Given the escalating role of media and new media in our everyday lives, there is an urgent need for courses in Critical Media Literacy, at all levels of schooling. The empowering nature of these kinds of courses is demonstrated through a discussion of a Critical Media Literacy course taught at UCLA. (Contains 1 note.)

Traditionally, we think of play as children's work, and this work is often considered trivial and meaningless. However, when the definition of play is explored, its multiple meanings encourage us to understand play as an important vehicle for the propulsion of society. Play has become a hot topic in households and classrooms and for political…

Currently, the idea and definition of learning and literacy is being pushed and pulled in competing directions. Current governmental policies, most notably embodied in the No Child Left Behind law, are pushing the definitions to mechanical enterprises aimed at the lowest common denominator. At the same time, the technology race is working to open…

Innovation, collaboration and system thinking are increasingly recognized as skills that can be useful to children, and that can help ensure their success as citizens and workers in the 21st century Seeking to improve opportunities for young people to develop abilities and competencies for the future and to narrow the complexity gap left by No…

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals…

In January 2005, then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige submitted the Department of Education's revised National Education Technology Plan (NETP) to Congress in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The plan, titled "Toward a New Golden Age in American Education," recommends seven "Action Steps" urging…

Nearly twenty million children in the United States do not have computers in their homes. The role of "home" computers in the educational process, however, has drawn very little attention in the previous literature. We use panel data from the two main U.S. datasets that include recent information on computer ownership among children--the…