How will educators revise how we teach to promote literacy in the 21st Century?
Literacy was once about reading and writing print text. Teachers could close their classroom doors and teach simple reading comprehension and basic writing skills. It was enough for the teacher and maybe a few peers to review and assess the progress of the students. The world has changed radically over the last five years. Creativity and collaboration are skills that are core to 21st century literacy. Literacy today requires teachers to open the classroom door and communicate and collaborate in: graphics, videos, audio, text, and combinations of these. We need to speak and write as well as interpret what we access. A sound understanding of design, production and appreciation is required. Here is a standards based rubric that I created for the Smart Choices Project. Critical thinking is a skill that combines many areas of literacy: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Thinking and Reasoning. All of these literacies in combination are required for people to interact successfully in the 21st century.
All of these changes mean that we need to teach differently. Educators must stay current with technology and methods for reaching our students. We can’t rely on conveying information and requiring memorization as assessment. Any of our students can check our sources and verify accuracy. We all have to be “learners”. Teachers have to be willing to guide and coach rather than control students. Young people today are very comfortable with devices, apps, and media of all sorts. They are way ahead of most of their teachers. It is easy for them to access global audiences and up to the minute media. Teachers don’t have to know everything- we do have to be willing to let our students use their skills to access information, and problem solve.
The last two years have produced a plethora of Web 2.0 tools that we take for granted today. Up until two years ago, Google applications were not nearly as user friendly or accessible as they are today. Today, we can go anywhere in the world with an iOS or Android device and collaborate easily using Google apps. These are available for free to most users. Schools can apply for Google Apps for Education, and provide supervised oversight for students to use GAFE. Every day there is a new and improved app to make creative production and collaboration easier and more attractive. Last week I bought an i Pad app for one or two dollars for Flickr. Now I can easily upload and access Flickr photos on my i Pad. In another example, I was using Padlet for a while, but it didn’t allow me to embed a Padlet on Kidblog for students to collaborate. I looked for alternatives, and found two possibilities- Coggle (from Google) and Stormboard. Coggle is a mind map program. Anyone can add to the mind map once it is embedded into a website. Stormboard has many options. I’m still experimenting with it. It is also having technical difficulties, but their tech support is very responsive.
About a month ago, while participating in a #caedchat, the topic of Design Thinking was raised. I followed up by participating in the #dtk12chat over the last three weeks. Design Thinking brings together the elements of learning at its best in the 21st century. Design Thinking is defined as “an approach to addressing challenges in a thoughtful and fun way, where you get to apply the 4C’s - collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication - to your own work as you develop new solutions for your classroom, school, and community.” (“What is Design Thinking for Educators” in Edutopia, retrieved March 20, 2014). Design Thinking is a process, mindset, human centered, collaborative, experimental, and optimistic. Process is the place where learning happens, including self reflection and multiple revisions. We also understand that without a product, students will not see a purpose to their learning. Learners who see purpose in their learning are highly engaged.
The Design Thinking conversation shows that 21st century learning has to be much more than techniques, products, apps, and bells and whistles. Learning today has to be meaningful and personalized. If learners are engaged in authentic, well planned, collaborative process, working toward a constructive result, they will demonstrate mastery of content and 21st century literacy.
Design Thinking Resources:
Beginner's Guide to K-12 Design Thinking
Reducing Inaccurate Stereotypes about Design Process
Teachers Design for Education
A Taxonomy of Innovation
Making Education More Like Real Life Through Design Thinking
A Designer's Reading List
#DTK12chat
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