Abstract
This paper is initiated from a position that, until recently, the nature of schooling globally has remained largely unchanged since its design in the last century, and there has been a hegemony that supported its form to be enduring and largely unchanged. However, in a digital, networked world, there is a need to rethink and redefine schooling. Following an examination of schooling in the 21st Century, summarising the context and critical challenges presented by new and emerging digital technologies, suggestions about what schooling might look like in an increasingly digital, networked world are presented. Guidance is provided in relation to key questions for leadership to reshape schooling in a networked world, including: - how might schools move into the networked mode? - what is required to lead and manage a networked school community? - how will a networked school become defined less by its physical space and timetabled lessons, but by being networked and that learning can take place anywhere, anytime?
Highlights
Schooling in the 21st CenturySchooling in the 21st Century has the potential to be markedly different from that of the previous century, due largely to the immense technological changes
This calls for strategic leadership, based upon sophisticated understandings of this shift, and this paper aims to progress the conversation about rethinking and redefining schooling in our networked world
The paper highlights that this continuing conversation enables a focus on the possibilities and potential of digital technologies for the learning of young people, through revisiting fundamental questions, such as—Are schools appropriately designed for 21st Century learning and teaching? Where and when does learning take place? What are the implications of elearning, mlearning, blearning and ulearning? What constitutes a school in a networked world where students no longer have to physically attend to be taught and to learn?
Summary
Schooling in the 21st Century has the potential to be markedly different from that of the previous century, due largely to the immense technological changes. According to Dahlstrom [5], “This ‘consumerization of technology’ is setting a precedent in which students, faculty, and staff use their own devices, software, apps, and cloud-based technology to create a personal computing environment” Accompanying these major shifts, driven by consumerisation and normalization of the personal, digital devices by young people, considerable research interest and literature has emerged in relation to online learning, elearning (electronic learning), mlearning (mobile learning), blearning (blended learning), and ulearning (ubiquitous learning) approaches. This requires education policy makers, schooling systems, and school leaders to revisit, rethink and redefine the concept of the school and the nature of schooling This needs to be underpinned by an examination of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the schooling provided to young people in an increasingly networked world. The paper highlights that this continuing conversation enables a focus on the possibilities and potential of digital technologies for the learning of young people, through revisiting fundamental questions, such as—Are schools appropriately designed for 21st Century learning and teaching? Where and when does learning take place? What are the implications of elearning, mlearning, blearning and ulearning? What constitutes a school in a networked world where students no longer have to physically attend to be taught and to learn?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
