Learning in the Cloud

How (and Why) to Transform Schools with Digital Media

“This volume describes why ‘conventional wisdom’ about investments in educational technology is flawed, offers a research-based conceptual framework as an alternative, and provides detailed evidence of the practicality and power of this model. . . . This book is much needed as we seek 21st-century structures for education that transcend the obsolescence of industrial era schooling.”
—From the Foreword by Chris Dede, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“Technology can take American education to a desperately needed higher level, but only if it’s deployed thoughtfully and consistently with the principles Warschauer sets forth so clearly. Meticulously researched, this is the best guide of what to do (and what not to do) I have yet seen.”
—Angus King, Former Governor of Maine and Co-Founder of the Maine International Center for Digital Learning

“Digital technologies are transforming all sectors of American life, but schools have been slowest to change. In this important text, Mark Warschauer speaks to both the need for and ways in which schools can change to more powerfully reach and teach today’s children.”
—Chris Lehmann, Founding Principal, Science Leadership Academy

This comprehensive and cutting-edge book portrays a vision of how digital media can help transform schools, and what kinds of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, infrastructure, and learning environments are necessary for that transformation to take place. The author and his research team spent thousands of hours observing classes and interviewing teachers and students in both successful and unsuccessful technology-rich schools throughout the United States and other countries. Featuring lessons learned as well as analysis of the most up-to-date research, they offer a welcome response to simplistic approaches that either deny the potential of technology or exaggerate its ability to reform education simply by its presence in schools.

Challenging conventional wisdom about technology and education, Learning in the Cloud:

• Critically examines concepts such as the “digital divide,” “21st-century skills,” and “guide on the side” for assessing and guiding efforts to improve schools.
• Combines a compelling vision of technology’s potential to transform learning with an insightful analysis of the curricular challenges required for meaningful change.
• Discusses the most recent trends in media and learning, such as the potential of tablets and e-reading.

Mark Warschauer is a professor of Education and Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom.