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Mark Warschauer is a professor in the Department of Education and the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, where is also the director of the Ph.D. in Education program and founding director of the Digital Learning Lab.[1] He is the author or editor of eight books and more than 100 scholarly papers on topics related to technology use for language and literacy development, education, and social inclusion.
Warschauer is among education researchers that recognize the potential of technologies, such as laptops, for fostering increased learning opportunities for second language learners. His several books on the topic, including Internet for English Teaching, Virtual Connections, Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning, and Network-Based Language Teaching, attracted the attention of second and foreign language teachers and researchers around the world. In these books, Warschauer critiqued previous views of computer-assisted language learning, which often emphasized tutorials of grammar and vocabulary, and instead articulated a vision of global citizenship and agency through online communication and research.
Warschauer expanded this vision with his book Electronic Literacy: Language, Culture, and Power in Online Education. This book focused on two themes that became prominent in his career: the particular skills and competency involved in becoming literate in the digital age, and the impact of this digital literacy on overcoming the marginalization of culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
Warschauer's book Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide, and his numerous articles on the same topic, including one in Scientific American, critiqued the traditional view of the digital divide as focused narrowly on hardware and software, and instead illustrated how social relations, human capital, culture and language were all critical for shaping people's access to and use of new information and communication technologies. The book was based on Warschauer's research on technology, education, and social development projects in Egypt, Brazil, China, India, and the United States. In this book, Warschauer explains three models of information and communications technology (ICT) and the digital divide: devices, conduits, and literacy.[2] While approaching ICT access in terms of access to devices and conduits might be the simplest way to understand the digital divide, these models of access neglect the technological aptitude necessary to effectively utilize ICTs.[2] Instead, he argues for the third model of access, literacy, as the superior model.[2]
Warschauer's most recent[when?] area of research focuses on laptop computers in education. His book, Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom analyzes how students learn to read, write, think, conduct research, and produce media in the laptop classroom. Though mostly a positive account, it includes enough negative examples to illustrate a point central to all of Warschauer's work, that of technology as intellectual and social amplifier. In this case, laptops were demonstrated to help good schools become better, but only exacerbated problems in troubled schools.
Warschauer served as a faculty researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Hawaiʻi, where he published several of his early books and also organized two seminal international symposia on technology and language learning. While at the University of Hawaiʻi, Warschauer also founded and edited Language Learning & Technology, one of the first peer-reviewedacademic journals published on the World Wide Web.
Following Hawaii, Warschauer took a position as director of educational technology on a large language education US aid project in Egypt. Warschauer's work in Egypt, which he wrote about extensively, also served as a basis for his publications on the digital divide.
Since 2001, Warschauer has been a professor in the Department of Education and the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, where he also contributes to the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations and the Ada Byron Research Center for Diversity in Computing and Information Technology. Warschauer is the founding director of the PhD in Education program at UC Irvine, one of the few graduate programs in the U.S. that includes a specialization in Language, Literacy, and Technology.
Recognition
Warschauer was the recipient in 1998 of the Educational Testing Service/TOEFL Policy Council Award for outstanding international contribution in the field of technology and language learning.[3] His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese and have been critically acclaimed in fields as diverse as education, media studies, cultural studies, communication, sociology, and information studies. He has been a keynote speaker at conferences in education and applied linguistics throughout the world.
Personal life
Loss of his son
On August 8, 2003, the body of Mark Warschauer's first son Michael was discovered in the backseat of Warschauer's car in the UC Irvine parking lot. Only 10 months old, "Mikey" had died of heat stroke. Warschauer told police he had intended to take Mikey to a day care center before going to his office, but had simply forgotten the boy was with him. Two months later prosecutors announced that they would not pursue criminal charges against Mark Warschauer, ruling the boy's death accidental.[4] Following the tragic event, Warschauer became active in groups educating parents about children's safety in and around cars.[5] He and his wife went on to have three subsequent children.
Sample publications
Authored and co-authored books
Warschauer, M. (2006). Laptops and literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.
Warschauer, M. (2003). Technology and social inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic literacies: Language, culture, and power in online education. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Warschauer, M. (1995). E-mail for English teaching: Bringing the Internet and computer learning networks into the language classroom.Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL Publications.
Warschauer, M, Shetzer, H. & Meloni, C. (2000). Internet for English Teaching. Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL Publications.
Edited and co-edited books
Thomas, M., Reinders, H., & Warschauer, M.(Eds.). (2012). Contemporary computer-assisted language learning. London & New York: Bloomsbury Contemporary Linguistics Series.
Warschauer, M., & Kern, R. (Eds.). (2000). Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Applied Linguistics Series.
Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1996) Telecollaboration in foreign language learning. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai'i Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.
Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1995).Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaiʻi Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center
Related Research Articles
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL), British, or Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI)/Computer-Aided Language Instruction (CALI), American, is briefly defined in a seminal work by Levy as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning". CALL embraces a wide range of information and communications technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, from the "traditional" drill-and-practice programs that characterised CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL, e.g. as used in a virtual learning environment and Web-based distance learning. It also extends to the use of corpora and concordancers, interactive whiteboards, computer-mediated communication (CMC), language learning in virtual worlds, and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL).
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats, it has also been applied to other forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging. Research on CMC focuses largely on the social effects of different computer-supported communication technologies. Many recent studies involve Internet-based social networking supported by social software.
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL), English as an additional language (EAL), English as a New Language (ENL), or English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The aspect in which ESL is taught is referred to as teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), teaching English as a second language (TESL) or teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Technically, TEFL refers to English language teaching in a country where English is not the official language, TESL refers to teaching English to non-native English speakers in a native English-speaking country and TESOL covers both. In practice, however, each of these terms tends to be used more generically across the full field. TEFL is more widely used in the UK and TESL or TESOL in the US.
The global digital divide describes global disparities, primarily between developed and developing countries, in regards to access to computing and information resources such as the Internet and the opportunities derived from such access. As with a smaller unit of analysis, this gap describes an inequality that exists, referencing a global scale.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage and audiovisual, that enable users to access, store, transmit, understand and manipulate information.
M-learning, or mobile learning, is a form of distance education where learners use portable devices such as mobile phones to learn anywhere and anytime. The portability that mobile devices provide allows for learning anywhere, hence the term "mobile" in "mobile learning." M-learning devices include computers, MP3 players, mobile phones, and tablets. M-learning can be an important part of informal learning.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is a pedagogical approach wherein learning takes place via social interaction using a computer or through the Internet. This kind of learning is characterized by the sharing and construction of knowledge among participants using technology as their primary means of communication or as a common resource. CSCL can be implemented in online and classroom learning environments and can take place synchronously or asynchronously.
Digital literacy is an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information by utilizing typing or digital media platforms. It is a combination of both technical and cognitive abilities in using information and communication technologies to create, evaluate, and share information.
Information and media literacy (IML) enables people to show and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information and media messages in their own right. Renee Hobbs suggests that “few people verify the information they find online ― both adults and children tend to uncritically trust information they find, from whatever source.” People need to gauge the credibility of information and can do so by answering three questions:
Who is the author?
What is the purpose of this message?
How was this message constructed?Students in computer lab
Multiliteracy is an approach to literacy theory and pedagogy coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group. The approach is characterized by two key aspects of literacy - linguistic diversity and multimodal forms of linguistic expressions and representation. It was coined in response to two major changes in the globalized environment. One such change was the growing linguistic and cultural diversity due to increased transnational migration. The second major change was the proliferation of new mediums of communication due to advancement in communication technologies e.g the internet, multimedia, and digial media. As a scholarly approach, multiliteracy focuses on the new "literacy" that is developing in response to the changes in the way people communicate globally due to technological shifts and the interplay between different cultures and languages.
A significant construct in language learning research, identity is defined as "how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future". Recognizing language as a social practice, identity highlights how language constructs and is constructed by a variety of relationships. Because of the diverse positions from which language learners can participate in social life, identity is theorized as multiple, subject to change, and a site of struggle.
Second-language acquisition classroom research is an area of research in second-language acquisition concerned with how people learn languages in educational settings. There is a significant overlap between classroom research and language education. Classroom research is empirical, basing its findings on data and statistics wherever possible. It is also more concerned with what the learners do in the classroom than with what the teacher does. Where language teaching methods may only concentrate on the activities the teacher plans for the class, classroom research concentrates on the effect the things the teacher does has on the students.
Inez De Florio is a German applied linguist and educational psychologist whose work focuses on science-oriented teaching and learning with particular reference to multilingualism and intercultural competence. She is a proponent of empirical research. Above all, her critical view of evidence-based education leads her to a particular focus on individual aspects of teachers, learners and their learning contexts.
Bonny Norton,, is a professor and distinguished university scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is also research advisor of the African Storybook and 2006 co-founder of the Africa Research Network on Applied Linguistics and Literacy. She is internationally recognized for her theories of identity and language learning and her construct of investment. A Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she was the first recipient in 2010 of the Senior Research Leadership Award of AERA's Second Language Research SIG. In 2016, she was co-recipient of the TESOL Award for Distinguished Research and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Niki Davis is an educator and researcher based in Aotearoa New Zealand whose work has focused on equipping teachers to effectively deliver information and communication technologies in a global education context. Her research has explored how teaching, learning and assessment can be inclusive and ethically managed in non-traditional spaces involving E-learning while acknowledging the role of the knowledge of indigenous peoples in assisting to build critically reflective research communities. She worked in universities in the United Kingdom and the United States before becoming a Distinguished Professor at the University of Canterbury in 2008, retiring and becoming Professor Emeritus in 2020. Davis has been involved in a range of initiatives and organisations that promote knowledge of digital technologies in education and is widely published in this field.
Educational technology in sub-Saharan Africa refers to the promotion, development and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), m-learning, media, and other technological tools to improve aspects of education in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, various information and communication technologies have aroused strong interest in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of increasing access to education, and enhancing its quality and fairness.
Virtual exchange is an instructional approach or practice for language learning. It broadly refers to the "notion of 'connecting' language learners in pedagogically structured interaction and collaboration" through computer-mediated communication for the purpose of improving their language skills, intercultural communicative competence, and digital literacies. Although it proliferated with the advance of the internet and web 2.0 technologies in the 1990s, its roots can be traced to learning networks pioneered by Célestin Freinet in 1920s and, according to Dooly, even earlier in Jardine's work with collaborative writing at the University of Glasgow at the end of the 17th to the early 18th century.
The digital divide is a term used to describe the disadvantage in access to information which people without access to ICT suffer. Nigeria's digital divide refers to the inequality of Nigerian individuals, groups, or organizations with regard to access to Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure or to the internet for daily activities. The digital divide has been attributed to many factors among which is the high cost of computer equipment, lack of ICT skill and poor knowledge of available search engines. Lack of access to ICT makes it difficult for people to access information. The benefits of having access to ICT are numerous. ICT has the potential to promote other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, education, health, bank, defence etc. In times of emergency, ICT becomes an indispensable tool for overcoming the barriers of time and distance. Education, lack of electrical infrastructure, income, urban drift, and a variety of other social and political factors contribute to Nigeria's growing digital divide.
Metaliteracy is the ability to evaluate information for its bias, reliability, and credibility and apply them in the context of production and sharing of knowledge. It is especially useful in the context of the internet and social media. A formal concept of it was developed as an expanded information literacy framework by State University of New York academics Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson. It has been used to prepare people to be informed consumers and responsible producers of information in a variety of social communities.
Jenny Hammond is an Australian linguist. She is known for her research on literacy development, classroom interaction, and socio-cultural and systemic functional theories of language and learning in English as an Additional Language or dialect (EAL/D) education. Over the course of her career, Hammond's research has had a significant impact on the literacy development of first and second language learners, on the role of classroom talk in constructing curriculum knowledge and on policy developments for EAL education in Australia. She is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Education, University of Technology Sydney.
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