There is considerable rhetoric internationally around the need for national curricula to reflect the changes that are taking place in the world outside school. This raises questions about what a quality curriculum in a technological era should look like, and equally challenging issues about how to achieve the necessary changes in schooling in…

This paper explores the ways that the intersection between disability and digital technology in higher education unfolds collaborative experiences that include disabled students through what I call 'Digital Collaborative Making'. Students who participate in Digital Collaborative Making collaborate on multimedia video projects that tell stories…

Despite the potential instructional benefits of integrating devices such as cell phones into schools and classrooms, research reveals that their improper use can negatively impact student behaviour, learning, and well-being. This paper reviews the literature and litigation on cell phone use in schools due to controversies over cheating,…

Rural social work education and practice in North America underwent a revival in recent decades and remains a valid praxis and pedagogic model for the 21st Century. The paper posits through rigorous literature review and analysis there are numerous elements central to North American (U.S. and Canadian) and Commonwealth of Nations (U.K., Australia,…

Teachers in many schools struggle to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as part of their teaching practice. Among the issues faced by teachers when attempting to integrate ICT into their classrooms are gaps in ICT knowledge and skills, lack of training and inadequate support and scaffolding. Other issues include inability to…

In November 2012, the educational provisions of the Copyright Modernization Act were proclaimed in force, thereby introducing a number of significant changes to the Canadian Copyright Act. These changes include the expansion of fair dealing to include the purpose of education, the addition of new educational exceptions for the online transmission…

Questions about the potential benefits and dangers of media and technology use abound, with competing theories regarding its effects among young children. This article explores global perspectives on children's exposure to media, technology, and screen time (MeTS) in the schools, homes, and communities of an increasingly technology-driven world.…

New digital technologies are changing the nature and contexts of work in Canada. It is essential that education policy and practice acknowledge and respond to these changes. The impacts and implications of new and emerging technologies for work can be summarized within two paradigms: technology is replacing work through automation and digital…

In this paper, I discuss the process of redesigning and teaching a mandatory, academic skill building course for students on academic probation at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Atlantic Canada. The rationale for redesigning the course was to offer an alternative curricular framework, including instructional approaches, to course…

This article provides a literature review of the research concerning the role of faculty perspectives about instructional technology. Learning management systems, massive open online courses (MOOCs), cloud-based multimedia applications, and mobile apps represent the tools and the language of academia in the 21st century. Research examined…

The purpose of the article is to examine how the paradigm shift in education and the availability of digital technologies have created new opportunities to move learning beyond the microcosm of the traditional face-to-face classroom and into the online global classroom. Students and educators are better positioned to work with other students and…

In May 2012 the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) conducted a national teacher survey on the theme of "Teachers’ Aspirations" as part of a joint research project with the Canadian Education Association (CEA). The research project involved extensive input from over 200 teachers who participated in CEA focus groups across the country and…

More than a decade after Prensky's influential articulation of digital natives and immigrants, disagreement exists around these characterizations of students and the impact of such notions within higher education. Perceptions of today's undergraduate learners as tech-savvy "digital natives" (Prensky, 2001a), who both want and need the…

Ontario's new Character Development Initiative is analyzed to determine whether it can be characterized as political spectacle. Examination of official policy texts, media reports, speeches, web pages, webcasts, and events at the Character Development Symposium suggests that the Initiative contains many elements of political spectacle; however,…

Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self-directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this…