What have been the biggest successes in educational technology – and why have they succeeded when others have failed? Educational Visions shows how innovations including citizen science, learning at scale, inclusive education, learning design and analytics have developed over decades. The book is shaped by the visions pursued by one research group for the past 40 years. It outlines the group’s framework for innovation and shows how this can be put into practice to achieve long-term results that benefit both students and teachers at every educational level.

In the twenty-first century, educators around the world are being told that they need to transform education systems to adapt young people for the challenges of a global digital knowledge economy. Too rarely, however, do we ask whether this future vision is robust, achievable or even desirable, whether alternative futures might be in development, and what other possible futures might demand of education. Drawing on ten years of research into educational innovation and socio-technical change, working with educators, researchers, digital industries, students and policy-makers, this book questions taken-for-granted assumptions about the future of education. Arguing that we have been working with too narrow a vision of the future, Keri Facer makes a case for recognizing the challenges that the next two decades may bring, including: the emergence of new relationships between humans and technology the opportunities and challenges of aging populations the development of new forms of knowledge and democracy the challenges of climate warming and environmental disruption the potential for radical economic and social inequalities. This book describes the potential for these developments to impact critical aspects of education – including adult-child relationships, social justice, curriculum design, community relationships and learning ecologies. Packed with examples from around the world and utilising vital research undertaken by the author while Research Director at the UK’s Futurelab, the book helps to bring into focus the risks and opportunities for schools, students and societies over the coming two decades. It makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationship between education and social and technological change, and presents a set of key strategies for creating schools better able to meet the emerging needs of their students and communities. An important contribution to the debates surrounding educational futures, this book is compelling reading for all of those, including educators, researchers, policy-makers and students, who are asking the question 'how can education help us to build desirable futures for everyone in the context of social and technological change?'

In 1971, Cynthia Solomon and Seymour Papert published Twenty Things to Do with a Computer, a revolutionary document that would set the course of education for the next fifty years and beyond. This book, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50, is a celebration of the vision set forth by Papert and Solomon a half-century ago. Four dozen experts from around the world invite us to consider the original provocations, reflect on their implementation, and chart a course for the future through personal recollections, learning stories, and imaginative scenarios. Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50 can inspire parents, educators, and aspiring teachers to make the world a better place for learning. The impact of Twenty Things is all around us. In 1971, Solomon and Papert predicted 1:1 personal computing, the maker movement, the rise of computational thinking, children programming computers, robotic construction kits, computer science for all, and integrating computing across the curriculum. All of this, years, or even decades, before such notions became more commonplace. In fewer than thirty pages, Twenty Things to Do with a Computer introduced readers to an exciting world in which children use computers they own to create, solve problems, control their world, and bring powerful ideas to life across subject areas. More importantly, Twenty Things situates the ideals of progressive education in a modern context. Papert and Solomon demonstrated how computing could be creative, humane, whimsical, childlike, and a way to learn "everything else," even ideas at the frontiers of mathematics and science. Contributors to this book include scholars and tech pioneers who worked with Papert and Solomon in the 1970s, phenomenal classroom teachers, inventors, researchers, school administrators, university professors, and educational technology leaders. Essays in this collection offer multiple pathways for school reform. Authors include Cynthia Solomon, Sugata Mitra, Conrad Wolfram, Audrey Watters, David Thornburg, Yasmin Kafai, Dale Dougherty, Nettrice Gaskins, Dan Lynn Watt, Molly Lynn Watt, Gary Stager, Artemis Papert, Stephen Heppell, along with forty other brilliant thinkers and legendary educators. Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50 is an effort to preserve a historical document and share it with future of generations seeking a more creative, personal, empowering, and meaningful educational experience for young people. This book is a must-read for: Educators School leaders Preservice teachers Policymakers Technology developers Parents

Includes: schooling and learning in an information society (the 3 great codes and the creation of human culture); learning and teaching in 2004: the BIG DIG; the future of teaching; year 2005: using technology to build communities of understanding; and public school teachers using machines in the next decade (spread of computers in schools: confusion over access, use, and innovation). Also: is there a Federal role? will promising visions become a reality? key issues for future visions of educational technology; technology and school reform: setting the context, and more.