Adams, Dennis & Hamm, Mary (2005). Redefining Education in the Twenty-first Century: Shaping Collaborative Learning in the Age of Information. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

In Redefining Education in the Twenty-first Century: Shaping Collaborative Learning in the Age of Information, Dennis Adams and Mary Hamm explore the varying pedagogical implications of integrating technology into 21st century schools. They focus on the necessity to step away from traditional teacher-directed classroom contexts to a vision of learning that encourages collaboration and cooperation. Of particular interest is that Adams and Hamm include classroom activities that promote interdisciplinary learning — technology is presented as a tool to support and extend teachers efforts to develop students’ language and literacy skills. This is an invaluable text for teachers and researchers dedicated to preparing students for 21st century success.

This text is divided into ten chapters. It begins with a chapter dealing primarily with the necessity to reshape educational institutions so that schools "will no longer be permitted to live in the past" (p. 3). Recognizing the proliferation of technology in schools, the authors position professional development opportunities as critical to developing teachers’ techno-knowledge. From the perspective of a secondary educator, it is refreshing that Adams and Hamm hold parents, the media and all of society accountable for educating students about the possibilities and limitations of technology. There is an underlying premise throughout the text that technology has infiltrated all of society; this requires that students and teachers acquire new skills to evaluate, analyse and effectively utilize emergent technologies. Addressing many teachers concerns that technology will eventually replace traditional values and interactions, the authors refer to recent research initiatives asserting that "face-to-face interactions" remain critical to the development of students’ traditional and emergent literacy skills.

Next the authors delineate "shifts and trends of thinking and learning" that have significantly impacted educational practice (p. 15). Adams and Hamm journey through behaviourism and cognitive science to the current prominence of constructivism. Drawing from Gardner’s (1987) research on multiple intelligences they emphasize that 21st century learning is no longer about acquiring "bits and pieces of knowledge" (p. 15). Instead learning is a natural effect of students utilizing their "own gifts (for) reasoning, collaboration and communication" (p. 13). Throughout this chapter and the rest of the text collaborative learning is positioned as integral to improved pedagogy and effective technology integration. Approaches to assessment are introduced as a potentially collaborative process between teachers and their students. Threading together theoretical research with practical classroom practice renders this text valuable to both researchers and practitioners.

A particular strength of the text is how Adams and Hamm (2005) position technology as a tool that increases student autonomy while providing opportunities for multiple ‘modes’ of communication and expression. Technology becomes an extension to literacy practices already in place in the classroom. The authors acknowledge that current understandings of literacy are shifting because of the emergence of computers, digital devices, the Internet and the World Wide Web. These devices encourage students and teachers to "create beyond what (the human mind) intends or what it can foresee" (p. 71). The focus becomes how teachers can contribute to preparing students for the transient world in which they live: "teachers can be sure that when they educate students for a changing world they can help them become one of the individuals who can change it" (p. 72).

The final four chapters provide exceptional illustrations of how Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and the Arts can be supported through collaborative learning environments, technological innovation and active inquiry. The authors use examples from within each discipline, leaving the reader with specific strategies and lessons that can be implemented by practitioners. These chapters are unique in encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning; exploring ways to integrate technology. The reader is left with a heightened understanding of how each discipline contributes to developing in students cross-disciplinary literacy practices that extend beyond individual disciplines or even the school. Learning becomes about connecting to students lives and real world events in order to bring relevance and authenticity to varying learning tasks. The authors introduce each discipline as providing new modes for learning, communicating and representing. The authors clearly illustrate how the combined effect of cross-disciplinary learning will better prepare students for the changing world of 21st century society.

Although written in a style that is accessible to teachers, I was disconcerted by a statement made early on in the text: "there is general agreement that we need better teachers to help students learn how to navigate today’s unsettling reality" (p. v). This statement contradicts the many pages emphasizing the necessity that teachers be supported in their efforts to acquire new skills and strategies for teaching. My contention with this statement is that teachers are just as "good" as always; what is required, however, is systematic support so that teachers are granted an opportunity to reshape their classroom praxis to better equip students for 21st century society. Some teachers may be dissuaded from reading this text because this distinction is not made clear within the first few pages of the preface. Teachers are currently faced with the growing reality that "cultural, social and educational trends are challenging old assumptions about teaching and learning" (p. v); this calls for additional support and guidance not judgement and blame — only then will educators and researchers be able to work collaboratively towards effectively “redefining education” for 21st century schools.

Pages: 208     Price: $52.96 (cloth); $32.95 (paper)     ISBN: 0-398-07587-5 (cloth); 0-398-07588-3 (paper)

Reviewed by Vetta Vratulis, a doctoral student in Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia