes to the flipped classroom, as with anything, it works best in moderation. I appreciate many educational benefits to ‘flipping the classroom’. But I also am going to teach a lesson in the format which I feel worked best for the topic and my learning goals. 

For instance, I chose to flip a lesson during a speeches unit I taught. In this lesson, I had students view Martin Luther King Jr.’s infamous “I Have a Dream” speech at home, identifying literary devices and observing the vocal skills used in the speech. By flipping the lesson, students could view the video as many times as they liked. For the in-class lesson, we discussed the answers in groups and as a class before viewing another video which deconstructs the speech. 

I used the extraordinarily user-friendly site Ted Ed Lessons to create this lesson, along with embedded instructions, formative assessment , and discussion forum. 

The website sends the lesson creator a link to view what students have started the lesson and to review progress. Other teachers can also customize the lesson to suit their needs.

See the Ted Ed Video Lesson here

See the Full Lesson Plan here

See the Unit Plan here 

Reaching the Visual Learner: Software to Create Digital Posters or Infographics

Ever find yourself drawing incomprehensible doodles as you attempt to explain an idea to a student? I do all the time.

There is no doubt in my mind that I am a visual learner. I see this come out in my teaching, as I break down complicated ideas for my students in the same way I did to make sense of it for myself. Taking large amounts of text and synthesizing those ideas to create an aesthetically pleasing, symbol-saturated visual representation is something I truly enjoy doing. 

Source: OnlineCollege.org

See my Pinterest board for resources to make digital posters or infographics as well as editing programs for photo manipulation:

Follow Cris's board Digital Posters/Infographics on Pinterest.

Reaching the Auditory Learner: Text-to-Speech Software and Voice Comments

It's undeniable that students learn best in different ways. So much time is spent classifying learners as auditory, visual, or kinesthetic yet often I find students are a combination of various learning styles - I know this is true for myself. 

Source: OnlineCollege.org

Sometimes it's not enough to have the voice in your head reading along with you; sometimes it's just easier to have accompanying audio to text you are reading. Text-to-speech software is a great teaching tools for ELL students, struggling readers, students with learning disabilities like dyslexia or auditory learners. The following are my top text-to-speech tools:

See link to the slides here.

Some of my students this past year requested I leave them audio comments on their work instead of written text. Perhaps this was due to the high ESL population at my school who find speaking and listening to the English language much easier to understand than reading and writing. Or perhaps these students truly did identify with being auditory learners.

Sometimes students just prefer to receive feedback in a certain way. As an educator who is a strong believer in differentiating my instruction, I am open to leaving comments in a form most useful for my students. 

Technology can be utilized to support various feedback mediums. Here are various ways to give audio feedback on your students' work:

See link to the slides here.

How do you reach your auditory learners?

Learning Skills and Work Habits: Tech Tools for Tracking Student Behaviours

The first statement of the Learning Skills section of the Ontario Ministry of Education’s publication Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools states, “The development of learning skills and work habits is an integral part of a student’s learning” (p. 10).

Teachers are expected to report on six categories:

• Responsibility
• Organization
• Independence 
• Collaboration
• Initiative 
• Self-Regulation

Learning Skills should not be considered in the determination of a student’s grades. Instead, the assessing, evaluating, and reporting on the achievement of curriculum expectations and on the demonstration of learning skills should be done separately.

Though some may identify other skills as being crucial to student success, it is clear that a student’s work habits significantly contribute to their success in school and for life beyond the classroom. 

The Definition and Selection of Competencies (DeSeCo) Project, sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has underlined the importance of identifying and developing key competencies as follows:

Globalisation and modernisation are creating an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. To make sense of and function well in this world, individuals need, for example, to master changing technologies and to make sense of large amounts of available information. They also face collective challenges as societies – such as balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability, and prosperity with social equity. In these contexts, the competencies that individuals need to meet their goals have become more complex, requiring more than the mastery of certain narrowly defined skills.  

(OECD, p. 4)

We are preparing students for an information saturated world where they will need to be self-directed learners with the skills to collaborate with others, are organized, have initiative, and set and monitor personal goals. As educators it is our responsibility to foster and help develop these skills in our students.

When it comes time for report card data entry, our tracking should be consistent and accountable to result in accurate reporting of students’ learning skills and work habits. 

The following are three simple tools for tracking students behaviours for the reporting of learning skills:

See the slides here.

21st Century Tools: The Role of the Teacher

Once again, I refer to Dr. Matthew J. Koehler's model of TPACK to conceptualize the interconnected and overlapping realms of teacher knowledge. The question posed is concerning the role of the teacher as it pertains to learning and understanding 21st century tools. 

The TPACK model shows a breakdown of the areas of expertise teachers are expected to know, including content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge. According to this model, teachers should strive to reach the middle area where all three realms overlap. 

Content Knowledge: this is the information on the subjects we teach.
But I think we can all agree that being an expert in a field does NOT necessarily equate to being a good teacher.

Pedagogical Knowledge: this is ‘the art of teaching’.
It includes such things as taking into consideration learning styles, differentiating instruction, creating a classroom environment and assessment practices. Basically, its your philosophy of education.

Technological Knowledge: this is the tools used to teach.
Today, many people’s immediate thoughts are of modern technologies. However, it can also includes things as simple as a pencil or a calculator.


The overlapping area between content and pedagogy covers the core business of teaching. It is what to teach and the best way to teach it. However, it is often the third realm of technology with its overlapping areas that tends to be the most challenging for teachers.

It’s true, that technology is advancing at exponential rates and there’s no way any one person could keep up with it all.

So how should teachers face the daunting task of learning and teaching with 21st century tools?

First, teachers should remember that technology (including new computer-related software and hardware) are merely tools to use to support student learning. The foundation of teaching still lies in a teacher’s knowledge of the content and their own personal teaching pedagogy. Effective technology integration does not consist of using it as a gimmick or reward for students. Instead, technology should be utilized as a teaching tool for lessons firmly rooted in calculated pedagogy and closely linked to content and curriculum outcomes.

Second, it’s important for teachers to realize that they only need to know enough about new technologies to integrate it into their specific classroom - the same way that we only use teaching practices which fit our pedagogy and content knowledge which relates to our subject. Teachers do not need to be tech experts to effectively use technology in the classroom. Instead, the best 21st century educators know of a tools which fits the context of their teaching, some basic skills of how to use and tool, as well as the courage to try it out!

Third, teachers should remember that a proper education in the 21st century must include teaching and learning with new technology. Educators must equip students with technological skills to be digital citizens and successful in the world. It is the role of the teacher to learn alongside his or her students as technology advances to guide students on their journey and model self-sufficiency when learning about new technologies.

The Ontario College of Teachers Standards

The Ontario College of Teachers has professional guidelines and standards for educators to follow. 

See below for my visualization of the standards as well as a summation of the Professional Advisory surrounding electronic communication and social media: 

Click here for full-size poster

Blended Learning: Learning Management Systems

This hybrid method of learning combines traditional classroom and online education. Blended learning has emerged with the advancement of new technologies in an effort to reach and teach students more effectively. 

While educators may debate the exact meaning of the term, the gist is that online technology is used not just to supplement, but transform and improve the learning process. 

The Ontario Ministry of Education explains the tools used to create Blended learning should help students:

• learn or review key concepts
• stay organized 
• communicate with others
• show what they have learned
• submit assignments
• track achievement

The website further states, “Blended learning uses the tools of the provincial learning management system (LMS) to teach and support learning in a face-to-face class.” Thus, technology used to support Blended Learning not just technology tools which can be used in the classroom, but online learning platforms meant to support traditional classroom learning. 

The goal is to use technology to build an online learning community that transcends the walls of the classroom so students can continue their learning outside the classroom. 

Click here for my comparison of various Learning Management Systems (LMS) to Support Blended Learning

This Post is Licensed for Noncommercial Reuse...

It is my school’s policy that students and teachers use only copyright-free material. This makes sense hypothetically, but what does it actually mean? Where could this mysterious content be found? 

After asking around, it became clear to me that copyright-free material was not understood by many other teachers as well. So how could we possibly teach and model finding such content for our students? Although it was part of my job to ensure students were only using copyright-free material, I knew very little myself about what can and cannot be used nevermind how to monitor this from my students. 

However, teaching in a technology-focused school means the students use digital technology to create many of their projects. They take images, video clips, sound bites and more from the internet and to create their own products on a regular basis. 

I decided to make it my mission to learn about copyright licensing alongside my students. 

First, I compiled a list of websites with copyright-free material. I sent students to my Pinterest board of copyright-free resources.

However, my students thought Pinterest itself was all copyright-free material which could not be further from the truth. I witness numerous students searching for "copyright-free" content using the search bar of Pinterest!

I can see now why the students were confused.

So next, I modeled finding content using the Creative Commons website. This search engine links to various copyright-free sites. But students still struggled with the specific options on the different websites.

Luckily Creative Commons has a great resource to explain what each of the copyright permissions mean:

Sharing Creative Works (Creative Commons) by Creative Commons

For my own students, I made it clear what the best options would be for them on various websites: 

Make a copy of these lesson slides here

We went over the above slides as a class before any task requiring images, video or audio. I also print hard copies of these slides for students to refer to at their desks. 

Whenever we brainstormed Success Criteria as a class, I made a point to include "copyright-free material" in the list. It became second nature to always use copyright-free content and students began searhing for only copyright-free content in their other subject classes without being asked to.

Research Function in Google Docs and Presentations

Since I mostly utilize Google tools in my teaching, one of the simplest ways for my students to find copyright-free material is using the Research Tool in Google Docs and Presentations. This tool allows you to search Google content (filtered by usage rights) directly in Docs via a pop up box. 

A few of my students made this tutorial video: 

See written instructions for using the Research Tool here.

I think it is important to teach students to identify and understand the copyright-free licenses so they can determine for themselves what material they can and cannot use. Furthermore, students should understand WHY they should use copyright-free material and how to label their own work in the Creative Commons.

Online Privacy for Students in a Digital Age

When I taught Grade 8 English, I always had my students write an autobiography at the beginning of the year to learn more about them. This past year I added a media focus by having students design a digital poster to represent themselves. The software to be used was left wide open - students could use anything from Microsoft Publisher to online digital poster software to simple Paint.

I even gave student the option to publish their work online as visual resume or an About.me page. My intention for this online option was to encourage students to begin building a positive online presence. It was not mandatory, but rather an option and platform for the students to showcase their accomplishments. 

See my lesson instructions here:

We spoke as a class about what is and isn’t appropriate to post online. 

However, I received mixed reactions from parents and my peers. Was this still too much information for students to post publicly? Should students under a certain age be anonymous on the internet? Should such online behaviours be encouraged by a school?

Where do we draw the line between creating a positive digital footprint and protecting children from the dangers of the internet? 

In a school which introduced a 1:1 laptop program and supports a tech-infused learning community dedicated to the principles of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), these are critical questions to be asked. And it seemed that no one knew the answers.

My classroom project sparked a lively debate among educators at my school concerning what the students should and should not be doing online. On one side, it is important for schools to protect students from the dangers of the internet. On the other side, I think we could all admit that students with their own laptops and a constant wifi connection are visiting whatever sites they wish.

Instead of hiding children from the internet, I feel it’s the role of the school to educate students on safe online behaviours.

We can never teach someone swim from the deck of the pool. We of course shouldn’t push them into the water with no previous guidance, but instead assist them into the water with a suitable knowledge of what to do once in the water and how to react to unfavourable situations. 

From my experience, educators often prematurely give students full reign of the internet after deciding technology is a beneficial tool for education. We essentially pushed students into the deep end without the necessary skills needed to stay afloat. Students need to be explicitly taught digital citizenship and have their online actions closely monitored while they are still learning appropriate online behaviour.

See my follow-up lesson on online privacy here:

Access the lesson slides here

Please feel free to use any of these resources in your own teaching of online safety.

Social Media in the Classroom - Twitter Pilot

Social media is a great tool to integrate into the classroom and I have experienced with various platforms such as Edmodo, Blogger, Google Sites, Facebook, Skype and most prevalently Twitter. I used Twitter in my practicum classroom back in Ontario and it went over quite well. The students stayed in touch with me and their peers from the ease of their phones and home computers. I was able to send links to the students easily and recommend educational resources related to the topics were were learning about in class.

Last year, I piloted a Twitter program at my school and Hong Kong and did not have as successful of results. Twitter is not popular in Asia and many of the students had never even heard of it before. After the chaos of getting 90 students signed up on the website, I found Twitter not to be very user-friendly for 12 year olds. Unfortunately the students were not very engaged in using Twitter as it was not a form of social media they were interested in using. In addition, we ran into many problems with the students’ inboxes getting spammed with adult content.

In the end, we found other collaborative web 2.0 tools such as Edmodo and Google Docs a better fit for our students. I personally use Twitter to connect with other educators and find it a valuable tools for collecting resources and having conversations with other educators.

For those new to Twitter, see this document about the basics of using Twitter (I made this for my students). Here is a presentation and instructions for signing up to Twitter we presented to the teachers after our pilot project.

Follow me @CrisTurple

A Breakdown of TPACK: My Understanding of the Theory and What It Means for Education

Just because a teacher uses technology, doesn't mean they know how to teach with technology.  Good teaching practices are embedded in an established pedagogy with an aim to transfer the skills and knowledge laid out in curriculum documents. 

* PowToons is an easy-to-use software to create animations. I use this tool with my Grade 8 students quite frequently.

The Horizon Report: Emerging Technologies Initiative

The Horizon Report is a decade-long comprehensive research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry. This report is the result of a joint venture between The New Media Consortium (a globally focused not-for-profit consortium dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies) and The ELI (a community of higher education institutions and organizations committed to advancing learning through information technology innovation).

The following are my synthesized points of learning from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions of the report, outlining the contemporary key trends and critical challenges of emerging technologies.

Key Trends

1. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators. 

• sense-making and the ability to assess the credibility of information are paramount - teach research skills, not knowledge
• media/digital literacy for students to be able to navigate the internet

2. Technologies we use are increasingly based not on school servers, but in the cloud. 

• browser-based software that is device-independent
• notions of privacy and control (where is the line?)
• significant cost savings (bring your own device)

3. Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. 

• The digital divide, once seen as a factor of wealth, is now seen as a factor of education
• evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce (prepare students for jobs which don’t exist yet)

4. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to.

• logistical challenges in a busy, fast-paced world (should we also be sure to unplug?)
• the implications for informal learning are profound - social networks
• “just-in-time” learning and “found” learning: maximizing the impact of learning by ensuring it is timely and efficient

5. The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing.

• “Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills.”

Near-term horizon (within 1 year): electronic books

Mid-term horizon (within 2-3 years): augmented reality and game-based learning

Far-term horizon (4-5 years): gesture-based computing and learning analytics

Critical Challenges

1. Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.

• despite widespread agreement on its importance, training in digital literacy skills and techniques is rare
• the lack of formal training is being offset through professional development or informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital media literacy as a norm
• digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral (short-lived)

2. Economic pressures and new models of education are presenting unprecedented competition to traditional models of schools.

• ways to control costs with growing number of students, and fewer resources and staff than before
• simply capitalizing on new technology is not enough; new models must engage students

3. The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices.

• more learner choice and control (differentiated instruction)
• “It has become clear that one-size-fits-all teaching methods are neither effective nor acceptable for today’s diverse students” - has one-size-fits-all teaching ever been an effective way to teach??

4. The fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment — aka “the system.”

• “As long as maintaining the basic elements of the existing system remains the focus of efforts to support education, there will be resistance to any profound change in practice.”
• Why are we still educating in the same manner we did before computers were invented? Why is education not the number one priority to our society? Capitalist mentality: no personal gain from education system

5. Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of our learning metrics.

• social networks: difficult to tie back to the classroom, as they tend to happen serendipitously and in response to an immediate need for knowledge, rather than being related to topics currently being studied in school