"What does it meant to be a 21st Century learner?"

[Julie Lindsay]

Our first get together on October 23, 2009 is exploring this guiding question.
- "What does it meant to be a 21st Century learner?"
What are your thoughts about this in terms of using information and technology tools, in terms of pedagogical approach, in terms of 'making the shift' to providing better learning opportunities for you and your students.
See the wiki for more details about the session.

[Rebecca Hatherley]

21st Century educators assist learners to gain skills that will be critical for their future success in life - the 21st century. It's not about just simply using "cool" applications, but using appropriate web 2.0 tools to achieve learning competencies. Sometimes, these competencies are in addition to the competencies set by the school, if the school is not fully on board. Also, it means to being open to what we think these competencies should be, as we can only guess what the future holds for the coming generations.

[Julie Lindsay]

Rebecca, the question is if a 21st century educator does not have the skills already, how competent can they be at fostering these int their students?
I recommend you take a look at Terry Freedmans recent post 'Be Very Afraid' I really like the videos he has taken of students talking about their work. The first video is especially entertaining!

[Rebecca Hatherley]

Question: "... if a 21st century educator does not have the SKILLS already, how competent can they be at fostering these in their students?"

What skills are we talking about? The skill of using certain software packages? or the skill of being comfortable with letting the students discover the technology on their own? the skill of stepping back and relinquishing some of that 'teacher' control or power and allow the students to empower themselves and become self-directed, self-motivated learners? Hmm....

I think that educators can be placed in two categories: those who have anxiety or hesitancy attached to learning new technologies; and those who are excited, fearless, and embrace new challenges (perhaps fearless is the wrong word). I think the latter type educator understands that they don't have to completely understand the technology that their students are using. More so, when educators teach students how to use tools (I am thinking step-by-step), this takes away from the necessity of students feeling comfortable with exploring/discovering tools, and also takes away intrinsic rewards that come from 'discovering' how to... with new tools. These educators understand that they are there to guide the students to find solutions, and most of the guidance should be directing them to 'expert' peers within their class.

Some educators have anxiety around new technology because they feel that they don't have all of the answers; they won't know what to do when a student pushes the red button, or when a file won't upload when it should. How competent can these educators be at fostering these skills if they don't have the skills? I am not sure. I think these educators need to play around a little more with different tech tools, gain skills, and gain confidence. They need to learn how to find solutions, so that they can teach the students how to find the solutions for themselves. They need to build up a personal learning network that will be there to assist them when they need help, encourage them they are faltering, and pat them on the back when they achieve a goal.

Just rambling on...

I know as educators we are very busy, and I hear many educators say, "how can I find the time?" to play with delicious, chatzy, ning, or even watch the K12 Online Conference videos. I understand, I am busy too. Not every educator has to completely 'flatten' their classroom, but I think it is VERY important for educators to play around with software until they feel that their comfort zone has increased such that their anxiety is gone, or minimal, when someone puts a new piece of software in front of them.

"Change is hard. Change is hardest on those caught by surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too. But change is natural; change is not new; change is important." - David Schlesigner (From Traveling Through the Dark - Steven Kimmi, one of the K12 Online Conference podcasts.)

[Lauralynn Stefureak]

The keyword is adaptability. We must not forget that we are also "learners" along with our students. What message do we send when we, ourselves, are not willing to learn, take risks, grow and change? If we are to be role models in our schools, we must take a second look at the relevancy of what it is we are modeling in the world seen through the eyes of our students.

[Patric_Elder]

Basically, we need to start to try to view the world through the eyes of our children. See what they see, do what they do and interact the way they interact. The world is not the same place I grew up in... and we had computers in my primary school...

For me, computers have always been there. They are a tool... and are ever increasingly essentail to daily life. If the server goes offline... everything just about grinds to a halt.

Ok, maybe I can't play a game while listening to my iTunes, while typing an essay for English class, while looking up dates for my History test and design a bench on Photoshop for my Materials Technology class... but I get by alright. So our students are not 100% focussed on MY assigned work... But look at everything they are able to do...

Isn't multitasking a skill that should be recognizable as a 21st Century skill?

Yes... students are sometimes "off-task" when using a computer... but show me a "traditional" classroom where 100% of the students are "on-task" 100% of the time...

Something to think about as we enter a new technological era.

Cheers.

Patric

[Julie Lindsay]

Multi-tasking a 21st century skill?? Hmmm...let's raise this on Thursday when Gary Stager is with us. I almost think this is gender-based as in my experience females are much better at multi-tasking than males, no matter what century it is. However I do think it is selfish of us as educators to expect total and absolute concentration on the one task to the exclusion of everything else for an extended period of time.

[Patric_Elder]

@ Julie - OK... ladies do seem to be more prone to multi-tasking no matter what the century. I guess my point is...and I agree with you... that we can not expect students to concentrate on only one task... and tht we can be happy that they are developing many skills simultaneously.

[Rebecca Hatherley]

I don't think multi-tasking is a 21st century skill. I have always been able to chew gum and walk at the same time. ;)

If you read research on multi-tasking, you find that it takes more time to complete tasks when multi-tasking than completing task in sequence, constant multi-tasking causes stress which is bad for your health, and some research shows that it is bad for your IQ. Our brains are not built for multi-tasking (studies show, so far). Also, information that is learned while multi-tasking is stored differently, than information learned while not multi-tasking. Information learned while multi-tasking is stored in such a way that it is more difficult to retrieve. (But maybe our their brains will adapt - survival of the fittest.)

When I am interrupted from a task, then restart the task, it takes me a while to get back into it. With this new generation, perhaps the time it takes to "get back into it" is decreasing. So, it's their efficiency to multi-task that is increasing.

But I worry about flow. Will these learners be able to achieve flow? Will they understand how to acheive flow? With all of their intentional distractions cause them to miss out on deep thinking? Will we have an "Attention-Deficit Recession"? (As Walter Kirn puts it.) Should we be teaching students how to focus, when to focus, and when to or not multi-task?

See you Thursday.

[Patric_Elder]

You have some valid points in terms of research... definately eye-opening... multi-tasking has transended time... and perhaps you are correct in that students today take much less time to "get back into it" and quite possibly have "never left it"...

I am not sure that retrieval is such a huge issue, as some of the tasks they are completing while working is seemingly second nature to them. Alt-tabbing between a chat, facebook, flickr and the like while simultaneously listening to music... are they really "shutting down"? I wonder some times if much of what they do is so engrained into their daily lives that what we see as being off-task is really on-task... I do know that there are studies that show that listening to music while working increases productivity...

I love the idea of flow. I can only hope that my students achive this level of commitment to a task... this brings me to other ideas I have been dwelling on for a number of days... We were at the keynote with Gary Stager at Qatar Academy on November 16th. Many words have been running through my head since then... I need to access a file from another machine... but will post my thoughts in another post.

Will look more into Walter Kirn... can we manage to teach students to focus so completely?

Until Thursday.

[Rebecca Hatherley]

I am multitasking when I drive; checking the rearview mirror, accellerating/decellerating, steering,... All of these things are related in my brain and therefore I do it well. However, throw in a cell phone and studies show that I am not able to drive as well with my cell phone - my multitasking ability while driving has been compromised.

So perhaps, it is more of what tasks are related in the brains of this new generation. Are some tasks more easily related for them, then myself? Or is their learning being compromised, like my driving with a cell phone and we are just not aware of it?

I think we don't know. This coming generation is sort of like guinea pigs - we can only guess what the effects on these students will be.

[Julie Lindsay]

I think we are talking about 2 different things here. Learning to move and react in patterns is quite different to multi-tasking. For example, learning to ride a bike, drive a car, play piano etc happens via the use of associated patterns of movement. Somehow the brain joins these individual actions together to make one action therefore it becomes like one movement (I am not being very articulate here.....) and the brain does not have to think too hard about it. As you say Rebecca, driving and talking on the mobile for most of us is 2 separate actions, therefore constitutes multi-tasking, therefore is not always easy to do for all.......