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Educational Administration (EAD) 882
Education in the Digital Age
Fall 2011
Wednesday, 7:00-9:50 p.m.
226 Erickson Hall
Instructor:
Steven Weiland, Professor, EAD
410 Erickson Hall
weiland@msu.edu; 517-355-2395
Introduction
“Education in the Digital Age” names a subject that is vast and urgent, to be accounted for in all domains
of teaching, learning, administration, and leadership. What must educators at all levels and in all sectors
know of the fast changing digital world?
Questions of technology are not particular to one place or another in the educational system. Thus, the
topics addressed in EAD 882 are at the borders of K-12, postsecondary formal education, and informal
and continuous learning in adulthood. “Education in the Digital Age” applies to learning across the
lifespan. The questions behind the course are historical: How did we get here?; philosophical: What
impact is technology having on how we identify the purposes of education and how we understand
ourselves?; critical: What are the educational gains and losses associated with new technologies?; and
practical: What ways of teaching and learning, and what forms of organization and leadership, will
capitalize most effectively—for institutions and individuals--on digital information and communications
technologies?
The course is designed to: 1) Display as much as possible of an extensive domain of inquiry and practice,
organized around the topics named below; and 2) Present the ways in which features of the course subject
are being debated. Thus, the format is a critical survey, or a reasonably comprehensive look at education
in the digital age conducted in the spirit of criticism, or the examination of ideas and practices by
weighing their strengths and weaknesses, variations in use, and consequences (wanted and unwanted) for
institutions and individuals.
Course Topics
The five primary course topics are:
History and Demography: According to classicist James O’Donnell (author of Avatars of the Word:
From Papyrus to Cyberspace), the new digital technologies represent a series of innovations that began in
the ancient world and can be seen in the history of reading, particularly what came of the invention of the
printing press, or what is often called the “Gutenberg Revolution.” In effect, education can now be seen as
an historical location for the uses of the media, beginning with print and extending to the advent of the
computer and its introduction into schooling and higher education, and the uses we make today of
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educational resources of all kinds in digital formats and on many kinds of devices. Media historians urge
us to recognize how old and new media interact in producing the conditions for learning and education.
Recent history also favors (apart from attention to rapid technological innovation) demographic
understanding of education in the digital age, with generational differences defining interests, abilities,
and proposals for the organization of the curriculum and the reform of teaching and learning with
technology. But all those living in our time interact with history--in the deep sense signified by the
legacies of the Greeks and Gutenberg--and with the unceasing evolution of contemporary technologies.
New Literacies: Recent books and institutional studies claim that educational success in the future will
reflect students’ abilities to make the most of the digital world in ways they determine. Indeed, schools
and post secondary institutions are advised to adapt their curricula and pedagogy to match the skills,
habits, and preferences of those who represent “digital age” abilities, including electronic game playing
and ubiquitous social networking with other uses of mobile technologies. Still, questions remain about the
actual impact of having “grown up digital” and the best way to organize education (and prepare K-12
teachers and college faculty) for digital learning. There is reason too for consideration of how education
might resist as well as support new forms of learning—or await inquiry that supports the claims of a
cognitive transformation, particularly with regard to what have been termed the “new literacies.” There
are their well known “affordances,” or the opportunities new technologies offer for expression and
communications of many kinds, for cultural “participation,” and for collaboration with people near and
far. But there is worry too about people now being “tethered” to digital devices, the impact on the brain
of unending screen reading, the meaning for social relations of ubiquitous connectivity, and the
consequences of “multi-tasking,” or the “continuous partial attention” characterizing much of our living
and learning.
Online Teaching and Learning: K-12 systems and postsecondary institutions continue to increase online
offerings, prompting questions of curriculum planning and finance, student preferences, faculty learning
and participation, and course design and assessment. While the phrase “distance education” is often used
as a synonym for online teaching and learning, it obscures a common paradox. Thus, more and more “on
campus” students enroll in online course as colleges and universities seek to capitalize on the economies
the format appears to offer. And for some on-campus students, online education is preferable for its
flexibility or convenience. Moreover, there is the limitless domain of online learning by adults outside
the formal system of postsecondary education. In this, the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement
plays an essential role. There is already a considerable literature on the rationale, practices, and
consequences of online or distance education. We can ask what issues dominate (e.g., “interactivity”) and
what needs fresh attention. Thus: In what ways should online learning and education reflect generational
change and the “new literacies”? How are “best practices” of online teaching to be understood and
applied? What will be the relations between traditional institutions and the OER movement? How is the
character of American learning and education changing as more and more of it moves online?
The Digital Infrastructure: The term infrastructure refers to the underlying framework of a system or
network of institutions and organizations. It is what is needed in facilities and services for effective
functioning, from bandwidth to the re-design of familiar locations for learning. Thus, there are the roles
of libraries and course management systems (sometimes called learning management systems) at all
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levels of education. Broadband, wireless connectivity, and mobile devices—smart phones, tablets (like
the iPad), and eBook readers--are remaking our information and communications technologies with plain
implications for education. And the emerging infrastructure relies too on the reconceptualization of the
Internet--for learners of all ages in and out of school--known as Web 2.0 (as in blogs and wikis, and social
networking sites) on new patterns in the organization of knowledge, more user participation, and the
provision of educational resources like the OER movement. We need to ask how institutions of learning
other than schools--like museums, libraries, and scholarly publishing--are adapting to the digital age. And
so too are questions of Web search, particularly the role of Google, and large scale software applications
like Google Docs and the phenomenon known as “cloud computing,” prompting attention to the
centralization of digital resources widely used in education.
The Status and Prospects of Educational Institutions: The combination of new literacies, the increasing
popularity of online courses and programs, the availability of open educational resources, and the
demands for investment in new infrastructure, all put considerable pressure on schools, colleges and
universities, libraries and museums, and a host of other institutions (like professional associations) having
roles in education. And institutions always reflect particular histories, or the forces that shape their
origins, maintenance, and change. An educational “institution” can be an organization devoted to a
particular activity, like a college, museum, or association of scholars or scientists. Or, more abstractly, it
can be a well established and structured pattern of behavior and thinking. Thus we refer to the family as
an institution, or to habits of teaching and learning, like the authority typically associated with expert
knowledge or instruction (by tradition in the classroom). Advocates of the digital “transformation” of
education at all levels see obstacles to change in both institutional forms. There are signs of the “deschooling” sentiment among such reformers, or questions about the future location of educational
credentialing. But institutions also represent long commitments to particular values and practices. So, any
new approach to institutions in the digital age will require recognition of how the aims of education—
formulated and realized in schools, colleges, and universities (and other locations)—are influenced by the
new technologies.
Classroom Format
The course will rely on the discussion format, with brief presentations on selected topics. Students will be
expected to come to class having prepared the required readings and ready to participate in discussion. An
online Discussion Forum is available at ANGEL at the “Communicate” tab. Contributions to the Forum
are voluntary. But regular use of it can enhance classroom discussion both by anticipating questions of
interest and looking back in a fresh way at resources encountered earlier in the semester.
Assignments and Grades
In addition to the reading and viewing, and participation in class, students will be expected to complete
three writing assignments:
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Writing Assignment 1 Due October 3
Perhaps no question of learning and education in the digital age prompts more disagreement than the
status and future of reading, particularly the relations of print and screens. Write a paper of approximately
five double spaced pages exploring the current debate about reading as represented in exchanges between
writers with contrasting views. Use as primary resources the exchanges between Kevin Kelly (“Scan This
Book!”) and John Updike (“The End of Authorship”), David Brooks (“The Medium is the Medium”) and
Steven Pinker (“Mind Over Mass Media”), and Leah Price (“You Are What You Read”) and Mark
Bauerlein (“Online Literacy is a Lesser Kind”). All resources appear at the course ANGEL site in the
weekly folders for the first month of the course. The paper should represent essential features of today’s
debate about reading as it appears in these disagreements. It should reflect which views you find most
convincing, or why some combination of them would be best. And it should offer an account of what
your own history as a reader (with print and screens) means for your approach to the cultural and
educational debate.
Writing Assignment 2 Due November 14
Graduate programs in American universities are generally structured around required courses. But many
include a "cognate," or a small selection of courses a student makes to pursue an allied and related interest
(e.g., statistics, gender studies, or the study of another culture and language). The rapid expansion of open
and free (or low cost) online resources, and the host of other open digital resources, can give new
meaning to the idea of the traditional cognate, depending as it does solely on conventional place bound
credit courses. Imagine for yourself a cognate to your graduate program built around "open educational
resources." Or, as Anya Kamenetz (in DIY U) might put it: What you would do to "hack" part of your
graduate education? Write an essay of approximately five double-spaced pages naming an area of
"cognate" interest and a group of Internet resources you identify for study. Explain how they make up a
unified educational experience that will enrich your graduate program, strengthen your professional
prospects, or simply satisfy a personal need for learning about a particular subject or mastering a
particular skill. Don’t limit yourself to courses. There is no minimum number of resources to name in
your paper--just enough to show that you have done enough "hacking" to represent the spirit of
independent intellectual and practice-oriented inquiry. Be sure that your paper probes the resources
enough to make it plain where the educational benefits will be, as online resources stand on their own or
in conjunction with others.
Writing Assignment 3 Due December 16
Select one of the five “Course Topics” described above and write a paper of approximately 10 double
spaced pages exploring what you understand to be the chief opportunities and problems it presents for
education in the digital age. The paper should be selective in using course resources to display your
learning and thinking.
Course grades will reflect the quality of written work and contributions to classroom discussion, or other
evidence of students’ engagement in the course and its resources.
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Books, Films, and other Resources
Note: Other resources—all available online--appear in the course schedule below.
Required Books (all available in paperback editions)
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains ( Norton, 2010).
S. Craig Wilson, The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social-Network Sites, Games, and
Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future (Beacon, 2009).
Henry Jenkins, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education in the 21st
Century. (MIT Press, 2009. Available in paperback and also as a free download at the MIT Press
website (www.mitpress.mit.edu).
Alan Collins and Richard Halverson, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital
Revolution and Schooling in America (Teachers College Press, 2009).
Anya Kamenetz, DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher
Education (Chelsea Green, 2010).
William Powers. Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital
Age. (Harper, 2010).
Required Films
Avatar (Written and Directed by David Cameron, 2009). A copy is available on reserve for EAD 882
students at the MSU Library (Digital and Multimedia Center; 4th Floor West).
Digital Nation (Directed by Rachel Dretzin, 2010). The film is available online:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/
Schedule
Note on readings and other resources: The schedule includes a substantial number of readings and other
resources. The reasons reflect the subject of our course. Thus, with video and audio there are many more
resources readily available and with print it is now easy to post items to a course website that were once
sequestered at the library reserve desk or limited by the format and cost of the “Course Pack” of print
materials. But, as we all know, abundance puts pressure on attention. So, the week-to-week assignments
are organized in a “primary” and “additional” resources format. All resources offer something valuable
about course topics. Our classroom discussion will focus on the “primary resources.” “Additional
resources” will be considered as time and interest permit.
Apart from required books all texts and other media are available via links at the EAD 882
ANGEL site. Only titles are listed below. Complete citations are presented with each print
resource.
1. September 7 From the Greeks to Gutenberg: Tools of the Mind I How can “Education in the Digital
Age” be organized as a subject of study? What themes, events, and problems are essential? What are the
relations between old and new technologies? What features of such relations can guide today’s
technological opportunities in education? What can be learned from popular representations of
technology and its role in human affairs, past and future?
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Primary Resources:
Plato, Excerpt from The Phaedrus
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, Chapters 1-4 (pp. 1-80).
Alberto Manguel, “The Library of Alexandria.”
University of Texas Library: Digital Gutenberg Project. Be sure to explore several levels of the online
resources at the Project, including the information about Gutenberg and his times in the categories
listed at the left on the homepage and then what is available at “Additional Resources” (a link to the
Gutenberg Museum in Mainz--click on the British flag for the English version of the website) and at
“K-12 Educator Materials.”
Asa Briggs and Peter Burke, Excerpt from A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet
Pew Internet and American Life Project, What Kind of Tech User Are You? Complete the brief survey
prior to class.
Avatar (Written and Directed by James Cameron; available at the Digital Media Center, MSU
Library, 4th Floor West).
Additional Resources:
Nicholas Carr, “Three Technologies that Changed Our Brains” (video; 5 minutes).
David Crystal, “Speaking of Writing and Writing of Speaking.”
BBC “The Library of Alexandria” (audio; 50 minutes)
2. September 14 From Gutenberg to Google: Tools of the Mind II What roles have books and reading
played in our society since the invention of print? What questions of learning and education are
represented in the history of print? Where can we find the origins of the digital age in recent American
history? How did expectations form for computers and computer mediated communications, including
their roles in learning and education? What perspectives now compete for characterizing the “digital
age?”
Primary Resources:
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, Chapter 5 (pp. 81-98).
Marshal McLuhan, “Electronic Revolution: Revolutionary Effects of New Media.”
Stewart Brand, “We Owe it All to the Hippies.”
John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace.”
Chris Dede, “A Seismic Shift in Epistemology.”
Sherry Turkle, “Can You Hear Me Now?”
Kevin Kelly, “Scan This Book!”
John Updike, “The End of Authorship.”
Adam Gopnick, “The Information.”
Melin Bilgil, “History of the Internet” (video; 8 minutes).
PBS Frontline film and website, Digital Nation
Additional Resources:
Vannever Bush, “As We May Think”
Frederick Turner, Excerpt from From Counterculture to Cyberculture.
Stewart Brand, “Is Technology Moving Too Fast?”
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United States Department of Education (Office of Educational Technology), Transforming American
Education: Learning Powered by Technology.
“Alive Enough,” an episode of Being featuring Sherry Turkle (audio; 58 minutes).
3. September 21 Educational Generations How does demography—particularly claims about the
nature of generations--influence our thinking about living and learning in the digital age? What is the
impact of generational thinking on perceptions of technology? What does the popular distinction between
“digital natives” and “digital immigrants” offer for understanding education in the digital age? What other
features of cultural and educational demography merit attention? What do generational differences mean
for education in and out of schools and institutions?
Primary Resources:
S. Craig Watson, The Young and the Digital.
Marc Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan, “Generational Myth: Not All Young People Are Tech Savvy.”
Additional Resources:
Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds (“Introduction” and
“Key Findings,” pp. 1-5).
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “Next Generation Learning.”
Pew Internet and American Life Project, Millenials: A Portrait of Generation Next (“Executive
Summary”).
N. Katherine Hayles, “Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes.”
British Library, Information Behavior of Researchers of the Future.
Katie Davis, “A Life in Bits and Bytes: A Portrait of a College Student and Her Life with Digital Media.”
Website: Mind/Shift
4. September 28 The “New Literacies” Why are the abilities to read and write seen today as incomplete
forms of literacy? How are “new literacies” (as they are often called) defined to reflect “new media”?
What justifies using the term “literacy” to name new skills, abilities, and interests? What does the
ubiquity of connectivity and screens mean for learning and formal education? How can the generational
differences in cognition and learning be theorized? What impact do generational differences have on
teaching?
Primary Resources:
Henry Jenkins, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture.
Teresa Dobson and John Willinsky, “Digital Literacy”
David Brooks, “The Medium is the Medium.”
Steven Pinker, “Mind Over Mass Media.”
Additional Resources:
Cathy Davidson, “21st Century Literacies.”
James Gee, “Literacy, Video Games, and Popular Culture.”
Henry Jenkins, “The New Media Language and Convergence Culture” (video; 6 minutes).
Constance Steinkeuhler, “On Games and Learning” (video; 7 minutes).
Mimi Ito, “Learning with New Media” (video; 9 minutes).
Website: New Media Literacies
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OCTOBER 3 WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE
5. October 5 Reading, Old and New: Why, What, When, and How What questions of reading merit
attention in relation to education in the digital age? What is the status of reading printed texts in relation
to screen reading? What features of cognition and intellectual values are associated with print and with
digital texts? What abilities are required for hypermedia reading? How should it be taught, assessed, and
studied? How do mobile devices (e-readers, tablets, and smart phones) influence reading and learning?
Primary Resources:
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, Chapters 6 and 7 (pp. 99-143).
Motoko Rich, “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?”
Jakob Nielsen, “How Readers Use the Web.”
David Glenn, “Divided Attention.”
Leah Price, “You Are What You Read.”
Mark Bauerlein, “Online Reading is a Lesser Kind.”
Additional Resources:
Michael DeSchryver and Rand Spiro, “New Forms of Deep Learning on the Web.”
Michael Agger, “Lazy Eyes: How We Read Online.”
Allan Jacobs, “We Can’t Teach Students to Love Reading.”
Jennifer Egan, “Great Rock and Roll Pauses,” from A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Websites: Institute for the Future of the Book and The Late Age of Print
Guest: Paul Morsink, MSU PhD. Candidate in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology.
6. October 12 Web 2.0: Everyone In What is Web 2.0 and what is its place in learning and education
(or, what is the place of learning and education in Web 2.0)? How does “participation” in the digital age,
understood as a feature of Web 2.0, differ from what was expected from it in earlier periods of education,
and in traditional schooling and postsecondary education? How might forms of interactivity associated
with Web 2.0 (e.g., “crowd sourcing” and other features of social media) have roles in learning and
education?
Primary Resources:
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, Chapters 8 and 9 (pp. 149-197).
Kevin Kelly, “We Are the Web.”
Andrew Sullivan, “Why I Blog.”
Wikipedia, “Blog.”
YouTube, “Timeline” and “Statistics.”
Wikipedia, “YouTube.”
“Wikipedia” in Wikipedia.
Andrew Lih, “Community at Work” from The Wikipedia Revolution.
Nicholas Baker, “How I Fell in Love with Wikipedia.”
Additional Resources:
Technorati, “State of the Blogosphere.”
Stacy Schiff, “Know It All: Can Wikipedia Conquer Expertise?”
Scott Jaschik, “A Stand Against Wikipedia.”
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Jim Giles, “International Encyclopedias Go Head to Head.”
Allison Head and Michael Eisenberg, “How Today’s College Students Use Wikipedia for Course-Related
Research.”
Andrew Keen, “Web 2.0.”
Larry Sanger, “Individual Knowledge in the Digital Age.”
Debate on Web 2.0 with Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikipedia, and Andrew Keen (video; 60
minutes).
Guest: Jonathan Obar, MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences
7. October 19 Deschooling. . . Again? How is the history of education understood by reformers eager
for technological change? What features of digital learning prompt some reformers to see an end to
conventional schooling (or the “de-schooling of society)? What will be the roles of teaching and
administration in a “transformed” American education? What will be the sources of legitimacy and
authority in educational systems made independent of traditional institutions? How have schools
responded to claims made for the increasing role of out-of-school learning?
Primary Resources:
Alan Collins and Richard Halverson, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology.
Nicholas Lehmann, “Schoolwork.”
Ivan Illich, Excerpts from Deschooling Society.
PBS Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century (video; 53 minutes)
Additional Resources:
Salman Khan, “Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education” (video; 17 minutes)
Robert Wise, “The Online Learning Imperative.”
International Association for K-12 Online Learning, “Fast Facts about Online Learning.”
Paul Harwood and Victor Asal, “Distance Learning: Virtual Teaching.”
Websites: Edutopia and Open High School of Utah
8. October 26 Postsecondary Educational Institutions Redefined What are the essential continuities
and differences between K-12 and postsecondary education in relation to the impact of digital learning
and teaching? What traditions and conventions of postsecondary education are challenged by
opportunities offered by the “digital age”? How should institutions change—in curriculum, practices of
teaching and learning, infrastructure, etc.--to respond to such opportunities? How has MSU changed in
the past decade in response to the advent of the “digital age”? What changes are we likely to see in the
next decade? How does change interact with tradition at research universities?
Primary Resources:
Anya Kamenetz, DIY U (Part 1; pp. 1-78).
Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, Louis Caldera, and Louis Soares, Disrupting Colllege: How
Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education.
McKinsey and Co., “Winning by Degrees: The Strategies of Highly Productive Higher Education
Institutions.” (Executive Summary, pp. 7-17)
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, “Rethinking the University: Collaborative Learning” from
Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World.
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Mark Taylor, “The End of the University as We Know it.”
David Bell, “Does This Man Deserve Tenure?”
Robin Wilson, “For Profit Colleges Change Higher Education’s Landscape.”
Additional Resources:
Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg, “HASTAC: A Case Study of a Virtual Learning Institution as
a Mobilizing Network,” Chapter 6 in The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions in a Digital Age.
Jeff Jarvis, “Google U.”
PBS Frontline, College, Inc. (video; 56 minutes)
Websites: HASTAC and EDUCAUSE
Guest: Byron Brown, MSU Department of Economics
9. November 2 Distance Education, On and Off Campus Why is online education increasing at all
levels at education? How does a commitment to online learning influence institutional roles and
infrastructure? What arguments can be made against the move toward online education? How should our
ideas about teaching and learning change to reflect the new digital formats? How are adults organizing for
learning outside the formal educational system? What practices and subjects are most popular? How is
learning in them advanced by digital technology?
Primary Resources:
Sloan Consortium, Class Differences: Online Education in the United States.
Pew Internet and American Life Project, The Digital Revolution and Higher Education.
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, “Visiting the Future in Florida” from Higher Education? How
Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It.
Mary Burgan, “Distance Makes the Heart Grow Colder.”
Terry Anderson, “Towards a Theory of Online Learning.”
Additional Resources:
David Noble, “Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education.”
Walter Archer and D. Randy Garrison, “Distance Education in the Age of the Internet.”
U.S. Department of Education, Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A MetaAnalysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (Executive Summary).
Website: MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
10. November 9 Open Source, Open Access, OpenCourseWare How should “open” be understood in
relation to the origins and uses of traditional educational and scholarly resources? What problems in
education does the open approach solve? How should traditional institutions respond to claims for the
restructuring of credentialing around open resources? How should governments, professional
associations, and other entities respond? What will “open access” mean for research and scholarship?
How should the uses and impact of the open educational resources movement be evaluated?
Primary Resources:
Anya Kamenetz, DIY U (Part Two; pp. 81-163).
EDUCAUSE, “Seven Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources”
Charles Vest, “Why MIT Decided to Give Away All Its Course Materials via the Internet.”
Marshall Smith, “Opening Education.”
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Kevin Carey, “The Quiet Revolution in Open Learning.”
Additional Resources:
Anya Kamenetz, TED/x Atlanta (video; 17 minutes)
Anya Kamenetz, Interview with Minnesota Public Radio: “Does College Mean a Leafy Quadrangle or a
Keyboard and a Mouse?” (audio; 52 minutes)
Hal Abelson, “The Creation of OpenCourseWare at MIT.”
Creative Commons, “The Power of Open.”
Websites: MIT OpenCourseWare, OpenYale, iTunesU, and Public Knowledge Project
NOVEMBER 14 WRITING ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE
November 16 No Class Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education
(Charlotte, NC) See theme statement and resources for November 23.
11. November 23 Education in the Digital Age. . . .Worldwide What does attention to international
questions mean for understanding “Education in the Digital Age” in the U.S.? What is the role of the
open educational resources movement in worldwide learning and education? What has been the impact of
the “open university” movement? How are cultural differences reflected in education in the digital age?
Note: From November 16-23 the EAD 882 Discussion Forum will be devoted to an online discussion of
the resources.
Primary Resources:
Paul Kim, Talia Miranda, and Claudia Olaciregui, “Pocket School: Exploring Mobile Technology as a
Sustainable Literacy Education Option for Underserved Indigenous Children in Latin America.”
Asha Kanwar, Balasubramanian Kodhondaraman, and Abdurrahman Umar, “Toward Sustainable Open
Educational Resources: A Perspective from the Global South.”
Website: One Laptop Per Child
12. November 30 Let’s Go: Education and Mobile Devices What should educators know about the
uses of mobile devices? What does “mobility” signify as a feature of learning and education? What do
age and socio-economic conditions mean for learning with mobile devices? How can the opportunities
offered by mobile devices (e.g., “just-in-time learning”) be incorporated into traditional teaching and
learning?
Resources:
New Media Consortium, 2011 Horizon Report (“Executive Summary” and “Time-to-Adoption: One
Year or Less,” pp. 2-15).
EDUCAUSE, “Seven Things You Should Know About Mobile Apps for Learning.”
Teddi Fishman and Kathleen Blake Yancey, “Learning Unplugged.”
Carly Shuler, “Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning.”
Thomas Cochrane and Roger Bateman, “Smart Phones Give You Wings: Pedagogical Affordances of
Mobile Web 2.0.”
R. David Lankes, “The Missing Links.”
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Additional Resources:
Pew Internet and American Life Project, “Americans and their Cell Phones.”
David Carr, “Keep Your Thumbs Still While I’m Talking to You.”
Website: Abiline Christian University Connected
December 2 and 3 HASTAC Conference at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Digital Scholarly
Communication. HASTAC, based at Duke University and supported by the MacArthur Foundation, is the
Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory.
13. December 7 Libraries, Research and Scholarship, and Publishing What will be the impact of the
transformation of the “information landscape” on teaching and learning? How are libraries and scholars
adapting to the digital age? What new roles will libraries have in education at all levels? How can
libraries contribute to the debate about values and practices associated with education in the digital age?
Primary Resources:
Robert Darnton, “The Information Landscape.”
Jonathan Shaw, “Gutenberg 2.0: Harvard’s Libraries Deal with Disruptive Change.”
David Bell, “The Bookless Future: What the Internet is Doing to Scholarship.”
Patricia Cohen, “Digital Maps Are Giving Scholars the Historical Lay of the Land.” Note: This is the
most recent in a series on “Digital Humanities.” There is link at the article to earlier ones in the series.
YOUmedia Chicago: Reimagining Learning, Literacy, and Libraries (Executive Summary).
Additional Resources:
Eileen Gardner and Ronald Musto, “The Electronic Book.”
Angus Phillips, “Blog to the Future: Journal Publishing in the 21st Century.”
Blair Kamin, “Beneath this Bubble, a Book Storing Marvel.”
University of Chicago, “Mansueto Library: How it Works” (video; 3 minutes).
Guests: Cliff Haka, Director, MSU Libraries and Kate Corby, MSU Reference Librarian (Education and
Psychology)
14. December 14 Applying the Brakes: How Much Technology is Enough? While institutions struggle
to respond to the opportunities and demands of the digital age what lies within the domain of individuals?
What can be learned from history and biography about the uses of technology? What strategies for
moderating “digital maximalism” are most and least feasible?
Primary Resources:
Nicholas Carr, The Shallows, Chapter 10 (pp. 201-222) .
William Powers, Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital
Age.
Additional Resources:
Mark Bittman, “I Need a Virtual Break. No, Really.”
Gary Shteyngart, “Only Disconnect.”
DECEMBER 16 WRITING ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE