Background

Three years ago, CoSN launched “Participatory Learning in Schools: Leadership & Policy” an initiative focused on the implications of Digital Media and Learning for the transformation of the learning environment in school districts. CoSN’s work focused on assisting schools leaders who are committed in making use of digital media to create vibrant learning environments. The results of CoSN’s national survey of superintendents, curriculum directors, and chief technology officers revealed that Web 2.0 applications had an important role to play in schools, but there was general uncertainty on how they should proceed in balancing the opportunities and challenges presented.

CoSN has worked with district- level school administrators, policy makers, and thought leaders who believe U.S. schools need to make substantive policy and organizational changes to transform the learning environment of our schools. CoSN has produced a rich collection of resources to assist school leaders who are committed in utilizing best practices in the use of new digital media.

Over the past three years, there have been significant developments in school districts across the U.S. Today, there are a growing number of district leaders who are taking bold and innovative steps to lead efforts to implement policies and organizational changes to make effective use of social media, mobile technologies, and other Web 2.0 applications for classroom learning. They recognize that digital media has transformed where, how, and when learning occurs in contemporary society, and understand the need for school to adjust to a new world of learning so that we can enable students to benefit from the rich existing and emerging digital media resources.

CoSN puts emphasis on establishing a participatory learning environment rather than just focusing on the use of digital media. In such a learning environment students are:

Engaged and intrinsically motivated by the content of their learning tasks and processes.
Collaborate extensively in a collective intelligence framework.
Demonstrate responsible and competent use of digital media in self-directed learning.
Produce intellectual, civic, and artistic products as learning resources for other students and for wider distribution beyond the school.
Experience constructivism rather than didactic learning.
Pursue a learning agenda that they own rather than one imposed on them.
Function in a unified rather than bifurcated environment with regard to their learning life inside and outside of school.

The elements of Participatory Learning are not new, but what is new is that digital media provides powerful new tools to create and support such a learning environment.