Teaching & Learning in the Digital Age

After opening their new facility Sept. 12, Falcon Virtual Academy’s faculty immediately started using its fresh mix of modern décor and technology.

The Presence Project came to my attention when I helped judge the Learning, Design, and Technology Program student projects at Stanford. Two graduate students “who feel passionate about developing tools for modern families,” sustainability-focused designer Kyle Williams and Emily Goligoski, a researcher in Stanford’s Calming Technology Lab, created a digital and tangible toolkit to help families talk about, explore, and do something about their attentional choices around digital media.

"A Platform for Good (PFG) is a project of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) designed to help parents, teachers and teens to connect, share, and do good online! At FOSI we work with leaders in the field of online safety and, regularly, we hear about incredible stories and exciting opportunities in our digital world. We hear stories of parents, teens, and teachers using technology to raise social awareness, encourage activism, enhance our education system, and of course, have fun!

What we have noticed, however, is that the stories reported in the news and infusing public conversation are focused heavily on the negative notions that don't support the research that says the majority of people's online experiences are positive. Given this climate, it is our hope that PfG will create a place to have a more balanced discussion about the role digital technology can play in our lives.

Our vision for A Platform for Good is to start a dialogue about what it means to participate responsibly in a digital world. While recognizing the potential risks, we will celebrate technology as a vehicle for opportunity and social change."

"How do people who’ve grown up using the internet engage in civic life?....In democratic states, citizens need information about what challenges a government faces and what it’s proposing to do about it to be effective citizens. And citizens need to be able to connect with one another to discuss, debate and propose solutions. What a communications medium makes possible has a shaping influence on civic life."

It's always revealing to watch learners research.

The Flipped Classroom is a learning model where students are exposed to new ideas at home–often through videos–and then work applications of that learning at school–an approach that reverses, or “flips” the old approach.

"For whatever reason, discussions of online education are in the air. Cathy Davidson frequently writes about the challenges facing our education system on this blog, and when a consortium of top universities combined to create an online course initiative, it seemed that online education had grown past its infancy as was ready for mainstream acceptance.

"That initiative, Coursera, has clearly excited the public, as it now boasts over one million students taking free online courses. Yet it has not been without its critics." See site for more.

Documents expose the flow of money and influence from corporations that stand to profit from state leaders' efforts to expand and deregulate digital education.

WNYC's Studio 360 asked us to create a new visual vocabulary that reflects the multidimensional role of the teacher. Listen to our interview with Kurt Andersen on Studio 360 and check out our full presentation.