This document discusses the need for 21st century learning models in schools. It notes that schools are disconnected from how students learn outside of school with today's technology. Students' digital lifestyles can undermine social skills and focus while increasing risks like addiction and declining literacy. The document calls for more balance, acknowledging students' digital expertise while helping teachers apply life experiences to guide students. It presents a model for 21st century fluency and lists resources, and asks for feedback on using this model at Dakota Collegiate.

1. 21st
Century Learning
Developing a model for Dakota Collegiate

2. Things have changed….we get it!
• Technology is rapidly changing
• There is a disconnect between what we’re doing in
schools and how students learn outside of school
• Children today are different (digital generation, digital
natives, etc.)

3. A Serious Concern Over the Lack of
Balance in the Lives of Kids Today
Doing this:
• Virtual Relationships
• Digital multitasking
• “Partial continuous
attention”
Erodes this:
• Underdeveloped social
skills (face to face
interpersonal skills)
• Single task strategies (the
ability to learn something
new)
• Focus, “deeper thinking”

4. A Serious Concern Over the Lack of
Balance in the Lives of Kids Today
• Physical activity concerns (obesity rates)
• Loss of appreciation for nature/outdoors
• Digital addictions
• Decrease in basic literacy skills (reading/writing)

5. A Sign of the Times?
“…Our ADD society is rife with technological
overstimulation, shrinking attention spans, increasing
aversion to print, an ever-growing compulsion for instant
gratification, and a general impatience with most things
intellectual. In this mental environment, achieving “good”
never mind “excellent,” academic teaching is sometimes
nothing short of a miracle. Society gets what it nurtures,
and both students and teachers end up paying the
price.”
Heather Stone, Bagot, Man.
Macleans, October 18, 2010

6. A Serious Concern Over the Lack of
Balance in the Lives of Adults Today
“…We are also crying out for balance in the lives of the
adults who are in control of the school system—balance
that embraces the realities of the digital online world,
balance that acknowledges kids are way ahead of us,
and balance that recognizes we have a lot of learning
to do before we can effectively apply our life experience
to guide our students in this new digital world.”
Ian Jukes, Ted McCain and Lee Crockett in Understanding the Digital Generation

7. Where do we go from here?

8. Source: www.21stcenturyfluency.com
The 21st
Century Fluency
Project (Ian Jukes)

14. Resources
• 21st
Century Fluency Skills
• 21st
Century Fluency Project
• Jukes, Ian, Ted McCain, Lee Crockett. Understanding
the Digital Generation. Corwin with 21st
Century Learning
Project Inc., 2010.

15. Discussion
Points
1. What are the pros and cons of using this model?
2. What is missing from this model that you think should be
included in the Dakota model?
3. Any questions? Comments?