I want to share these fragments from the following articles to start our discussion,  you will also find a couple of organizers in previous postings.

I am also sending via email two files to continue reading about the topic to discuss in class.

September 2009 | Volume 67 | Number 1

Teaching for the 21st Century Pages 11-11

The 21st Century Skills Movement

Paige Johnson

Since 2002, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has been the leading advocacy organization in the United States focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. Its Framework for 21st Century Learning, the result of a consensus among hundreds of stakeholders, describes the skills, knowledge, and expertise students need to succeed in work and life.

In their discussions with the partnership about the framework,

• Educators recommended a combination of rigorous courses imparting both core content knowledge and skills to engage students and increase achievement.
• Civic and community groups outlined a set of 21st century skills and knowledge that citizens in a participatory democracy must possess.
• Business leaders identified skills and knowledge they perceive as essential for success in the workplace.

Four components of the framework describe these skills and knowledge:

1. Core subjects and 21st century themes (such as language arts, mathematics, science, global awareness, and financial literacy).
2. Learning and innovation skills (such as creativity and innovation and critical thinking and problem solving).
3. Information, media, and technology skills.
4. Life and career skills (such as initiative and self-direction).

Each stakeholder group independently identified these skills, supporting the need for students to develop deep content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge across disciplines.

To successfully face rigorous higher-education coursework and a globally competitive work environment, schools must align classroom environments and core subjects with 21st century skills. By combining both skills and content, educators can impart the expertise required for success in today's world.

Navigating the Cs of Change

J. Gregory McVerry, Lisa Zawilinski and W. Ian O'Byrne

Deliberately teaching online reading and research skills is one way to keep students from foundering on their way to the future.

After answering the same question for the fifth—no, sixth—time, Mrs. Pomona stopped the class and called the students to her attention. Slowly and reluctantly, eyes popped out from behind laptops across the class. Mrs. Pomona thought to herself, "I was sure I could use Internet inquiry to teach 21st century skills. What's going on?" She pointed to a list of questions on the board (such as, "What is Labor Day?" and "How many days are in a school year?") and addressed the class: "You do not simply answer these questions. It is not answer number one; then answer number two. These are questions you keep in the back of your mind as you work."

"So we do these questions?" shouted Sarah, her hand flailing in the air. As Sarah's arm rose, Mrs. Pomona's hope fell. Sarah was a so-called "digital native," but she really did not know how to read online. Offline, she depended on the structure of the texts her class read. Her science book, for example, was divided into chapters, each chapter was broken into sections, and she could answer the first question at the end of each section by looking for the first bold word. The structure of the textbook was a map that Sarah could easily follow.

After thinking about Sarah, Mrs. Pomona realized it did not work that way online. No one gave students a map for Internet inquiry. Students needed a sextant, a tool for navigation, to guide them.

Students today must be prepared to navigate the new "Cs of change" that the 21st century has brought us. These Cs include such skills as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and comprehension. In addition, the rise of the Internet means that teachers must shift how they teach reading and writing (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, Leu, 2008; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004). How do school leaders build these skills in students? By creating a curriculum that allows for problem-based inquiry learning, high-level discussion, and collaboration.

Creativity: Students use divergent-thinking skills to generate their own questions and keywords for online searches. Their final projects require them to creatively express their own point of view. Communication: Students share what they learn as they work in small groups and with the whole class. They communicate with a wider audience by posting on a class blog. Collaboration: Students create collaborative knowledge through Internet inquiry and social interactions. They comment on one another's work using technologies such as VoiceThread and support one another through instant messaging. Critical Thinking: When using the Internet, students build the text they read, choosing which links to follow and which to ignore. The nonlinear nature of online reading helps support critical thinking. Students also learn to question the perspective and bias of online sources. Comprehension: Students learn important online reading skills, such as how to distinguish news articles from blog posts and editorials. They carefully read texts they encounter online to understand and evaluate different perspectives.

Copyright © 2009 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development