Alexandria School District - 21st Century Literacy

21 st Century Literacy Skills for the Net Generation Learning 2.0 and 21 st Century Skills. Yes, No, Maybe?

A Little Humor?

Is this a funny sign? I can only please one person a day. TODAY IS NOT YOUR DAY! Tomorrow doesn't look good either.

Or this one? I pretend to work They pretend to pay me

One more? The beatings will continue until employee morale improves.

Let’s Role Play

Imagine you are the customer/client/student/ or whoever walking up to that employee's desk.

Let’s Role Play

Do you expect to walk away a satisfied customer? Does this employee make you feel warm and fuzzy about the company/school/whatever where they work?

Does this sound familiar?

Scene: Your classroom

Time: Parent conference night

Issue: Little Emma is not doing well in her math class.

Problem: Mommy or daddy says to Emma... "(What do they say?")

“ Don’t worry honey, mommy was never any good at math, either.”

How about this one?

Scene: A classroom

Time: First week of class

Issue: Teacher is laying out the guidelines for submitting homework.

Problem: Teacher says ... "(What do they say?")

“ Don’t even think about emailing your homework to me. I don’t even know how to turn on my computer, and I’m proud of it.”

The Real Digital Divide

There are basically two camps for educators.

The pro-technology camp and the anti-technology camp.

I don't get it.

Is there a pro-math camp and an anti-math camp? Is there a pro-reading camp and an anti-reading camp? Pro-writing and anti-writing?

Clicker Time

Grab your clickers.

Your responses are anonymous.

Answer truthfully – it’ll be much more fun – and informative!

Green LCD light on top of clicker indicates that your signal is being received.

Warm-up Question #1

0 years

1-5 yrs

6-10 yrs

10-15 yrs

Over 15

Number of years working in eduation.

Famous Quotes

George Washington once said:

“ I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down the cherry tree.”

(Or did he?)

Famous Quotes

Al Gore once said:

“ I invented the Internet.”

(Or did he?)

Famous Quotes

George W. Bush once said:

“ Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”

(Or did he?)

Warm-up Question #2 Choose the accurate quote.

George Washington

Al Gore

George W. Bush

All of the above are true

All of the above are false

Have you seen these ads?

Warm-up Question #3

Positive

Negative

When you see those ads, what is your reaction?

Which grade levels do you work with?

K thru 3 rd

4 th thru 6 th

7 th thru 9 th

10 th thru 12 th

No specific grades

Other

What is your role?

Teacher

Administrator

Other

Age and Gender

Male, Under 40

Male, 40 +

Female, Under 40

Female, 40 +

In which of these areas are you well-versed and comfortable?

Digital media: audio & video

Online social networking

Web accessibility (ADA) issues

Web 2.0 technologies

E-communications (not e-mail)

None of the above

Which of the following do you do?

File income taxes online (e-file)

Use online banking services

Buy books at Amazon.com

Check email on 3 or more diff. acct

Viewed a student’s MySpace or FB

Engage in an online MMORPG

None of the above

Choose each service where you have an account

Flickr

iTunes

Second Life

Skype

Twitter

YouTube

None of these

At Which of These Social Networking Sites do You Have an Account?

Dogster

Facebook

Friendster

Linked In

My Space

Ning

None of the above

Select each item that is true

You maintain an active blog

You read blogs with an RSS Reader

You have edited a wiki

You have created a podcast

None of the above

Regarding technology, you find that your students …

Have advanced computing skills

Use it to cheat in new ways

Need a great deal of tech help

Can run circles around you

Interact socially online

None of the above

Who are these Students?

What do we call these young people?

There’s at least a dozen different names for this generation

Everyone seems to have an opinion about them but nobody knows what to call them.

Net Generation

Next Generation

Nexters

Generation Y

Generation Why

Millennials

Digital Natives

Generation Now

iGeneration

Echo Boomers

Google

Generation

Nintendo

Generation

Screenagers

That’s Crazy talk.

Let’s consolidate.

Digital

Net Gennials

Compared to previous 2 generations, you agree that the Digital Net Gens are more:

Sheltered

Confident

Team Oriented

Conventional

Pressured

Achieving

None of the above

Re: Technology

Are students technologically competent, or just confident?

Having no fear is not the same as having knowledge or skill.

Cell phone owners. Please take out your cell phone if you have text messaging service. Poll Everywhere

Things I Don’t Believe: #1

That cell phones are evil.

That cell phones don’t belong in classrooms.

That we can’t find productive things to do with devices that provide cheap and easy connections to the global community.

That fining students for having a cell phone during the school day is a good way to handle a TEACHABLE MOMENT!

That I’m a digital immigrant.

That a 10-yr old kid can speak digital better than I can.

That Mark Prensky can sell so many books about a totally unproven and illogical theory.

That it is productive to split all technology users into two camps pitted against one another, when learning about technology together should be a TEACHABLE MOMENT.

Name this Device

That all young people are criminals.

That sharing music is the same thing as stealing.

That we as a country have allowed the RIAA and MPAA to dictate how we will respond to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to copyright infringement.

That all young people are cheaters.

That copy and paste should ruin a young person’s academic career.

That Turnitin.com is a reasonable response to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to plagiarism in writing.

That students having laptops in class is a bad thing.

That turning off the wifi is a good way to get students to pay attention to a lecture.

That making students power down when they come to school is a good response to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to responsible uses of technology.

That aggressive Internet content filtering is helpful to the learning process.

That students need to be completely sheltered in school from things that they will encounter every day outside of the school building.

That denying students access to 95% of the content on many (non-porn-related) websites is a good response to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to responsible uses of the other 5%.

That Wikipedia is bad.

The errors in Wikipedia are more serious than the errors in every one of the textbooks that are used in classrooms.

That teaching students to totally disregard a resource such as Wikipedia is a good response to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to determining accuracy of info on the Internet.

That my children are more at risk from online predators than they are from predators who live in our area.

That scaring the heck out of our children is a good response to the TEACHABLE MOMENT related to remaining safe while using the Internet.

That technology alone will get students to engage in learning.

That every teacher needs to be able to use technology better than the students.

That NCLB isn’t leaving many children behind.

That schools are the problem.

That teachers aren’t trying or don’t care.

That all hope is lost.

21 st Century Literacy Skills

Things that have defined literacy for the past century are still part of the way we define literacy.

However, in the information age, we need to add to the old list:

Information Literacy

Digital Media Authoring

Higher-order Thinking & Creativity

Global Awareness

Why Information Literacy?

The focus is often on developing technology skills – but the focus should be on developing information literacy.

Information literacy is the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use that information effectively.

Source: Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE, The Myths about Student Competency

Why Digital Media Authoring?

Literacy has always meant being able to communicate using the available media of the day. The ability to read and write.

Today, digital media is rapidly becoming the dominant way that communications are shared.

Being able to read and write and otherwise express yourself digitally is an essential skill for the 21 st century.

Why Higher-Order Thinking?

Traditional ideas of literacy tend to focus on the lower-order thinking skills.

Ability to read and write does not necessarily involve critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to analyze and evaluate.

Basic literacy skills are no longer enough.

Why Global Awareness?

Use 21st century skills to understand and address global issues

Learn from and work collaboratively with people from diverse cultures, religions and lifestyles to develop mutual respect and open dialogue in personal, work, and community situations