21 st Century Skills- What the Heck? Amy Meckelborg Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
Meckelborg
What the heck…. Are they?
The Networked Student Wendy Drexler, 2008
What knowledge, skills and attitudes is “the Networked Student” demonstrating or developing?
New Literacies The current article in Wikipedia claims there are two “camps” 1. informed by cognitive and language processing theories focus on examining the cognitive and decoding processes involved in comprehending online or digital texts 2. grounded in a focus on social practices use of digital technologies as the means of producing, sharing, accessing and interacting with meaningful content highly collaborative, distributed, and participatory
Multiliteracies Addresses “the multiplicity of communications channels and media, and the increasing saliency of cultural and linguistic diversity…” New London Group, 1996
21 st Century Literacy The set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap. These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute them pervasively and to easily adapt them to new forms. The Report of the 21 st Century Literacy Summit, 2005
Characteristics of 21 st Century Literacy Multimodal Includes creative fluency as well as interpretive facility A new grammar with its own rules of construction (not yet fully understood) Lends itself to interactive communication Use of media to evoke emotional responses Potential to transform the way we learn (appealing, connected and relevant) The Report of the 21 st Century Literacy Summit, 2005
ISTE’s NETS for Students … help students prepare to work, live, and contribute to the social and civic fabric of their communities. … identify several higher-order thinking skills and digital citizenship as critical for students to learn effectively for a lifetime and live productively in our emerging global society. These areas include the ability to: Demonstrate creativity and innovation Communicate and collaborate Conduct research and use information Think critically, solve problems, and make decisions Use technology effectively and productively
Inspiring Action Alberta Education, 2010
Sample Activity
What 21 st Century Skills are the students developing? Can you think of ways it might be tweaked to increase learning?
What the heck…. Is a teacher to do?
Don’t stress!
You are not alone Hundreds of educators are doing the same thing. They are doing it together. They are developing their own 21 st Century skills while exploring how to help their student do the same. You can join them.
Personal Learning Network (PLN)
What does your Personal Learning Network look like?
How to Cultivate your PLN Start Small. Start where you are. Start.
Places to Start Online Blogs Twitter Social Networks Podcasts PD Opportunities
Resources to help Teacher Challenge: 2/creating-a-pln/ 2/creating-a-pln/ Cultivate your Personal Learning Network: personal-learning-network/ personal-learning-network/ PLN Yourself:
Take Baby Steps
Don’t take yourself too seriously!
Thank you!
Blogs Will Richardson: Dean Shareski: Darren Kuropatwa: Larry Ferlazzo: Sue Water and Ronnie Burt Edublog Awards:
Twitter David Warlick: Nik Peachy: Derek. Keenan: Danny Maas:
Social Networks Classroom 2.0: The Educator’s PLN: Webheads in Action;
Podcasts EdTech Talk: Women of Web 3.0 Teachers Teaching Teachers The Teachers’ Podcast:
PD Opportunities K-12 Online Conference: Electronic Village Online: ontPage ontPage Change 2011: Library 2.011: conferencehttp:// conference