The Effective Use of 21st-Century Learning iPad Applications in the Primary/Junior Literacy Classroom

The purpose of this major research project was to develop a practical tool in the form of a handbook that could facilitate educators’ effective use of technology in primary and junior classrooms. The main goal was to explore the use of iPad devices and applications in the literacy classroom. The study audited available free applications against set criteria and selected only those that promoted 21st-century learning. The researcher used such applications to develop literacy lessons that aligned with curriculum expectations and promoted 21st-century skills and traditional skills alike. The study also created assessment models to evaluate the use of iPads in student work and explored the benefits and limitations of technology usage in student learning.

The Implementation of Jenkins’s 21st-Century Skills in the Curriculum: A Cross-National Policy Analysis

This meta-analytic study sought to determine if cross-national curricula are aligned with burgeoning digital learning environments in order to help policy makers develop curriculum that incorporates 21st-century skills instruction. The study juxtaposed cross- national curricula in Ontario (Canada), Australia, and Finland against Jenkins’s (2009) framework of 11 crucial 21st-century skills that include: play, performance, simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distributed cognition, collective intelligence, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking, and negotiation. Results from qualitative data collection and analysis revealed that Finland implements all of Jenkins’s 21st-century skills. Recommendations are made to implement sound 21st-century skills in other jurisdictions.

'Art is the New Steel': Marketing Creative Urbanism in Twenty-First Century Hamilton, Ontario

As a major manufacturing hub in southern Ontario, Hamilton enjoyed considerable economic stability during the twentieth century. However, like most industrial-based cities, Hamilton’s role as a North American manufacturing producer has faded since the 1970’s. This has resulted in dramatic socio-economic impacts, most of which are centered on the inner city. There have been many attempts to revive the core. This includes Hamilton’s most recent urban renewal plans, based upon the principles of Richard Florida’s creative city hypothesis and Ontario’s Places to Grow Act (2005). Common throughout all of Hamilton’s urban renewal initiatives has been the role of the local press. In this thesis I conduct a discourse analysis of media based knowledge production. I show that the local press reproduces creative city discourses as local truths to substantiate and validate a revanchist political agenda. By choosing to celebrate the creative class culture, the local press fails to question its repercussions