Slides from the keynote presentation given at the Shaw Centre in Edmonton Alberta for the Central East Alberta Teacher's Convention.

1. Disrupting School
Learning in the 21st Century
Dr. Alec Couros - March 9, 2012
Central East Alberta Teacher’s Convention

2. #ceatca

3. me

4. Who Am I?

5. The Blur

13. eci831.ca

14. my students

15. memories of media past

16. Gaming

19. Music

23. Computing

24. 720K
1.44MB

28. Web 1.0

30. current context

32. Mobile Reality

39. Participatory
Media

41. “60 hours of video are uploaded every
minute, or one hour of video is
uploaded to Youtube every second.”
“Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day.”
“Over 800 million unique users visit
Youtube every month.”
“More video is uploaded to YouTube in
one month that the 3 major US networks
created in 60 years.”

42. enabled by the
same affordances

47. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/

48. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolmansaxlil/4802611949/

49. networks

50. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImAD8BOBOhw

51. Network Literacies
• “Understanding how
networks work is one of
the most important
literacies of the 21st
century.” (2010)
Howard Rheingold

52. memes

53. “The gene has it’s cultural analog too: the
meme. In cultural evolution, a meme is a
replicator and propagator - an idea, a
fashion, a chain letter, or a conspiracy
theory. On a bad day, a meme is a virus”
Lowenstein, 1999

54. http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3601144842/sizes/l/in/photostream/

57. Condescending Willy Wonka

58. Condescending Willy Wonka

59. Scumbag Steve

60. Scumbag Steve

61. Unhelpful Highschool Teacher

62. Unhelpful Highschool Teacher

64. “...for all the money, tax revenue and intelligence that Western
governments have at their disposal (they) seemingly cannot get
their heads around a simple enough concept that wherever one
is, someone is watching and recording.”
Zack Whitaker

70. 21st Century Learning Networks

71. 21st Century Learning Networks

72. info/media literacy

83. what does it mean when
you like something?

84. digital fluency

85. Framework for Student Learning, Government of Alberta (2011)

86. “Technological fluency means much more
than the ability to use technological tools;
that would be equivalent to understanding a
few common phrases in a language. To
become truly fluent in a language (like
English or French), one must be able to
articulate a complex idea or tell an engaging
story -- that is, to be able to make things of
significance with these tools. ”
The Computer Clubhouse: Technology Fluency in the Inner City, Resnick, Rusk, & Cooke (1998)

87. The Difference Between Digital Literacy & Digital Fluency, C. Briggs (2011)

88. “... our ability to use digital technologies to have the
intended positive effect on people & situations.”
“... the more fluent a person is, the better they
are able to predict the outcome of their actions.”
The Difference Between Digital Literacy & Digital Fluency, C. Briggs (2011)

90. identity

91. “The average digital birth of children
happens at about 6 months.”
“In Canada, US, UK, France Italy,
Germany & Spain ... 81% of children
under the age of two have some kind
of digital profile or footprint.”

92. Justin Bieber

94. “Cisco just offered me a job!
Now I have to weigh the utility
of a fatty paycheck against
the daily commute and hating
the work.”

95. “parents spotted Facebook
comments she wrote describing
students as ‘germ bags’ and parents
as ‘snobby’ and arrogant.”

102. inspirations

103. 1

104. Best Job in the World

105. On Digital Video
• “Ten years ago, not one student in
a hundred, nay, one in a thousand,
could have produced videos like
this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital
and important skill, and one
utterly necessary not simply from
the perspective of creating but
also of comprehending video
Stephen Downes communication today.

106. 2

108. 3

110. 4

114. 5

118. “To answer your question, I did use
Youtube to learn how to dance. I
consider it my ‘main’ teacher.”
“10 years ago, street dance was very
exclusive, especially rare dances like popping
(the one I teach and do). You either had to
learn it from a friend that knew it or get VHS
tapes which were hard to get. Now with
Youtube, anyone, anywhere in the world can
learn previously ‘exclusive’ dance styles.”

119. 6

122. 7

125. 8

129. 9

131. 10

133. conclusion

134. 21st Century Readers/Writers Must ...
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology.
• Build relationships with others to pose & solve problems
collaboratively and cross culturally.
• Design and share information for global communities to
meet a variety of purposes.
• Manage, analyze, & synthesize multiple streams of
simultaneous information.
• Create, critique, an analyze multimedia texts.
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these
complex environments.
NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriulum & Assessment (2007)

135. Lead Learner

136. Thinning Walls
Private Public
Closed Open

137. Network Sherpa

140. Don’t limit a child to your
own learning, for he was born
in another time. ~Tagore
http://couros.ca
couros@gmail.com
@courosa