Creating Effective Digital Learning Environments For Higher Education

Digital Natives entering institutions of higher education expect ICT to be effectively integrated into their learning experiences and they want to be able to access it all from anywhere, anytime. To meet this need, many colleges and universities are now providing ICT-enriched courses for students who are required to bring student-owned mobile devices with them for classroom use. Additionally, institutions of higher education are now offering courses that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction, known as “blended” courses. Read the rest of the story here.

Funding IT in Higher Education – The Power of Partnership

More and more HiEd leaders are recognizing that integrated technology truly empowers faculty and staff. Learn how HiEd institutions are creating technology-rich learning environments that accommodate the needs of today's "Digital Natives."  Read the rest of the story here.

Cloud Computing in Higher Education: Implications for IT Security and Customer Service

The rate of technological innovation in cloud computing coupled with a sharp increase in enrollment of students at institutions of higher education—particularly in community colleges—is changing the way that higher education Information Technology (IT) departments are doing business within their learning communities. More than ever, IT leaders in higher education are recognizing that the success of their IT department is directly related to how well the IT team works together with faculty, administration and third-party vendors to quickly and efficiently meet the learning community's changing IT needs. Read the rest of the story here.

Students Push Their Facebook Use Further Into Course Work

According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, social media sites like Facebook are increasingly being used by higher education students to communicate with other students about their coursework, as reported by the ECAR National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2011 Report. Of the 3,000 students surveyed from 1,179 colleges and universities, 90% say they use Facebook for social purposes, and almost 60% say they use Facebook "to connect with other students to discuss homework assignments and exams." 25% of the higher education students sampled think Facebook is "valuable" or "extremely valuable" to their academic success. Read the rest of the story here.

Shared Solutions for Security in Higher Education

In today’s Web 2.0 world, CIOs and faculty members at institutions of higher education are being challenged to balance the need for an increasingly open, collaborative wireless learning environment with the need for creating and enforcing security policies that protect and promote academic freedom – all while providing for the safe exchange of information. It’s a tough job, especially as open content becomes more mainstream in institutions of higher education, and students expect to be able to readily access and utilize a wide range of Web 2.0 capabilities. They demand 24/7 access to their online social networking communities for both academic and personal use from anywhere on campus. Privacy is a fundamental human right that is increasingly at risk. Today, one-third of digital information includes personal information; forecasted to rise to 45 percent by 2012. It is critical that university thought leaders be able to meet the needs and expectations of students and faculty by leveraging the power of information and communication technology tools for teaching and learning, while managing the risks that these technologies pose. Read the rest of the story here.

Grant Funds Now Available to Advance STEM Teacher Prep Programs

More than ever, the world is turning to scholars in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines to help solve complex, global challenges that involve the environment, health care, poverty alleviation and energy. In many ways, the sustainability and prosperity of our nation and the world depend on the ability of educational institutions to prepare talented teachers in the STEM fields who are trained and equipped to provide future STEM graduates with the 21st-century knowledge and skills that they need.   Read the rest the story here.

How Educators Use Pinterest for Curation

According to KQED San Francisco, the social network Pinterest, which was launched just two years ago, already has over 10 million users. This uniquely visual, topic-based, curation tool is increasingly being used in higher education by professors and their students to gather resources and to curate and generate conversation around content topics as well as educational policy issues. By sharing Pinterest posts via Facebook and Twitter, colleagues remain aware of one another’s Pinterest activities, are able to easily join in the work, and can spread Pinterest interconnections across and through other social media platforms and environments. Read the rest of the story here.

Gartner, Inc. Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2012

Gartner, Inc., a research and advisory firm, released its list of “Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2012." David Cearley, vice president and Gartner fellow, stated, “These top 10 technologies will be strategic for most organizations, and IT leaders should use this list in their strategic planning process by reviewing the technologies and how they fit into their expected needs.” Gartner defines “strategic technology" as “as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.”
The top 10 strategic technologies that Gartner has identified for 2012 include:

1. Media Tablets and Beyond
2. Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces
3. Contextual and Social User Experience
4. Internet of Things
5. App Stores and Marketplaces
6. Next-Generation Analytics
7. Big Data
8. In-Memory Computing
9. Extreme Low-Energy Servers
10. Cloud Computing

For the full article, click here.

Community Colleges: Getting America Back to Work

Community colleges play a key role in the nation's economic recovery, as non-traditional students and students whose parents can no longer afford 4-year universities are turning to local community colleges in large numbers.   Read full article.

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20 Ways Libraries Are Using Pinterest Right Now

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The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook For Teachers

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Advancing Cultural Change in Schools Through Empowerment, Training, and Trust

Because Digital Natives think and process information fundamentally differently, we must address the reality that, as Marc Prensky puts it, “our instructors speak a different language than their students (that of the pre-digital age), and our faculty are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.” Educational leaders today are faced with a daunting, albeit fundamental, choice. They can create, manage and lead innovation from within, or they can be pressured to change by outside economic and societal forces.

Those who find themselves in positions of influence during this time of unprecedented cultural transition in education are being called to take on the added role of "vital change agent" in their communities. This is a complex responsibility, and many educational leaders struggle as they try to envision how to transform the existing school culture into one that will support an entirely new kind of learning community— One that will serve the digital natives (students), their "digital immigrant" teachers, and the learning community as a whole. This is a tall order all on its own, and when added on top of the many existing responsibilities that educational leaders in K-20 already juggle on any given day, it is understandable that even the most seasoned, conscientious and forward-thinking principal, college dean, school board member and/or district superintendent would be hesitant in the face of launching a potentially costly and media-attracting, comprehensive technology integration plan in their school. Failure would be embarrassing, to say the very least.

This is exactly the point where a Technology Coach can be called in to help lead the charge. It would likely be very useful (and a great comfort) to any school administrator who is embarking on the implementation of a technology integration learning program for the first time to have the ongoing support of a senior education consultant who has been down a similar road before. An experienced Technology Coach can serve to break the inertia of uncertainty and fear that many times exists at the onset of such an undertaking by facilitating and guiding the integration effort on an operational level from the start to help ensure a smooth, efficient and successful implementation. 

The Technology Coach can continually provide encouragement and support as the implementation team works together to bring their shared vision to fruition in spite of any and all obstacles that they may encounter along the way.  The details of the resulting customized integration plan must be unique to the institution and flexible enough at the ground level so the school gets exactly what is needed, but should also be built on  the tenets of empowerment, training, and trust—three pillars which can serve as a sustaining foundation for the emerging community culture. Knowing that constituents in the learning community will embrace holistic changes to their established routines and protocols only if they understand the need for the change, the feasibility of successfully making the change happen, and their involvement in the process, the Technology Coach can begin by collaborating with school leaders to craft a vision for the initiative that elicits broad community involvement. 

The Technology Coach, drawing upon his/her experience and expertise, can serve as an effective guide for the implementation team as they plan, organize, and problem-solve the steps needed to create their new school culture, align constituents with the new vision, and ultimately empower the students, their teachers, the administrators and parents to all become active, contributing participants in an ever-expanding global community of learners.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. – Albert Einstein

Interestingly, it seems that it is the influx of Digital Natives into our schools that is providing real impetus for needed educational reform these days. Educational leaders, pressed to find ways to meet the unique needs and expectations of their 21rst century students, are working hard to implement ubiquitous computing programs designed to support the creative use of ICT throughout the students’ academic preparation. Thanks to their efforts and the visionary ground work laid by Seymour Papert and other educational pioneers like him, the old schoolhouse model is slowly giving way to new collaborative learning environments where teachers and students together decide what to learn, how to best create this new knowledge, and what technologies they should use to support the process.

Many of us have experienced first hand the magic that can happen in these exciting new technology-supported learning environments. Educators and students are being given opportunities to co-discover creative ways to leverage the unique skills, attitudes and interests of today’s digitally savvy learners in ways that maximize the potential that technology brings to the teaching-learning process. Research in neurobiology, social psychology, and learning science shows that integrated technology programs have the power to provide learning opportunities that vastly improve today’s students’ achievement, advance digital equity, and enhance teaching and learning across the disciplines. Information and Communication Technologies—always accessible but rarely the actual focus of learning—enable each member of the learning community to get connected, construct knowledge in personally meaningful ways, and demonstrate their intellectual competence and creativity using a variety of modalities.

Simply put, ICT provides the essential conditions in which Digital Natives learn.

Promoting Technology-Rich, Anytime-Anywhere Education Programs in our Schools

I think it is safe to say that, if given the choice, most primary and secondary students today would come to school carrying their own laptop computers or tablets ready to connect to the campus wireless network so they could get about the business of thinking and learning. Visionary educational leaders today understand this and  genuinely would like to meet the needs and expectations of their students by implementing technology-rich, anytime-anywhere education programs in their schools. And to my experience, it seems that most, if not all, of the pieces are now in place to make this a reality for our children.

Current research from multiple disciplines shows that digital natives thrive in technology-rich learning environments and that 24/7, anytime-anywhere access to ICT increases Digital Natives’ achievement, has the power to advance digital equity, and can enhance teaching and learning in every subject. 

NCLB’s Enhancing Education Through Technology Act was put in place way back in 2001 expressly to provide assistance to States and localities with the implementation and support of a comprehensive system that effectively uses technology in schools to improve student academic achievement. 

And while there have always been inspired educators with dreams of these new possibilities for learning, these dreams could not until very recently be turned into practice because of a lack of suitable technology. Fortunately, technology tools are now available that are affordable, durable and portable enough to make it possible for teachers, administrators, staff, students and parents to all have access to ICT whenever and wherever they need it. 

Wireless environments can be established throughout the buildings where classes are conducted, giving educational leaders the capability to transform the entire school into one large “computer lab.” And on top of all that, case studies indicate that when carefully implemented, teachers and students really love this stuff.

Okay.

We know that many of the children who are attending our schools today have been clicking a mouse since they were very young children. These kids think and construct knowledge in ways that are greatly enhanced through the use of information and communication technologies. Indeed, to varying degrees, Digital Natives depend on ICT to think and learn. Almost any teacher will tell you that increasing numbers of Digital Natives attending our public schools are oftentimes bored and restless in class. And while it can certainly be argued that fidgety students have been attending class since the early days of the one room school house,  I believe it is of special interest today because the traditional, widely accepted system of education that is the norm was not designed to meet the educational needs of the 21rst century student. Things have changed. These kids need something different. And ironically, in many cases, the kids can’t wait to get back home to their computing devices so they can think again. 

Educational Leaders at all levels—from the schoolhouse to the Whitehouse—recognize the need for comprehensive educational systems and programs that effectively use the technology that has been proven to increase student academic achievement and advance digital equity. Technology tools are now cheap enough, durable enough and portable enough to be practical and appropriate for large-scale academic use. School principals, college deans, and district superintendents understand the need for immediate and deep reform and they want to make changes in their schools to better serve the Digital Natives.

So, given all of this, what I really want to know is… Where is the revolution?!

What can we all do to promote more technology-rich, anytime-anywhere education programs in our schools today? Is "Bring Your Own Device" part of the answer? Do we need more computer labs in schools or more Computers on Wheels? Do teachers need more technology support and professional development?

How can we empower administrators and teachers to adjust the structure of our schools to meet the educational needs of the students who are attending them today?

Ready or Not…The Cyborgs Are Here

Current research in learning science, neurobiology, and social psychology tells us that children who are attending our schools today think and learn in markedly different ways than students did even a decade ago. Each year our K-20 schools are being called upon to meet the educational needs of increasing numbers of students, sometimes referred to collectively as Digital Natives, who have grown up using devices such as laptops, MP3 players, and cell phones to gather and process the information that they use to construct their own understanding of the world. These people actually use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to think with. Because ICT has become so integral to their lives, it seems to me that it would not be a stretch to say that these young people truly are “Cyborgs.” So many of our students today require access to information and communication technologies in order to optimally think and learn. And while there are some shining exceptions, an outdated model of the traditionally structured school largely persists. 

Why is this? Why is it that we as a society continue to fund and support institutions that in many cases still largely encourage a single way of knowing for every student exacted through the one-way transmission of “the facts” from teacher to student? Thing is, this mode of teaching alone really doesn’t work very well for these kids, and we can do better. Teachers need more technology tools. Students need more technology tools. And every stakeholder in the system needs to be coached in how to utilize technology to increase learning incidences that would not be possible without technology tools in the classroom.

It is undeniable that the educational system in place today was designed a long time ago (with the very best of intentions) for a completely different kind of student with different needs born of another era. And even though it is getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that the Cyborgs are here, and in spite of the very best efforts of some enlightened district leaders, school administrators, teachers, and parents, the outdated structure that exists in many of our school systems is not changing fast enough to meet the unique educational needs of today’s students. These kids have been making their way through an antiquated school system for years now, and there are many, many more students with similar needs on the way, with no letup in sight. 

As I see it, the choice that we have as a society is not whether or not we need to make deep changes to our way of conducting schools, but rather we must decide how many more children we will allow to be lost before we recognize that it is absolutely imperative that we do so. Which begs the question, how can we most effectively and efficiently integrate technology into our schools on a grand scale?