Students connect academic concepts to issues and puzzles they care about solving.

Students learn the value of competing for points and earning tangible rewards for their efforts.

Students receive preparation for careers in math and science fields.

Students learn how to play games on their own without help from other players.

Competition to determine winners and losers

Face-to-face instructional activities

Opportunities for game players to learn from mistakes and improve their performance

Enrichment and reward activities when students finish in-class assignments

The three R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic are now less important.

Understanding the Internet, mass media and digital information is now more important.

Books and other paper sources of information in libraries are now less important.

Owning the most up-to-date personal computer is now a necessity for learning.

Reciprocal teaching

Teacher-centered learning

Independent student research

Multimodal learning

Information literacy

Multicultural literacy

Technological literacy

Mathematical literacy

Charles Babbage

Seymour Papert

John Dewey

Edward Tufte

Digital literacy and engaged citizenship

Collaboration and communication

Critical thinking and problem-solving

Creative and artistic self-expression

More whole-class instruction

More reliance on standardized tests

More time spent with textbooks

More small group instruction

Students learn more when competing with peers for higher grades.

Students can teach each other when they work together.

Students can complete assignments more quickly by working as a team.

Students need to be able to take a break from the pace of individual learning.

It is an unattainable goal by almost every student since only a few truly creative individuals are born every generation.

It is a talent not highly valued by business executives, school administrators or leaders in many other fields.

It includes thinking and acting in ways that generate alternative approaches to people, situations and problems.

It is an individual talent that cannot be influenced or promoted by technology.

Follow the acceptable use policies of schools

Join a social network to freely share images with peers

Cite information from Wikipedia without attribution

Maintain a personal website or blog of their academic accomplishments

Through service learning, teachers connect students’ community activities to the academic curriculum.

Service learning always involves students earning academic credit for their community activities.

Community Service always involves students earning academic credit for their community activities.

There is no difference between Service Learning and Community Service.

Requiring students to properly cite their online sources in a research paper

Assisting students to create and maintain a class blog, wiki or website

Having students to develop their own voice and viewpoint within their writing

Telling students not to use technology inappropriately and punishing them if they do

By accumulating points to achieve higher score than other students

By establishing an online identity through an avatar

By solving problems through critical thinking about strategy and results

By earning digital badges for achieving different game levels

Students teach each other about the meaning of an online text.

Teachers and students explore the meaning of an online text through dialog and discussion.

Teachers explain the meaning of an online text at the beginning and then again at the end of class.

Teachers use students’ wrong answers on a test to identify misconceptions about an online text.

Teacher-directed rule making

Active rule making

Collaborative rule making

Digital rule making

It is a special talent or ability that only a few students possess.

It can be tested and measured by standardized exams.

It can be encouraged through competitions and awarding prizes.

It emerges often in unexpected ways from hunches and random experiences.