Educational Leadership and Technology: Preparing School Administrators for a Digital Age
by
Providing models of exemplary use and the latest research, Educational Leadership and Technology reveals the transformational power of emerging technologies to improve student learning, and explores how leaders can bring about this technology integration. This book provides an overview of roles and strategies expected of effective school leaders, as well as some of the complex issues they face. Authors Garland and Tadeja offer a critical analysis of today's emerging technology, while also addressing the need for collaborative efforts of parents, community, and students to implement technologies effectively. Special Features Include: Full integration of National Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS.A) and the National Education Technology Plan (NETP). Leader reflections from practicing school administrators that provide context of real-world scenarios. "Tips for School Leaders" and end-of-chapter questions that encourage student engagement with the text. "School Administrator's Technology Leadership Self-Assessment," a unique and impartial survey in each chapter with self-scoring guide that helps readers determine their technology use and readiness for implementation. A robust companion website with PowerPoint Slides, strategies, and links to website and video resources which will reflect changes in technology, policy, and practice. Discussion of the newest and emerging technologies, including Cloudware, social media, virtual manipulatives, and e-games. Educational Leadership and Technology is an important resource for new and aspiring elementary, middle, and high school principals as well as superintendents and technology coordinators.
Educational Technology and Pedagogic Encounters
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Education and Technology: Key Issues and Debates
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Digital technology lies at the heart of contemporary education provision. This book considers the key issues in the field and addresses some fundamental but often unvoiced questions about the ever-growing use of technologies in education. It focuses on the social as well as the technical aspects of these issues, giving careful thought to the people, practices, processes and structures behind the use of technologies in education. The book considers a range of current debates and controversies. Will technology replace the school or university? Will technology replace the teacher? What do we really know about learning and technology? Does technology make learning fairer? Can technology address the many educational problems and inequalities faced by people around the world? What does the future hold for technology and education? What can be learnt from the history of technology use? Neil Selwyn takes a critical look at some of the major debates concerning digital technologies and education. Study questions and annotated further reading are included to support readers, along with a companion website linking to online sources and resources.
Education in a Digital World: Global Perspectives on Technology and Education
by
"The book takes a comprehensive look at digital technology use in educational settings around the world. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, the book tackles a number of pressing questions"-- Provided by publisher.
Technology, Innovation, and Educational Change
by
Research from 28 countries highlights the scope and variety of curricular change made possible by educational technology.
Technology Education for Teachers
by
This is a textbook for use in technology teacher training and also a reference book for technology teachers. It will provide a foundation for new teachers entering the area of technology, and also the opportunity for practicing teachers to keep up to date with research informed ideas about teaching technology.
Amazing Ourselves to Death
by
Summary: "Media, technology, culture, television, new media, media ecology, public discourse"-- Provided by publisher.
Authentic Learning in the Digital Age
by
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.
Dialogic: Education for the Internet Age
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Summary: "Dialogic: Education for the Digital Age argues that despite rapid advances in communications technology, most educational research still relies on traditional approaches to education, built upon the logic of print, and dependent on the notion that there is a single true representation of reality. In practice, the use of the Internet disrupts this traditional logic of education by offering an experience of knowledge as participatory and multiple. The challenge identified in Wegerif's text is the growing need to develop a new understanding of education that will encourage us to provide new policies, and hold the potential to transform educational pedagogy and meet the realities of the digital age. This new logic of education is dialogic and characterises education as learning to learn, think and thrive in the context of working with multiple perspectives and ultimate uncertainty. The book builds upon the simple contrast between observing dialogue from an outside point of view, and participating in a dialogue from the inside, before pinpointing an essential feature of dialogic: the gap or difference between voices in dialogue which is understood as an irreducible source of meaning. Each chapter of the book applies this dialogic thinking to a specific challenge facing education, re-thinking the challenge and revealing a new theory of education. Areas covered in the book include: - dialogical learning and cognition - dialogical learning and emotional intelligence - educational technology, dialogic 'spaces' and consciousness - global dialogue and global citizenship - dialogic theories of science and maths education"-- Provided by publisher.
Education and New Technologies
by
Summary: "Education and New Technologies focuses on aspects of education where the use of new technologies has been particularly controversial, i.e. where possible educational benefits are accompanied by concerns about a potential negative impact on learners' experiences and development. This book highlights key issues and their implications for learners, considering questions such as: When should a child's digital diet begin? Does the use of new technology hinder or enhance literacy development? What's the impact on learners who are 'connected' most of the time? Do new technologies give children new abilities or undermine their skills and identities? Are learners safe in online educational spaces?"-- Provided by publisher.
Education in a Digital World
by
Summary: "The book takes a comprehensive look at digital technology use in educational settings around the world. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, the book tackles a number of pressing questions"-- Provided by publisher.
Illuminate
by
In Illuminate, author, educator, and technology trainer Bethany Petty explains how to use technology to improve your students’ learning experiences. This book is packed full of powerful ideas you can use in your classroom tomorrow! Broken into 10 easy to digest chapters - take a journey through technology integration and be inspired to use technology in really meaningful ways in your classroom.
The Learning Edge
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Summary: Provides research-based evidence for how the widespread application of information and communication technology (ICT) can provide powerful learning opportunities that lead to lasting gains and achievement. They show how the integrated use of technology at all levels of the educational system can greatly expand collaborative learning opportunities by giving all educational stakeholders powerful problem-solving tools and solutions. --from publisher description.
Minds Online
by
For the Internet generation, educational technology designed with the brain in mind offers a natural pathway to the pleasures and rewards of deep learning. Drawing on neuroscience and cognitive psychology, Michelle Miller shows how attention, memory, critical thinking, and analytical reasoning can be enhanced through technology-aided approaches.
Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology
by
The digital revolution in education is well under way, with more and more learners plugged into the online world. How can schools make the most of both the technology and the learning potential of today’s “born digital” students? In this new edition of their groundbreaking book, Collins and Halverson argue that new technologies have transformed our workplaces, our lives, and our culture and it is time we take the next step to transform learning―in and out of schools. The authors show how, over time, public schooling was so successful that it became synonymous with education. But new technologies risk making schools obsolete and this book explains why and how today’s educators, policymakers, and communities must adapt to provide all learners with access to the new learning tools of the 21st century.
What's Worth Teaching?
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Summary: This important contribution to the future of education, by bestselling author and renowned cognitive scientist Allan Collins, proposes a school curriculum that will fit the needs of our modern era. Offering guidelines for deciding what is important to learn in order to become a knowledgeable person, a good citizen, a thoughtful worker, and a valuable friend in the 21st century, Collins considers the qualities needed for a healthy and productive life. Taking a close look at how advances in technology, communication, and the dissemination of information are reshaping the world, this volume examines how schools can foster flexible, self-directed learners who will succeed in the modern workplace. A concluding chapter presents a broad new vision for how schools can be redesigned to teach the kinds of knowledge and skills students will need in an increasingly complex society and global world. -- Provided by publisher.
The Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology
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The Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of the fast-growing field of learning technology, from its foundational theories and practices to its challenges, trends, and future developments. Offers an examination of learning technology that is equal parts theoretical and practical, covering both the technology of learning and the use of technology in learning Individual chapters tackle timely and controversial subjects, such as gaming and simulation, security, lifelong learning, distance education, learning across educational settings, and the research agenda Designed to serve as a point of entry for learning technology novices, a comprehensive reference for scholars and researchers, and a practical guide for education and training practitioners Includes 29 original and comprehensively referenced essays written by leading experts in instructional and educational technology from around the world
Technology in Education
Understand how digital tools and platforms are used to enhance learning.
Common Search Terms: educational technology, e-learning, blended learning, digital literacy, assistive technology
Potential Resources: EdTech journals, case studies, tool reviews
Below is a selection of resources to help you get started with this subject area; however, this is only a small selection of what is available through the library.
Start a search using some of the keywords above, or try a search of your own.
Search Library Resources
Digital Schools
by
Nearly a century ago, famed educator John Dewey said that'if we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow.'That wisdom resonates more strongly than ever today, and that maxim underlies this insightful look at the present and future of education in the digital age.As Darrell West makes clear, today's educational institutions must reinvent themselves to engage students successfully and provide them with the skills needed to compete in an increasingly global, technological, and online world. Otherwise the American education system will continue to fall woefully short in its mission to prepare the population to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world.West examines new models of education made possible by enhanced information technology, new approaches that will make public education in the post-industrial age more relevant, efficient, and ultimately more productive. Innovative pilot programs are popping up all over the nation, experimenting with different forms of organization and delivery systems. Digital Schools surveys this promising new landscape, examining in particular personalized learning; realtime student assessment; ways to enhance teacher evaluation; the untapped potential of distance learning; and the ways in which technology can improve the effectiveness of special education and foreign language instruction. West illustrates the potential contributions of blogs, wikis, social media, and video games and augmented reality in K12 and higher education.Technology by itself will not remake education. But if today's schools combine increased digitization with needed improvements in organization, operations, and culture, we can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and improve the manner in which schools function. And we can get back to
Educational Technology for the Global Village
by
The Impact of Technology on Relationships in Educational Settings
by
"As the linguistic, cognitive and social elements of our lives are transformed by new and emerging technologies, educational settings are also challenged to respond to the issues that have arisen as a consequence. This book focuses on that challenge: using psychological theory as a lens to highlight the positive uses of new technologies in relationships and educational settings, and to advocate technological learning opportunities and social support where the misuse and abuse of ICT occurs. The Impact of Technology on Relationships in Educational Settings sets out to explore the role of ICTs in relationship forming, social networking and social relationships within our schools and has grown out of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST); Action on cyberbullying, involving 28 participating countries, and two non-COST countries, of which Australia is one. This cutting edge international text offers cross-cultural, psychological perspectives on the positive uses of new and emerging technologies to improve social relationships and examples of best practice to prevent virtual bullying. This comes at a time when much of the focus in current writings has been on the more negative aspects which have emerged as new technologies evolved: cyberbullying, cyber-aggression and cybersafety concerns. This text is ideally suited to researchers and practiitioners in the fields of Educational and developmental psychology, as well as those specializing in educational technology and the sociology of education"-- Provided by publisher.
Integrating Technology in the Classroom
by
Discover new and immediately applicable tools and practices to support collaborative, student-centered learning. Teachers possess unique skills, knowledge and experience. So why should their approaches to classroom technology look the same? In this new edition of the popular book Integrating Technology in the Classroom, author Boni Hamilton presents technology tools and projects that resonate with your teaching style, classroom context and technology skill level all while helping students achieve academic growth. In this new edition, you’ll find: Coverage of programming, game creation, and augmented and virtual reality. Stories of teachers who have successfully employed technology in the classroom, with more examples from secondary-level teachers, including visual learning preferences and kinesthetic/tactile learning. Deeper explanation of how to leverage technology to meet multilingual needs. A new chapter on leveraging technology to meet adaptive needs, including examples from teachers who use adaptive technologies in regular classrooms. Strategies that address efficiency needs of teachers, to help make administrative tasks less onerous, and coverage of learning management systems, formative assessment sites, and planning tools. Professional development coverage that includes information on ISTE offerings, social media, and other supports. Explore how technology tools can support your instructional goals and help you meet the individual needs of all learners. Audience: K-12 classroom teachers; teacher educators; tech coaches and coordinators
Apps, Technology and Younger Learners
by
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges, potential and theoretical possibilities of apps and considers the processes of change for education and home learning environments. Drawing together a diverse team of international contributors, it addresses the specific features, context of use and content of apps to uncover the importance of these tools for young children’s learning. Apps, Technology and Younger Learners focuses on ways that apps support early years and primary school learning, connect various learning spaces and engage children in a range of edutainment and knowledge-building activities. In each chapter, the current state of knowledge and key research questions in the field for future study are identified, with clear messages provided at the end of each chapter.
Crayons and iPads
by
Summary: A timely addition to the SAGE Swift Series, Crayons and iPads examines the use of digital technology in the early stages of child development and the way in which learning techniques have evolved in classrooms across the world. Taking the position that tablets provide an accessible learning and instructional tool, Debra Harwood explores how tablets can be used to provoke, ignite, and excite children's interest in the world around them, arguing that it is through this engagement with technology that new discoveries are made and learning takes place. Guiding readers through research-based insights into children's thinking, interactions and being, Crayons and iPads offers an important starting point upon which to build play and inquiry-based learning opportunities within early learning program. -- Provided by publisher.
Digital Schools
by
Nearly a century ago, famed educator John Dewey said that "if we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow." That wisdom resonates more strongly than ever today, and that maxim underlies this insightful look at the present and future of education in the digital age. As Darrell West makes clear, today's educational institutions must reinvent themselves to engage students successfully and provide them with the skills needed to compete in an increasingly global, technological, and online world. Otherwise the American education system will continue to fall woefully short in its mission to prepare the population to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world. West examines new models of education made possible by enhanced information technology, new approaches that will make public education in the post-industrial age more relevant, efficient, and ultimately more productive. Innovative pilot programs are popping up all over the nation, experimenting with different forms of organization and delivery systems. Digital Schools surveys this promising new landscape, examining in particular personalized learning; realtime student assessment; ways to enhance teacher evaluation; the untapped potential of distance learning; and the ways in which technology can improve the effectiveness of special education and foreign language instruction. West illustrates the potential contributions of blogs, wikis, social media, and video games and augmented reality in K–12 and higher education. Technology by itself will not remake education. But if today's schools combine increased digitization with needed improvements in organization, operations, and culture, we can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and improve the manner in which schools function. And we can get back to teaching for tomorrow, rather than for yesterday.
Disruptive Classroom Technologies
by
Summary: Have we developed, at considerable cost and effort, classrooms that are digitally rich but innovation poor? Timely and powerful, this book offers a new framework to elevate instructional practices with technology and maximize student learning. The T3 Framework helps categorize students' learning as translational, transformational, or transcendent, sorting through the low-impact applications to reach high-impact usage. Teachers and leaders will find: Examples of technology use at the translational, transformational, and transcendent levels; Activities, guides, and prompts for deeper learning; Evaluative rubrics to self-assess current technology use, establish meaningful goals, and track progress. This guide helps teachers and leaders realize the potential of modern teaching and learning tools to unleash students' passion for limitless learning. -- Provided by publisher.
Empowering Students with Technology
by
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. Offering more than 50 Web sites, plus new resources, practical lesson ideas, sample activities, more information about online learning, and real-world examples, this timely revision examines: Information literacy, Learning in a globally connected community, Increased access to information, Applications for digital cameras, fax machines, cell phones, and more.
Learning in the Cloud
by
This comprehensive and cutting-edge book portrays a vision of how digital media can help transform schools, and what kinds of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, infrastructure, and learning environments are necessary for that transformation to take place. The author and his research team spent thousands of hours observing classes and interviewing teachers and students in both successful and unsuccessful technology-rich schools throughout the United States and other countries. Featuring lessons learned as well as analysis of the most up-to-date research, they offer a welcome response to simplistic approaches that either deny the potential of technology or exaggerate its ability to reform education simply by its presence in schools.
Screen Schooled
by
Summary: "Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, "Is this what is best for students?" is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what's really going on in schools: teachers who are often powerless to curb cell phone distractions; zoned-out kids who act helpless and are unfocused, unprepared, and unsocial; administrators who are influenced by questionable science sponsored by corporate technology purveyors. They provide action steps parents can take to demand change and make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning"-- Provided by publisher. Summary: "Clement and Miles provide many real-world examples and cite multiple studies showing how technology use has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They provide action steps parents and teachers can take to demand change and make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning"-- Provided by publisher.
Tasks Before Apps
by
Summary: Educator and technology consultant Monica Burns shares strategies, tools, and insights that all teachers can use to effectively incorporate technology in the classroom.
Teaching and Learning on Screen
by
What stories are told about teaching and learning on TV and in film? And how do these stories reflect, refract and construct myths, anxieties and pleasures about teaching and learning? This collection looks at how pedagogy is represented on screen, and how TV programmes and films translate pedagogic ideas into stories and relationships. International in scope, with case studies and analysis from the UK, US, Australia, Turkey and Brazil, the book adopts a critical stance in relation to the ways in which theories of learning and myths about education are portrayed on screen.
Technology-Rich Teaching
by
Information and computer technology arrived in classrooms more than three decades ago. Despite the efforts of educators and technologists, much teaching and learning has remained unchanged since it arrived. This is in contrast to the widespread adoption of computer technology in many other endeavors. Changing education to reflect the dominant role of technology in society requires understanding how technology has influenced (and continues to influence) several aspects of schools. Each of these is detailed in this book. The effects of technology on the digital generations who are now enrolled in schools are described, as is the nature of the technology-mediated interaction that will prepare these generations for an unpredictable future. Strategies and approaches for curriculum design, professional development, and other aspects of school organization are presented as well. Teachers, school leaders, technology leaders will find valuable guidance for refreshing teaching and learning that makes use of technology.
Education and Social Media
by
Leading scholars from a variety of disciplines explore the future of education, including social media usage, new norms of knowledge, privacy, copyright, and MOOCs.How are widely popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram transforming how teachers teach, how kids learn, and the very foundations of education? What controversies surround the integration of social media in students'lives? The past decade has brought increased access to new media, and with this new opportunities and challenges for education. In this book, leading scholars from education, law, communications, sociology, and cultural studies explore the digital transformation now taking place in a variety of educational contexts. The contributors examine such topics as social media usage in schools, online youth communities, and distance learning in developing countries; the disruption of existing educational models of how knowledge is created and shared; privacy; accreditation; and the tension between the new ease of sharing and copyright laws. Case studies examine teaching media in K–12 schools and at universities; tuition-free, open education powered by social media, as practiced by the University of the People; new financial models for higher education; the benefits and challenges of MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses); social media and teacher education; and the civic and individual advantages of teens'participatory play.
WordPress for Education
by
WordPress for Education is full of screenshots, practical examples, step-by-step instructions, and best practices for using WordPress in an educational setting. WordPress for Education is written for educators and education personnel interested in implementing WordPress in a classroom setting. You are not required to have previous experience of WordPress or any other content management system.
Adolescents' Online Literacies
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Adolescents’ Online Literacies: Connecting Classrooms, Digital Media, and Popular Culture is a compilation of new work that makes concrete connections between what the research literature portrays and what teachers, school librarians, and media specialists know to be the case in their own situations. The authors (educators and researchers who span three continents) focus on ways to incorporate and use the digital literacies that young people bring to school.
Amazing Ourselves to Death
by
Summary: "Media, technology, culture, television, new media, media ecology, public discourse"-- Provided by publisher.
Digital Sociologies
by
Summary: "Providing a much needed overview of the growing field of digital sociology, this handbook connects digital media technologies to the traditional sociological areas of study, like labour, culture, education, race, class and gender. Rooted in a critical understanding of inequality as foundational to digital sociology and is edited by leaders in the field. It includes topics ranging from web analytics, wearable technologies, social media analysis and digital labour. This rigorous, accessible text explores contemporary dilemmas and problems of the digital age in relation to inequality, institutions and social identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of social science courses and beyond. Offering an important step forward for the discipline of sociology Digital sociologies is an important intellectual benchmark in placing digital at the forefront of investigating the social." -- Policy Press website.
Educating Through Popular Culture
by
Summary: Educating through Popular Culture is a tool for educators at all levels to improve their practice via popular culture in ways that both embrace and resist contemporary thinking. Its chapters provide a range of theoretical and practical suggestions to elicit discussion and spark creativity in all students.
How Technology Is Changing Human Behavior
by
Summary: "Recent technological advances--from dating apps to artificial insemination, from "smart" phones to portable computers that can instantly search the World Wide Web for information, and from robots performing surgery to cars driving themselves--once remarkable, have become an unremarkable part of our lives. The team of authors of this book asks, "How are they changing us?" We all recognize that these innovations have altered our lives, often making them easier, but it is also important to ask if we have lost anything while we have gained from them. The authors of How Technology Is Changing Human Behavior: Issues and Benefits show that human behaviors and thinking skills are rapidly being reprogrammed by technology, with even more developments on the horizon sure to further alter our future and shape our identity."-- Publisher's website.
The Impact of Technology on Relationships in Educational Settings
by
Summary: "As the linguistic, cognitive and social elements of our lives are transformed by new and emerging technologies, educational settings are also challenged to respond to the issues that have arisen as a consequence. This book focuses on that challenge: using psychological theory as a lens to highlight the positive uses of new technologies in relationships and educational settings, and to advocate technological learning opportunities and social support where the misuse and abuse of ICT occurs. The Impact of Technology on Relationships in Educational Settings sets out to explore the role of ICTs in relationship forming, social networking and social relationships within our schools and has grown out of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST); Action on cyberbullying, involving 28 participating countries, and two non-COST countries, of which Australia is one. This cutting edge international text offers cross-cultural, psychological perspectives on the positive uses of new and emerging technologies to improve social relationships and examples of best practice to prevent virtual bullying. This comes at a time when much of the focus in current writings has been on the more negative aspects which have emerged as new technologies evolved: cyberbullying, cyber-aggression and cybersafety concerns. This text is ideally suited to researchers and practiitioners in the fields of Educational and developmental psychology, as well as those specialising in educational technology and the sociology of education"-- Provided by publisher.
Literacy and Education
by
Literacy and Education tells the story of how literacy―starting in the early 1980s―came to be seen not as a mental phenomenon, but as a social and cultural one. In this accessible introductory volume, acclaimed scholar James Paul Gee shows readers how literacy "left the mind and wandered out into the world." He traces the ways a sociocultural view of literacy melded with a social view of the mind and speaks to learning in and out of school in new and powerful ways. Gee concludes by showing how the very idea of "literacy" has broadened into new literacies with words, signs, and deeds in contexts enhanced, augmented, and transformed by new technologies.
Plugged In
by
An illuminating study of the complex relationship between children and media in the digital age Now, as never before, young people are surrounded by media--thanks to the sophistication and portability of the technology that puts it literally in the palms of their hands. Drawing on data and empirical research that cross many fields and continents, authors Valkenburg and Piotrowski examine the role of media in the lives of children from birth through adolescence, addressing the complex issues of how media affect the young and what adults can do to encourage responsible use in an age of selfies, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This important study looks at both the sunny and the dark side of media use by today's youth, including why and how their preferences change throughout childhood, whether digital gaming is harmful or helpful, the effects of placing tablets and smartphones in the hands of toddlers, the susceptibility of young people to online advertising, the legitimacy of parental concerns about media multitasking, and more.
Reclaiming Conversation
by
Summary: "Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don't have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents' attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with - a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity. But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human--and humanizing--thing that we do. The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other"--Publisher's description.