University Extension Webinar: "How and Why to Transform Schools with Digital Media"

Professor Mark Warschauer
Thursday, December 8, 2011
11:00-12:00 pm PST

To register: http://unex.uci.edu/services/events/

Description

As young people become increasingly immersed in using digital media outside the class, there is ongoing controversy about the extent to which technology should be used inside schools, with discussions on this topic often polarized between techno-pessimists and techno-utopians. In contrast to both of these one-sided perspectives, this webinar takes a hard-headed look at exactly what can be accomplished through use of digital media in schools, and what kinds of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, infrastructure, and learning environments are necessary to allow positive changes to occur. Please join UC Irvine Extension in welcoming Dr. Mark Warschauer, Professor of Education and Informatics at UC Irvine, as he draws on thousands of hours that he and his team have spent observing classes and interviewing teachers in both successful and unsuccessful technology-rich schools, especially those that use laptops, netbooks, and iPads on a one-device-per-student basis. Lessons from this research are distilled for use by teachers, administrators, policymakers, scholars, and the interested public. In the process, conventional wisdom about concepts such as tackling a "digital divide," promoting "21st century learning," and teachers becoming a "guide on the side" is examined and upended.