This fourth volume in the Current Perspectives on School/University/Community Research series brings together the perspectives of authors who are deeply committed to the integration of digital technology with teaching and learning. Authors were invited to discuss either a completed project, a work-in-progress, or a theoretical approach which aligned with one of the trends highlighted by the New Media Consortium’s NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition, or to consider how the confluence of interest and action (Thompson, Martinez, Clinton, & Díaz, 2017) among school-university-community collaborative partners in the digital technology in education space resulted in improved outcomes for all—where “all” is broadly conceived and consists of the primary beneficiaries (the students) as well as the providers of the educational opportunities and various subsets of the community in which the integrative endeavors are enacted. The chapters in this volume are grouped into four sections: Section 1 includes two chapters that focus on computational thinking/coding in the arts (music and visual arts); Section 2 includes three chapters that focus on the instructor in the classroom, preservice teacher preparation, and pedagogy; Section 3 includes four chapters that focus on building the academic proficiency of students; and Section 4 includes two chapters that focus on the design and benefits of school-university-community collaboration.

Web-based school collaboration has attracted the sustained attention of educators, policy-makers, and governmental bodies around the world during the past decade. This book sheds new light on this topical but ever so complex issue. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, it presents the various models of available school twinning programs and explores the cultural, political, and economic factors that surround the recent enthusiasm regarding collaborative initiatives. Moreover, the book critically examines teachers' and students' experiences of web-based school collaboration. In particular, it develops a realistic perspective of the range of challenges they face and identifies the host of technological and non-technological issues that can shape participation in collaborative programs.

This book addresses the issues confronting educators in the integration of digital technologies into their teaching and their students’ learning. Such issues include a skepticism of the added value of technology to educational learning outcomes, the perception of the requirement to keep up with the fast pace of technological innovation, a lack of knowledge of affordable educational digital tools and a lack of understanding of pedagogical strategies to embrace digital technologies in their teaching. This book presents theoretical perspectives of learning and teaching today’s digital students with technology and propose a pragmatic and sustainable framework for teachers’ professional learning to embed digital technologies into their repertoire of teaching strategies in a systematic, coherent and comfortable manner so that technology integration becomes an almost effortless pedagogy in their day-to-day teaching. The materials in this book are comprised of original and innovative contributions, including empirical data, to existing scholarship in this field. Examples of pedagogical possibilities that are both new and currently practised across a range of teaching contexts are featured. ​

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

Facebook, Twitter, Google...today's tech-savvy students are always plugged in. However, all too often their teachers and administrators aren't experienced in the use of these familiar digital tools. If schools are to prepare students for the future, administrators and educators must harness the power of digital technologies and social media. With contributions from authorities on the topic of educational technology, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is a compendium of the most useful tools for any education setting. Throughout the book, experts including Will Richardson, Vicki Davis, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Richard Byrne, Joyce Valenza, and many others explain how administrators and teachers can best integrate technology into schools, helping to make sense of the often-confusing world of social media and digital tools. They offer the most current information for the educational use of blogs, wikis and podcasts, online learning, open-source courseware, educational gaming, social networking, online mind mapping, mobile phones, and more, and include examples of these methods currently at work in schools. As the book clearly illustrates, when these tools are combined with thoughtful and deliberate pedagogical practice, it can create a transformative experience for students, educators, and administrators alike. What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media reveals the power of information technology and social networks in the classroom and throughout the education community.

"This book brings together research and practices regarding digital and social technology integration in the K-12 classroom, sharing practical and conceptual aspects of using digital and social technologies as tools for transforming K-12 learning environments"--

A collection of content-based chapters and case studies examining the pedagogical potential and realities of digital literacies in education. The book aims to examine a number of foundational aspects of Web 2.0 technologies and social media applications and to understand the implications for teaching, learning, and professional development.