Karen Ann McCay
December 20, 2020
Digital natives need practical skills beyond those addressed in their academic standards. While teachers may consult the ISTE Standards for guidance, they must also become innovators for digital change in education. When we look at our primary instructional model in America, we see little difference from schools 100 years ago. Our students' careers, however, are vastly different than those of their great-grand parents, and we must take examples from innovators in the private sector, who need critical thinkers, communicators, team-players, and problem-solvers . . . who cannot be replaced by automatons (Wagner, 2012, p. 255).
Most students enter school with more technological content knowledge than their teachers, and as a result, we must truly begin to partner in education with our students as we learn together by sharing our expertise with one another.
The most important digital skills we must master and incorporate into our content areas are creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and visual/digital analysis. Crocket, Jukes, and Churches call these skills "fluencies" and argue that no career will exist for our students, which does not require these skills before job-specific content skills (2011, pp. 17-22). If educators can set professional goals each year to improve our own fluency in these vital 21st century skills, use them to innovate education/instruction, and then impart their value to our students, then we will prepare them for their technological futures.
References:
Crockett, L., Jukes, I., & Churches, A. (2011). Literacy is not enough: 21st-century fluencies for the digital age. Moorabbin, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow Education.
Wagner, T. (2012). Creating innovators: The making of young people who will change the world. New York, NY: Scribner.
December 20, 2020
Digital natives need practical skills beyond those addressed in their academic standards. While teachers may consult the ISTE Standards for guidance, they must also become innovators for digital change in education. When we look at our primary instructional model in America, we see little difference from schools 100 years ago. Our students' careers, however, are vastly different than those of their great-grand parents, and we must take examples from innovators in the private sector, who need critical thinkers, communicators, team-players, and problem-solvers . . . who cannot be replaced by automatons (Wagner, 2012, p. 255).
Most students enter school with more technological content knowledge than their teachers, and as a result, we must truly begin to partner in education with our students as we learn together by sharing our expertise with one another.
The most important digital skills we must master and incorporate into our content areas are creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and visual/digital analysis. Crocket, Jukes, and Churches call these skills "fluencies" and argue that no career will exist for our students, which does not require these skills before job-specific content skills (2011, pp. 17-22). If educators can set professional goals each year to improve our own fluency in these vital 21st century skills, use them to innovate education/instruction, and then impart their value to our students, then we will prepare them for their technological futures.
References:
Crockett, L., Jukes, I., & Churches, A. (2011). Literacy is not enough: 21st-century fluencies for the digital age. Moorabbin, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow Education.
Wagner, T. (2012). Creating innovators: The making of young people who will change the world. New York, NY: Scribner.
21st Century Training for Staff
Solution Fluency Page
Using TPACK as a Planning Tool
Visual Fluency
Or Back to:
Relationship Teaching Home Page
Solution Fluency Page
Using TPACK as a Planning Tool
Visual Fluency
Or Back to:
Relationship Teaching Home Page