What are the skills of the 21st Learner?

Teachers as Learners

The question for teachers today if they want to remain relevant is not "should we use technology" but "which technology to use and how to use it to improve teaching and learning." Our challenge is to match the needs of our learners and to do this we need to be strategic learners ourselves by updating our practices in this rapidly changing digital age. A good place to start is to agree on what 21st skills young people need.

The Australian Curriculum and the 21st Learner
Its worth looking at the emerging Australian curriculum. ACARA acknowledges significant changes to our Australian society and a need for young people to have a wide but everchanging set of knowledge,skills and understandings.The draft Australian curriculum for English,Maths,Science and History identifies what deep knowledge and skills will be taught in each learning area.In addition, to reflect the nature of work in the 21st century, ACARA has also identified 10 general capabilities and 3 cross curriculum dimensions.
The 10 capabilities are:

• literacy
• numeracy
• ICT
• thinking skills
• ethical behaviours
• creativity
• teamwork
• intercultural exhange
• social competence

The 3 cross curriculum perspectives are

• indigenous perspectives
• commitment to sustainability
• skills,knowledge,understandings related to Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia

These 21st century skills will be our "design specs" for 21st education so that we can prepare young people for their future.

As mentioned before, if we want to prepare students for the 21st century,we do need to look at our own practices.We need to embed the above skills into our school's curriculum. Take a look at the video Vision for the 21st Century Teacher to see what the 21st century teacher should look like.

Heidi Hayes Jacob's Curriculum 21 :essential education for a changing world is also a fantastic read. She is a world reknown curriculum designer who urges us to transform our curriculum to match the times in which we live.(We do have a copy in Teacher Reference). With regards to curriculum content and assessment she suggests that teachers should become comfortable with at least one new tool a sesmester.
She recommends the following strategic plan :

• Review the technological resources in the school
• Identify at last one unit to revise
• Plan to replace an assessment practice with a 21st century upgrade within the unit
• Share the proposed change with colleagues
• Learn to use the tool
• Revise the unit and begin implementation with students
• Tolerate some frustration
• Celebrate the victories
• Revise and share with colleagues

Its all about risk taking and moving out of our comfort zones.Our own Gippsland Grammar ICT Showcase &Share blog gives us a great opportunity to be able to share these experiences as we become learners first,teachers second.

Happy Birthday ISC

I have decided to launch this blog to coincide with the ISC's 10th anniversary on the 16th May. In the year 2000 I couldn't imagine all the technology possibilities that have now become available to our learning environment.Teaching and learning has been transformed by technology and by our new knowledge about how we learn and how our brain works.We can certainly celebrate how far we have come in the past decade but also acknowledge the need to move forward so that we continue to meet the needs of our 21st century learners.

I have been exposed to ideas about Web2 and its applications for teaching and learning for a few years now.I thought it was time to start my own blog as it is a good way of sharing with you my own learning as I continue to explore emerging tools and trends.I hope it will get more sophisicated as I learn more about blogging. I will be taking baby steps to start off with but after viewing the inspiring video Librarian's Manifesto I am giving it a go, expert or not.I intend to update the blog weekly and you will be able to access it on the ISC VLA.
Everyone is encouraged to use the "comments" function on each of the posts as they appear, as 21st century learning is all about sharing ideas and experiences!


Emerging technologies

Technology is increasingly a means of empowering students, a method of communication and socialising, and a ubiquitous,transparent part of our lives.

Horizon Report 2010

The 2010 K-2 Horizon Report has recently been released.It is an annual report that predicts what emerging technologies
will be influential in teaching and learning over the next 5 years around the globe.It draws upon global viewpoints, including Australian representation and is regarded worldwide as the most timely and authoriative source of information on new and emerging technologies in education.Each year,the report identifies and discusses six areas of emerging technologies.
The top trends are:
one year or less - cloud computing ( Twitter,blogs,Flicker,teachertube)
one year or less - collaborative environments (wikis,Netvibes,Voicethread)
2-3 years - games based learning (Arcademic Skill Builders,GameDesk)
2-3 years - mobiles ( iphone,ipad,Google Tablet)
4-5 years - augmented reality
flexible(computer) displays( Very thin interactive screens)

These six technologies will have a significant impact on how we teach within the next five years
In one year or sooner,according to The Horizon Report,schools will be using mobiles and cloud computing,if they are not already doing so.

You may well ask like I did "What is cloud computing and isn't augmented reality already happening?" The report explains

that cloud computing refers to surplus computing resources available
from specialised data centres that power the world's largest websites and web services.

It also explains that augmented reality has been around for awhile but it is only recently that we have been able to use smartphones to find restaurants,compare products and be entertained.
A hard copy of this report can be found in Teacher Reference in the ISC.

Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum


Another excellent resource is the Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum handbook from FutureLab,UK. The handbook aims to introduce teachers to the concepts and contexts of digital literacy. It is supported by cases of digital literacy in practice and it is particularly relevent to our 1:1 netbook program in Year 9.

A hard copy of this report can also be found in the ISC.Click on the image for a closer look.