The Digital Edge
When President Barack Obama decided to kick off his “Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tours” in Austin it highlighted once again the city’s reputation as a growth sector in the nation’s creative and high tech economy. Over the last few years the arrival of Apple, Google, Facebook and others has diversified Austin’s creative economy which has long provided a home for... read more
Compiled by Courtney Santos and Amanda Wortman
The 2013 Digital Media and Learning Conference (DML2013) at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers in Chicago, IL on March 14-16, 2013 offers many opportunities to connect with researchers, including members of the Connected Learning Research Network, and to make inquiries into the role of connected learning in... read more
One of the more interesting assertions of connected learning is the need to create new approaches to education that recognize the vitality of learning and the fact that it happens in many different ways. There is widespread agreement among researchers from sociology, economics, and education that the academic achievement gaps in the U.S. are... read more
The Digital Edge is invested in situating digital media and learning strategies in social context, including exploring the factors that contribute to a student's future orientation. In related blog posts, both Vivian Shaw and Alexander Cho explore this topic based on the Digital Edge team's field work in an Austin-area high school.
Texas City High School is a... read more
The Digital Edge is invested in situating digital media and learning strategies in social context, including exploring the factors that contribute to a student's future orientation. In related blog posts, both Vivian Shaw and Alexander Cho explore this topic based on the Digital Edge team's field work in an Austin-area high school.
"I don't think I'm ready!"... read more
One of the more compelling aspects of connected learning is the opportunity for students to create personalized learning pathways that establish important links across the different nodes in their learning ecology. I had a chance to witness the power and potential of connected learning during a three-week summer digital media and design camp that we conducted with... read more
I recently read an article about teens posting random photos to Instagram so they and their friends can chat “under the radar” via the comments feature. Based on the time I’ve spent working with teens this does not surprise me at all. Teens are accustomed to their parents reading their text messages or social media, therefore they utilize different spaces that are... read more
This summer I attended summer school…well kind of. For three weeks in June I worked with a great team to implement a digital media and design project with high school students. We followed that project with a two-week game design camp in July at the University of Texas with middle school students. Both projects are what you might call ‘connected... read more
The debates about schools and social media are a subject of great public and policy interests. In reality, the debate has been shaped by one key fact: the almost universal decision by school administrators to block social media. Because social media is such a big part of many students social lives, cultural identities, and informal learning networks schools actually... read more
