Computers, networks, and mobile devices are deeply embedded in classrooms. Even if we avoid their use in formal lessons, students are going to arrive with the devices in their bags and pockets, and they will use them for research, calculation, writing, and other information tasks. It seems reasonable to expect all instructors to teach, model, Read More
The digital devices we carry in our pockets and that we keep on our desks and in students’ backpacks hold amazing capacity to access and manage and create information. We can download many repetitive cognitive tasks to these devices and they complete in fractions of seconds what took me many minutes to do as a Read More
A liberal arts education, the primary purpose of higher education for many generations, was originally intended to prepare young people to be able to understand complex problems and apply their skills to solving problems in diverse fields. The value of liberal arts education is lost on many stakeholders, including many who advocate for coding, STEM, Read More
Among the studies summarized by Gary Small, a cognitive scientist who works at the University of California Los Angeles, and his co-author Gigi Vorgan in the 2008 book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Modification of the Modern Mind, were several documenting the effects of technologies on human brains. They described research in which scientists measured a Read More
The dominant information technology has been print for so long that it has been natural for generations of students and teachers to conclude skills using text should be the focus of what we do in schools. Many of today’s educators were adolescents when print still dominated culture, but print is being replaced by digital electronic Read More
Once writing is introduced to a culture, there are recognizable changes in the culture that are attributed to the changed information technology systems, and especially the ability to store information indefinitely. Scholars find evidence of similar changes as writing was introduced to cultures on different continents and in different centuries. Historians Michael Hobart and Zachary Read More
Steven Johnson, a well-known writer about popular culture and the influences of information technology on popular cultures argues that television and other media (including video games) are becoming more complex with richer narrative, more characters, and more complex plot twists. Compared to 20th century media, Johnson (2006) observed the modern media landscape is comprised of Read More
Once the World Wide Web became available in the mid-1990’s, the Internet changed from being a resource for academic and government researchers to being a tool for commerce and the people. Many educators recognized the World Wide Web as an opportunity for students to access previously unavailable resources. Because few schools had the network infrastructure Read More
In the 1970’s computers entered the consumer market, and hobbyists began purchasing computers. By 1982, personal computers could be purchased for less than $1000, and amateur enthusiasts (including children) were writing their own programs to satisfy their own interests and curiosities. In that year, Joseph Deken, a statistician working at Stanford University who had received Read More
One focus of professional development relative to information and computer technology (ICT) in schools has been managing it. When computers first arrived, and machines were stand-alone devices, individual educators were able to manage the computers in their classrooms with independence; software was purchased for single machines and printers and similar peripherals were connected to specific Read More