Acquiring Learning Skills With Digital Technology: (Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design)

A common idea within modern education is that digital technologies and traditional learning cannot coexist successfully, that essentially technologies can be distracting and disrupting for students. It is believed that current implementations of technology in educational settings create an environment that is at odds with itself. However, this dichotomy between traditional learning and educational technologies does not need to be the default. Digital technology can be used in positive ways to enhance learning, whether it is providing easier access to information or in a creative light such as the implementation of video games as learning tools. Ultimately, it is possible to incorporate technologies into classical education strategies so that they complement each other. Acquiring Learning Skills With Digital Technology is a critical scholarly publication that examines cutting-edge research on how digital technologies disrupt the traditional learning structure, and proposes ways in which traditional learning and digital technology can complement each other. This will improve learning while communicating a program of skill-acquisitions that can become the basis for stand-alone general education courses and as teaching techniques. It examines three skills that the authors define as trim (abilities in the economy and concentration of language), track (progressive comprehension of documents), and test (pragmatic testing of data and precepts located on search engines). The authors demonstrate these skills’ links to already-established digital skills, platforms, and protocols while also giving examples of each in both practice and format. The book examines a variety of technologies including video games, the internet, and social media, in particular Skype, Google, and Twitter. Featuring a wide range of topics such as social media, pedagogy, and psychology, this book is ideal for education professionals, academicians, IT professionals, researchers, computer scientists, psychologists, and students.

About the Author :
Charles Westerberg is the Brannon-Ballard Professor of Sociology at Beloit College. He spent 10 years as Associate Dean of the college at Beloit, where he supervised the career development and community-based learning offices. His scholarly work has had two major streams. The first is criminological themes, such as capital punishment and the use of private prisons. He has published work on how jurisdictions use capital punishment differently, and on the history and practice of a variety of private prison companies. The second prong of his research has focused on high-impact learning practices. He has published on community-based learning and the use of reflective practices in undergraduate education. In addition, he is a co-author of The Millennial Promise: Forty Tips from the Mindset List. Tom McBride is professor emeritus of English at Beloit College, where he was also Gayle and William Keefer Professor of Humanities. For a decade he directed the college's first-year studies program and has authored numerous articles and books With Ron Nief he co-authored The Mindset Lists of American History (Wiley) and The Mindset List of the Obscure (Sourcebooks). His novel Godawful Dreams has been read on public radio's Chapter A day. He is a frequent contributor to Northern Public Radio.