Group items tagged

In his article in the February Educational Leadership ("Learning with Blogs and Wikis"), Bill Ferriter argues that digital tools like RSS feeds and aggregators help educators advance their professional learning. But first, some teachers need to join the ranks of the literate

Sadly, digital illiteracy is more common that you might think in schools. There are hundreds of teachers that haven't yet mastered the kinds of tools that have become a part of the fabric of learning—and life—for our students. We ban cell phones, prohibit text messaging, and block every Web application that our students fall in love with. We see gaming as a corrupting influence in the lives of children and remain convinced that Google is making us stupid. 

traditional notions of credibility as coming from a centralized authority (e.g., a teacher, expert, or author) and individualized appraisal processes are challenged by digital technologies.

Credibility assessments as constructed through collective or community efforts (e.g., wikis, text messaging via cell phones, or social networking applications) emerge as a major theme in recent discussions, and phrases like "distributed" and "decentralized" credibility, the "democratization of information," and "collectively versus institutionally-derived credibility" are common.

At core is the belief that digital media allow for the uncoupling of credibility and authority in a way never before possible.

The report shows that mobile technology is becoming the most desirable means of communication -- especially in poor countries. The numbers show dramatic growth: By the end of 2008, there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with roughly 1 billion in 2002, according to the International Telecommunication Union, one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. The study also looked at the Internet, and found that worldwide, usage has more than doubled: Approximately 23 percent of the population uses the Internet, up from 11 percent in 2002. Still, poor countries are far less likely to surf the Net. For example, only 1 in 20 people in Africa went online in 2007.