The Wild West in Digital Education

Researchers at the Harvard School of Education led by Howard Gardner are carrying out the GoodPlay Project to probe into how young students’ use of digital media affects the development of their “ethical minds.” They are studying five main areas: identity, privacy, ownership or authorship, credibility and belonging to a community, with authorship and community being the most important questions in their discoveries so far.

In this interview, Gardner draws attenttion to something unprecedented in human history. Ethics and morality are lost in the faceless crowd of social-networking sites, blogs, online games, Wikipedia, and virtual worlds, such as Second Life. Along with this, there's a broad shift in how people think of authorship and information in an environment that everything can be changed. These issues have emerged while digital media is still evolving so people can hide behind ignorance. As teachers, however, we can help learners confront the consequences of their actions. Both teachers and stakeholders need to warn against the superficial use of resources and continue to educate reflective, thoughtful citizens. The implications for educators are on the table and the findings of the GoodPlay Project will help us restore order to the Wild West in Digital Education.

Education, Social Media, and Ethics: Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of EducationEducation Week on Vimeo.

The 'Holy Grail' of Ed Tech

As schools become more project-oriented, tech literacy becomes an important facet. There are big issues with many splinters. One of the biggest issues, perhaps, is the misconceived separation of teaching, learning and technology.

Tech-Literacy Confusion: What knowledge and skills really matter?
Although learners may be more technologically adept than their teachers, they have 'holes' in their knowledge. They need to fill in the gaps with content. In the Media Age, teaching reading and writing in many modalities, including web 2.0, enhances and expands learners' capacities. Web 2.0 helps comprise the literature of the 21st. century, and its importance will continue to grow.Media literacy has more of an emphasis on the content of messages generated and technology literacy has more of an emphasis on the tools and their uses. This is why we need to be careful that our curriculum focuses on underlyig scientific concepts, content and skills, and not on drag-and-drop education.

Media Literacy: the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with media, driven by technology, in all its forms. Regardless of the technology, there are five key questions that form the framework for teaching writing (construction) and five for teaching reading (deconstruction):
Construction: 1) What am I authoring? 2) Does my message reflect understanding in format, creativity and technology? 3) Is my message engaging and compelling for my target audience? 4) Have I clearly and consistently framed values, lifestyles and points of view in my content? 5) Have I communicated my purpose effectively?

Deconstruction: 1) Who created this message? 2) What creative techniques are used to attract my attention? 3) How might different people understand this message differently? 4) What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5) Why is this message being sent?
Processes: These questions can be expanded to encourage a process of inquiry. It is by learning to ask quesitons that learners become skeptics who realize that they cannot passively take in information. Inquiry-based learning is based on (a) making good judgement based on values and critical analysis and (b) knowing how to learn and what to do with the learning. Through these process skills, the learners acquire the content knowledge they need. In a sense, by teaching the critical skills, we also ensure that learners acquire the facts they need.
Goal: The ultimate goal is to prepare learners for life in a technology-driven world and this goal can best be reached by providing a context for learning whereby learners are observant and skeptical.

Technology Literacy: learning how to learn and relearn. When teaching is geared to solving problems and engaging with real-life issues, learners find answers and bring what they know to the problem. Content knowledge is needed, but in life no one spoon feeds answers to anybody.

In the quest of the Holy Grail of EdTech, we cannot lose sight that our mission lies in using technologies because they improve learning, not because they exist. The real power of technology happens when it encourages us to examine our pedagogy and find better ways to engage, inspire and educate our learners.