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4Four Big Ideas for the Future

Understanding Our innovtive Selves

Introduction by Yong Zhao.

 

"Jason’s thoughtful, provocative, and compelling analysis of the effects of modern digital culture on the present and future of education brings entirely fresh perspectives to the field." (Ian Jukes, Infosavvy.)

 

"I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for practical and conceptual guidance for navigating the future." (Shelly Palmer, NBC, CNN, MSNBC high tech commentator.}

 

"Jason Ohler excels at demystifying very complicated ideas in technology and education, and through his powerful and humorous way of telling stories, makes them very "user-friendly", useful, and inspiring." (Alec Couros, author, The Innovator's Mindset)

 

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Digital Community, Digital Citizen

The art of blending our traditional and digital selves

 

Review by Ian Jukes: "Good news! Jason Ohler’s new book about digital citizenship, Digital Community, Digital Citizen, is available through Amazon...In typical fashion, Jason sees the big picture beyond the issues of bits and bandwidth, as he compels us to help students blend their many lives—real and virtual, digital and physical, local and global—into an integrated approach to living. He imagines an “ideal school board” that creates a Character Education program for the Digital Age, IT departments retuned for digital citizenship, and communities of involvement that not only address issues of digital citizenship, but have fun doing so. Where others spread panic, he spreads optimism and a belief that education, kids, technology and the Internet can mix brilliantly, creatively, safely."

 

Book's Preamble: Our Choice for Our Children: Two Lives or one. 

 

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Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity

 

Digital storytelling helps students explore content and develop literacy and creativity skills using their own language: new media. This book shows how to create effective stories regardless ofthe media you use, and explains why digital storytelling is a powerful tool to meet standards, infuse curriculum with meaningful activities and tap into your students' skills and talents. This book approaches storytelling and digital media production from a generalist perspective so that it can be used by teachers in any content area. The book assumes that the reader’s attitude toward the digital age classroom is a mixture of inspiration, intimidation and confusion. By the end of the book, readers will find life in the digital age classroom more manageable, productive and fun.

 

Books' introduction: Digital Storytelling Forward

 

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Then What?

Everyone's Guide to Living, Learning and Having Fun in the Digital Age

 

A novel about how technology makes us crazy in an exciting kind of way. About living, learning in the Digital Age. About reinventing education, telling stories, having fun, and staying human. Monty Python meets the Matrix meets McLuhan. 

 

"The new McLuhan has now arrived, in the person of Jason Ohler. Read THEN WHAT?, and see where we're headed." ...Nebula Award Winner Robert Sawyer

 

"If you are concerned about the ways technologies have shaped our lives, but still want to have some fun thinking about solutions, tune in to Jason Ohler -- one of the few technology critics who has both a sense of humor and the ability to tell a story."  ...Howard Rheingold, author of Tools for Thought, and Virtual Reality.

 

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Taming the Beast

Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle

 

"Taming the Beast" is a rare blend of philosophical reflection, earnest wit, and hard-nosed guide. It casts a discerning eye on our love-hate affair with technology; reveals 27 ways to see, evaluate, and gain control over the electronic and mechanical extensions that have become such vital parts of our lives; and shows how we can choose new machines wisely for educational, business, and community use. "Taming the Beast" is essential reading and understanding for educators at all levels, administrators, parents, policy and decision makers, the media, and all citizens who recognize the extraordinary potential -- and impact -- of technology on education and society.

 

"Of all the books now appearing on what to do about media in the education of our youth, Jason Ohler's is, in my opinion, the best." -- Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Technopoly, The End of Education.

 

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Future Courses

A compendium of thought about education, technology and the future

 

"This book is for seekers of knowledge, travelers on the educational and technological highway. Future Courses offers answers and some well-informed speculation on the future of education as it will be impacted by technological innovations. It is a guidebook for learners in the Digital Age, travel writing for the 21st Century by some of the past century's best thinkers, educators, researchers, writers, and artists." AIT. Contributors to Future Courses include:

  • Stanford's Larry Cuban

  • Harvard's Howard Gardner

  • Microsoft CEO Bill Gates

  • Ray Kurzweil, author of The Age of Intelligent Machines

  • Neil Postman, author of The End of Education

  • MIT's Sherry Turkle

 

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A Case Study of Online Community

How and why online anthropology, Facebook and the study of virual community became inevitable

 

"One of the earliest studies of online community, pre-Internet, that considered the ethos, activities and goals of one of the earliest computer conferencing communities in existence. In it, we see the beginnings of Facebook and other online communities that are commonplace today. This study considers what is truly important in an online community, why people turn to them, and what they ultimately get from them. Above all, it points to the future we now take for granted, in which we all live two lives, one online and one in geographic community, and considers how we blend those in one integrated approach to living. This study is well suited for anyone trying to understand the phenomenon of online community today, the roots of Facebook and other other cyber gatherings, and where our current push into cyberspace as a new territory for human colonization might take us."

 

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