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![]() Online Handouts by David Warlick is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://davidwarlick.com/. |
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The title only tells part of the story. Today’s environment of life, work, and play is not only based on digital information, but an other essential asspect of the information environment is networks. Digital content flows seemingly effortlessly through networks that reach almost every human inhabited spot on the planet. Because information is made to be machined (computer processed) and shared (through the networks) is is also abundant. This shear abundance of information is evidenced by the fact that today, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. This is well over 86,000 feature length movies every week.
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A very colorful school entry way |
These three qualities of today’s information environment have direct and profound implications to learning, as well as work and play. Because information is networked, digital, and abundant, we must expand our notions of what it means to be literate in the early 21st century — even in the great white north.
It is an honor to be back in the Edmonton area. That people such as myself continue to be called back to Alberta, speaks significantly of the vision and dedication that is being applied to the education environment. ..and it is not that we have the answers for you. But our ideas serve a fuel for your continued efforts to reinvent education for your children and their future.
There is no doubt that literacy has changed. Because it is networked, what it means to be a reader has expanded into something that is richer and far more interesting. When all information is digital — defined by numbers — what it means to process information has become far more empowering. Because information is abundant, communication has become more challenging, because we are competing for the attention of our readers.
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But literacy is only the beginning of what teaching and learning look like in the early 21st century. Authentic and inquiry-based learning have long been a part of the education conversation. But perhaps new clues for implementing a more authentic learning experience might be found in our students and their “native” information experience. We know that their outside-the-classroom experience is compelling and even distracting. But it is crucial that we realize that it is an information experience and that a focal part of that experience is learning.
Many educators advocate that we bring video games and social networking into the class room to better engage our learners — and I do not dispute that position. But perhaps another approach is to examine that experience and itemize and understand the qualities of that experience that make them so compelling and effective. We will be looking at that experience and some of those qualities and explore what that means to teaching and learning in Sturgeon County today.




Time Explorer











Cell Phone Penetration Stable, While Application Shifts


History Bleeds Through
The perfect storm of converging conditions that are forcing us, for the first time in decades, to completely re-think education and what it means to be educated, are three elements of a story, one that fits the market place, one that resonates with deeply held values, and one that is already happening in front of everybody’s eyes.
I will also be delivering two concurrent presentations. The first is also warning about technology. Those of us who were born before the personal computer, see our children playing their video games and engaging In heir social networks, and we think that to engage our children in learning, they need to be gaming and Facebook’ing. We have to understand that it isn’t the tech that engages them. It’s a uniquely compelling experience that is centered around information.
