Dr. Jason Ohler is a professor emeritus, speaker, writer, teacher and cyber culture researcher. He is also a lifelong futurist and digital humanist.

Three decades ago at the University of Alaska he helped create one of the first educational technology programs in the U.S. devoted to teacher and student empowerment, and has been involved in the world of digital learning ever since. He has worked both online and in classrooms at home and internationally during this time, helping students develop the new media literacies they need to be successful in the digital age.

He was a pioneer in the “blended learning” movement, helping to craft individualized educational solutions using distributed learning technology. He is a passionate promoter of “Art the Next R” and of combining innovation, creativity and digital know-how to help reinvent teaching and learning. He is also an enthusiastic champion of the need for students to learn how to use technology wisely and safely, with awareness and compassion, so they can become informed and productive citizens in a global digital society.

Jason has appeared on many radio stations, including ABC, CBS and Clear Channel affiliates, as a special commentator for issues related to people and technology. Commentaries are sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always original.

He has won numerous awards for his work and is author of many books, articles, and online resources. He continues to be a regular contributor to Educational Technology magazine, providing insight about the “3Ds”: digital literacy, digital storytelling, and digital citizenship. His current book, Digital Community, Digital Citizen, explores the issues of helping our students blend their digital and non-digital lives into one integrated approach to living. His previous book, Digital Storytelling in the Classroom – a Corwin Press Best Seller - reminds us that he is first and foremost a storyteller, telling tales of the future that are grounded in the past.

“The goal is the effective, creative, and wise use of technology . . . to bring together technology, community, and learning in ways that work. And while we are at it, to have fun.”

What are some of the key issues that define leading and learning in the digital age? Digital literacy, new media participation and digital citizenship. Without digital literacy, digital citizenship is not possible.

Therefore, we need to help students become truly literate by helping them become active media creators, critical media consumers and engaged digital citizens. This includes helping them cultivate their new media talents, adopt art as the 4th R and use research and narrative to convey their ideas in rich, compelling ways.

We need to help them create media stories and projects that are articulate, academically sound and transformative so they can collaborate and share their work and talents within the community of the social web. Above all, we need to help them learn how to use their tools to imagine the world they want to create, as students, workers, neighbors, citizens.

This presentation includes showing examples of student media production and digital citizenship projects. It is based on Jason’s latest book, Digital Community, Digital Citizen (Corwin Press, 2010) and best-selling Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity (Corwin Press, 2008).

Nathan Bean is a faculty member in the Kansas State University Department of Computing and Information Sciences, where he teaches courses in game programming and development and conducts research focused on infusing good pedagogical practice into the design of educational games. 

His approach to teaching continues to evolve - he has flipped several courses, reserving former lecture times for coordinating group work and pushing lecture material to his course blog.