This document discusses the skills needed for students and teachers in the 21st century. It identifies key skills such as creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, and cultural awareness. It emphasizes integrating these skills with core academic content through connecting learning to real-world problems, collaboration, project-based learning, and technology use. The 21st century teacher needs to be an adaptor who can adjust curriculum and tools to meet student needs, and a visionary who sees potential in emerging technologies and manipulates them for educational purposes.

1. Lovely. R. Talasan BSED3E M-F(1:30-2:30)

2. THE DIGITAL LEARNER AND THE 21ST
CENTURY TEACHER

4. The 21st century dawned as the beginning of the digital age –
a time of unprecedented growth in technology and it’s
subsequent information explosion. Never before have the
tools for information access and management made such an
impact on the way we live, work, shop and play. New
technologies and tools multiply daily and the new
technologies of today are outdated almost as soon as they
reach the market. Numerous studies and reports have
emerged over the past decade that seek to identify the life,
career, and learning skills that define the skills needed for
success in the 21st century world. While there are some
differences in how the skills are categorized or interpreted,
there are also many commonalities. Common skills across
most of the studies include:

5.  Using knowledge and understanding to create new ways of thinking in
order to find solutions to new problems and to create new products and
services.
Think Creatively
 Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
 Create new and worthwhile ideas ( both incremental and radical
concepts)
 Elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate ideas in order to improve and
maximize creative efforts
 Demonstrate imagination and curiosity.

6. Work Creatively Creatively with others
• Develop, implement , and communicate new ideas to others
effectively
• Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives;
incorporate group input and feedback into the work
• Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and
understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas.
• View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that
creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of
small successes and frequent mistakes .

7.  Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful
contribution to the field in which the innovation will
occur.

8.  Applying higher order thinking to new problems and issues, using
appropriate reasoning as they effectively analyze the problem and make
decisions about the most effective ways to solve the problem.
 Reason effectively
use various types of reasoning (e.g., inductive, deductive, etc.) As
appropriate to the situation.
 Use systems Thinking
. Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce
overall outcomes in complex systems.

9.  Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments,claims and beliefs
 Analyze and evaluate major alternative points of view
 Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments
 Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis
 Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes
Solve Problems
 Solve different kinds of non-familiar problem both conventional and
innovative ways
 Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view
and lead to better solutions.

10.  Communicating effectively in a wide variety of forms and contexts for a wide
range of purposes and using multiple media and technologies.
Communicate Clearly
 Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and non-verbal
communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
 Listen effectively to decipher meaning , including knowledge, values, attitudes,
and intentions
 Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g., to inform, instruct, motivate,
and persuade) and in diverse environments (including multi-lingual )
 Utilize multiple media and technologies, and know how to judge their
effectiveness a priori as well as assess their impact

11.  Working with others respectfully and effectively to create , use and share
knowledge, solutions and innovations.
Collaborate with others
 Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse
teams
 Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary
compromises to accomplish a common goal.

12.  Accessing, analyzing, synthesizing, creating and sharing
information from multiple sources.
6. Effective Use of Technology
 Creating the capacity to identify and use technology efficiently
and ethical las a tool to access , organize , and evaluate and
share information.

13. 7. Career and Life Skills
 Developing skills for becoming self-directed , independent
learners and workers who can adapt to change, manage
projects, take responsibility for their work , lead others and
produce results.
8. Cultural Awareness
 Developing cultural competence in working with others by
recognizing and respecting cultural differences and work with
others from a wide range of cultural and social backgrounds.

22. Information Literacy
Access and Evaluate Information
•Access information efficiently (time) and effectively
(sources)
•Evaluate information critically and competently
Use and Manage Information
•Use information accurately and creatively for the
issue or problem at hand
•Manage the flow of information from a wide variety
of sources
•Apply a fundamental understanding of the
ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use
of information

24. Media Literacy
Analyze Media
•Understand both how and why media messages are constructed,
and for what purposes
•Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how
values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media
can influence beliefs and behaviors
•Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues
surrounding the access and use of media
Create Media Products
•Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools,
characteristics and conventions
•Understand and effectively utilize the most appropriate
expressions and interpretations in diverse, multi-cultural
environments

25. ICT (Information, Communications & Technology) Literacy
Apply Technology Effectively
•Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate
and communicate information
•Use digital technologies (computers, PDAs, media players,
GPS, etc.), communication/networking tools and social
networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate,
evaluate and create information to successfully function in
a knowledge economy
•Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal
issues surrounding the access and use of information
technologies

26. Integrating 21st Century
Skills with Content

27. These skills are about the thinking process and
behaviors students will use as they learn subject
area content and work with others to deepen their
understanding of the content . All of the
frameworks emphasize the need to ground 21st
century skills in core content, and especially in an
interdisciplinary fashion.
As the 21st century skills are integrated into
content, some key design principles include:

28.  Connecting the content knowledge to real world applications and Problem
situations that enable students to see what they are learning connects with their
lives and the world around them.
 Emphasizing deep understanding of te learning by focusing on projects and
problems that require students to use the content knowledge in new ways and to
extend their understanding through collaboration with others.
 Helping students understand and monitor the thinking processes they are using
by including metacognitive activities that ask students to reflect on their use of
thinking structures and the effectiveness of the thinking strategies they
employed.
 Using technology to help students access,analyze , organize and share what they
are learning and allow students to independently locate appropriate tools for
the task.
 Providing opportunities for students to become “creators as well as consumers
of published information”(apple, 2008) by providing opportunities for creating
and verifying their own entries in collaborative sites and evaluating
contributions to others .

29.  Engaging students in solving complex problems that require
higher order thinking skills and application of content and that
result in new perspectives and solutions to problems.
 Providing opportunities for students to work collaborative as they
gather information, solve problems, share ideas , and generate new
ideas.
 Developing life and career skills by creating opportunities for
students to become self-directed learners who take responsibility
for their own learning and who learn how to work effectively with
others.
 Helping students make Connections between subjects,concepts
and ideas and with others , including those outside of the
classroom.

30. Instructions that meets the needs of today’s students
will incorporate
• A variety of learning opportunities and activities
• The use of appropriate technology tools to accomplish
learning goals
• Project – and Problem – based learning
• Cross-curricul
• A focus on inquiry and the student –led investigations
• Collaborative learning environments, both within and
beyond the classroom
• High levels of visualization and the use of visuals to
increase unders

32. The Adaptor
• The 21st Century teacher is an adaptor. Harnessed
as we are to an assessment focused education
model the 21st Century Educator must be able to
adapt the curriculum and the requirements to teach
to the curriculum in imaginative ways.They
• They must also be able to adapt software and
hardware designed for a business model into tools
utilisable by a variety of age groups and abilities.

33. • They must also be able to adapt to a
dynamic teaching experience. When it all
goes wrong in the middle of a class, when
the technologies fail, the show must go
on.
• As an educator, we must understand and
apply different learning styles. we must
be able to adapt our teaching style to be
inclusive of different modes of learning.

34. The Visionary
Imagination, a key component of adaptability, is a crucial
component of the educator of today and tommorow. They must see
the potential in the emerging tools and web technologies, grasp
these and manipulate them to serve their needs. If we look at the
technologies we currently see emerging, how many are developed
for education?
The visionary teacher can look at others ideas and envisage how
they would use these in their class.
The visionary also looks across the disciplines and through the
curricula. They can make links that reinforce and value learning in
other areas, and leverage other fields to reinforce their own
teaching and the learning of their students.

35. 3. The Collaborator
Ning, Blogger, Wikispaces, Bebo, MSN, MySpace,
Second life - as an educator we must be able to
leverage these collaborative tools to enhance and
captivate our learners. We too, must be
collaborators; sharing, contributing, adapting and
inventing.

36. The Risk taker
How can you as an educator know all these things? How
can you teach them how to use them… There are so many,
so much to learn. You must take risks and some times
surrender yourself to the students knowledge. Have a
vision of what you want and what the technology can
achieve, identify the goals and facilitate the learning. Use
the strengths of the digital natives to understand and
navigate new products, have the students teach each other.
The learning pyramid shows that the highest retention of
knowledge comes from teaching others. Trust your
students.

37. The Learner
We expect our students to be life long learners. How many
schools have the phrase “life long learners” in there mission
statements and objectives. We too must continue to absorb
experiences and knowledge. We must endeavour to stay current.
I wonder how many people are still using their lesson and unit
plans from 5 years ago.
In my subject area, Information technology and certainly in many
of the sciences, especially the life sciences; knowledge,
understanding and technology are fluid and dynamic, they are
evolving and changing. To be a teacher here you must change
and learn as the horizons and landscape changes.
The 21st Century teacher or educator must learn and adapt.

38. The Communicator
“Anywhere, anytime” learning is a catchphrase we
hear often. Usually its paired with “life learner”. To
have anywhere anytime learning, the teacher to
must be anywhere and anytime. It does not have to
be the same teacher, but the 21st Century teacher
is a communicator. They are fluent in tools and
technologies that enable communication and
collaboration. They go beyond learning just how to
do it, they also know how to facilitate it, stimulate
and control it, moderate and manage it.

39. The Model
We must model the behaviours that we expect from our
students. Today and tommorow more so, there is an
expectation that teachers will teach values.
We, are often the most consistent part of our student life.
Teachers will see the students more often, for longer and
more reliably than their parents. This is not a criticism of
the parents rather a reflection.
The 21st Century educator also models reflective
practice, whether its the quiet, personal inspection of
their teaching and learning, or through reflective practice
via blogs, twitter and other medium, these educators look
both inwards and outwards.

40. • These teachers also model a number of other
characteristics. These are not necessarily
associated with ICT or the curriculum, but are of
equal importance. They model:
• tolerance
• acceptance
• a wider view than just their curricula areas
• global awareness
• reflection

41. The Leader.
Whether they are a champion of the process of ICT
integration or the quiet technology coach, the ICT Trainer and
a teacher leading by example; A maverick or early adopter
(See LOTI), the 21st Century Educator is a leader.
Leadership, like clear goals and objectives crucial to the
success or failure of any project.
*It is a good idea to view the PBS series Digital Nation for
some thought provoking views on 21st education.