About Education 2020

EduCitizenship 2020 is an international consulting group made up of Carla Cross, Karen Hamilton, Debbie Plested and Mary Rezk. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are changing traditional physical communities and creating more global and social networks. Now and in the future, understanding how to traverse, contribute to, and benefit from these global networks will be a fundamental requirement. A key objective of educational systems should be to foster global citizenship. With these ideals in mind, our group created the portmanteau EduCitizenship 2020 to highlight the importance of the fusion of education, citizenship and community. We provide advice and practical knowledge on meaningful integration of technology in P-16 learning spaces.

In this EduCitizenship 2020 proposal, we will prepare an innovative design and rationale for the school/learning environment of 2020 for the U.S. Department of Education. Specifically, we will articulate to the key stakeholders--administrators, teachers, parents, students, funding agencies-- the critical issues that will define the future of teaching and learning.

The Partners:

Carla Cross is a veteran public school teacher of twenty-six years. As a former special education teacher, her experience with differentiated instruction spanned twenty-two of those years. She is currently a middle school English teacher using technology in the classroom everyday. By serving on her school leadership team for over ten years, she has participated in research and subsequent decisions about technology in the classroom. Earning her bachelors degree from Illinois State University in 1984, she completed her masters in curriculum, technology, and education reform at the University of Illinois in December of 2010.

Karen Hamilton is a Professor in the School of Liberal Arts & Sciences at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Teaching a number of courses in media, advertising and communications, she is also partly seconded to Learning Innovations & Academic Development (LIAD) department where she assists with training faculty in the use of technology. Karen is also the Online Coordinator for her division. She holds a B.Sc in Psychology and English from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Education: Curriculum Technology and Educational from the University of Illinois, 2011. For more information, see her e-portfolio or website.

Debbie Plested is a Professor in the International and Immigrant Education Division at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Debbie teaches English as a 2nd Language to foreign students and immigrants specializing in ESL for Business Purposes. She also teaches employability skills to internationally trained professionals. Additionally, she is the technology coordinator for her department, responsible for helping other instructors integrate technology into their classrooms & lesson plans. Prior to becoming a teacher, Debbie worked as an IT consultant, and in addition to corporate trainging, Debbie is a graduate of the Advanced Program in Human Resource Management from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Her specialties included Human Resource Management, Recruiting, and Job Search Coaching. Like Karen, she graduated from the University of Illinois' Master's of Education program in Curriculum Technology and Educational Reform in the spring of 2011. For more information visit her e-portfolio.

Mary Rezk is a high school English teacher at Joliet West High School. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and currently teaches tenth and twelfth grade. Additionally, she sponsors several clubs, serves on various committees and is considered a leader at her school. Mary completed a Master's Degree in the Curriculum, Technology and Educational Reform Masters program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010.

The Project

The EduCitizenship 2020 group project was undertaken for Dr. Evangeline S. Pianfetti, Professor of EPSY 556: Analysis of Advanced Instructional Technologies in the fall of 2010 as part of the Curriculum, Technology and Education Reform (CTER) Master's program at the University of Illinois.

EPSY 556 Course Description:
"The goal of this inquiry-based course is for you, as an educator, to define and to begin to answer the question "what does the future of learning look like"? In doing so, you will be asked to critically consider emergent and advanced learning technologies such as Web 2.0 media and other digital technologies, and how their integration in the classroom may transform the way we teach and the way students learn and what a future learning environment may look like. To do this, you will be designing the classroom or learning space of tomorrow. The focus of the course has you exploring and evaluating advanced technologies and the means by which educators learn about them and sustain them in a learning environment. Your goal is to determine how best to engage these technologies and in so doing, determine new ways to construct and share knowledge. This course is designed to assist you in identifying, analyzing and evaluating new media and digital technology so that you determine exemplary practices in the uses of advanced instructional technologies as they relate to the learning environment. The course aims to provide you with practical experiences that are framed within theories related to blended learning, digital (and other new) literacies, ubiquitous learning, and creativity."

Site Navigation Tips

o navigate the site, you may use the links to the left in the Navigation bar.

Please note that most Headings in the Navigation bar are links that introduce the subject area.

The broad categories in the main report are Home, About page, Who is the Learner? Who is the Teacher? Curriculum, Learning Spaces, Sustaining the Vision and Concluding Thoughts. In the supplementary section we have Sample Assignments, Model Schools/Classrooms and References.

At the bottom left of every page there is a "Next Up" link that can be clicked to get to the next page if you choose to navigate the site page by page.

This site was originally housed on Wikispaces at https://education-2020.wikispaces.com/Wikispaces closed in July 2018. The site was painstakingly recreated by Karen Hamilton in July 2018.

To begin the journey, see Who is The Learner?