This chapter is about technology. But it's not only about integrating technology into the curriculum. It's also about social trends and how technology is influencing these trends, and what the implications are for culture, society, learning, and teaching in the 21st century. We live in an age of transformational communications technology. Our world, and all of its many cultures and ways of thinking, is smaller and more connected than ever before in human history. This chapter seeks to define and contextualize how technology and the social adaptations to new technologies change learning and teaching going forward.
In times of great change, it's not unusual to miss the obvious. So I write here about technology trends and the social adaptations that will have profound effects on education in the 21st century. New technologies combined with social and cultural adaptations fundamentally change our understanding of knowledge, its creation and authority. As educators, we have a duty to examine the effect of these trends and respond to the question, "What does it mean to be educated in the 21st century?"
Copyright © 2010 by ASCD. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or chapters, except for brief quotations in
critical reviews or articles—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system
, without permission from ASCD.