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On this week's podcast, Simon and Jade primarily discuss the work of Ito et al. (2020), which focuses on "connected learning," a seemingly more holistic approach to education that incorporates socio-cultural contexts, multiple literacies, and technology into curricula. With additional references to Soule and Warrick (2015), as well as Ken Robinson's talk on Changing Paradigms, we ultimately conclude that there are no alternatives to real-life interactions. Technology itself is merely a tool we can use to enhance learning experiences and our lives, but not to completely replace those human connections and interactions we need to develop crucial 21st century skills.
As an educator, you strive to mould your students into bright, responsible individuals. And as our country grows, so does your responsibility. By 2020, India will have the world’s largest young workforce. How many of them are employable? How many are getting into fields they actually enjoy and are good at? And how many are simply selecting a path that’s ‘secure’ or ‘financially beneficial’ in the long run? For years, we’ve been prioritizing stability and security over interests when it comes to choosing a career. Up until a few years ago, the career you chose wasn’t likely to evolve at the frenzied pace it is currently going through. Today, the Technological Revolution is well underway and changing the way we approach jobs. A study by the World Economic Forum revealed that by 2022, nearly one-fifth of the world’s workforce will feel the impact of AI-related advancements in their workplace. Does it still make sense to prioritise ‘stability’ over interests, when just about every career could drastically transform thanks to technological advancements?
Lee Watanabe-Crockett writes: "Digital age skills are skills for learning and for life. Here are some of the most versatile and useful ones you can encourage students to always work on."
Via Mary Reilley Clark
"The effort to ensure that students are “future ready” has gained momentum in recent years as more and more stakeholders have recognized the importance of digital learning tools to ensuring the success of students. And while the effort has largely focused on elementary and secondary education, that does not mean that college students are off the hook."
Via EDTECH@UTRGV
Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education
To thrive in today’s innovation-driven economy, workers need a different mix of skills than in the past. In addition to foundational skills like literacy and numeracy, they need competencies like collaboration, creativity and problem-solving, and character qualities like persistence, curiosity and initiative.
Changes in the labour market have heightened the need for all individuals, and not just a few, to have these skills. In countries around the world, economies run on creativity, innovation and collaboration. Skilled jobs are more and more centred on solving unstructured problems and effectively analysing information. In addition, technology is increasingly substituting for manual labour and being infused into most aspects of life and work. Over the past 50 years, the US economy, as just one of many developed-world examples, has witnessed a steady decline in jobs that involve routine manual and cognitive skills, while experiencing a corresponding increase in jobs that require non-routine analytical and interpersonal skills (see Exhibit 1). Many forces have contributed to these trends, including the accelerating automation and digitization of routine work.
Building digital literacy skills early on helps students curb the digital skills gap when it comes to online assessments, college, and careers.
Let's take a look at 10 useful and versatile digital age skills for students to have as they leave school for life and work in our ever-changing world.
Digital Literacy: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief was commissioned by Adobe Systems to explore an increasingly pressing challenge for United States higher education institutions: advancing digital literacy among students and faculty. As technology is rapidly proliferating and becoming more ubiquitous in people’s daily lives, colleges and universities have become more adept at integrating it into every facet of campus life to enhance course design, course materials, and interactions between learners and instructors.1 While the first wave of campus technology, such as learning management systems, supported one-way communication from the institution or instructor to students, the latest incarnation of educational technology emphasizes two-way communication along with content creation — cornerstones of digital literacy.
In March, the House of Lords told us what has long been obvious: that we need to pay far more attention to the internet by coordinating our efforts towards improving children’s “digital literacy”.
It turns out that decontextualised knowledge, stuffed into children’s heads, regurgitated on demand and then forgotten just isn’t that useful in the grand scheme of things. Sure, back in the days of empire it was handy to have identically dressed clerks all over the world who could perform mental arithmetic and communicate in clear written English. The British East India company that ran the Indian sub-continent under corporate rule couldn’t have happened without it. One might say the same today with global corporations like Google, etc or the now stalled globalisation project.
Via Nik Peachey
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Recently, I happened to notice “Working Out Loud” in a job description on LinkedIn. Then Mara Tolja , my friend and WOL Coach in New Zealand, sent me another job that included WOL. Then another one. And another one. “We should maintain a list,” I said. And she created one: workwell.co/WOLjobs
Via Yashy Tohsaku
I have four kids, ages 5 to 14, and I and know they’re very unlikely to follow the same educational path I did. I’m certain they’ll be preparing themselves for a very different job market. As my youngest is in kindergarten and my oldest just started high school, here are my thoughts for them. Technology’s impacts are varied and yet to be determined. We like technology when it makes our daily lives easier and often more fun. But on the flip side, we worry. It’s natural to look toward the future and wonder what change will bring. Earlier this year, for example, Gallup found that nearly eight in 10 Americans believe artificial intelligence (AI) will destroy more jobs than it creates over the next decade. I believe the impact of AI will be much less significant than most predictions, but at the same time want to help people look ahead, eyes wide open.
Given the opportunity to take notes by hand or on the computer, most students choose the latter. After all, modern technology offers plenty of benefits for writers.
The digital writing workspace is convenient for several reasons. A single laptop or tablet can hold all the books and materials a student needs. It can also contain tools for research, entertainment activities, and curated music. The tech devices make learning more accessible. With the push of a button or a tap on a screen, students can activate engaging learning experiences, or they can record lectures.
Convenience, however, doesn’t trump old-fashioned writing by hand when it comes to learning. Writing by hand has benefits that technology has not been able to reproduce – yet.
"Learning to decipher real news from fake news is more important than ever before"
Via EDTECH@UTRGV
The world is morphing into a place that no one can foresee. How can we prepare students to live and work in that place?
Not long ago, people could learn job skills and use them indefinitely, but now jobs and skill sets are becoming obsolete at an alarming rate. This means that students, and later adults, need to expect and thrive on challenges and know how to turn failures into stepping stones to a brighter future.
When I was a beginning researcher I wanted to see how children coped with setbacks, so I gave 5th graders simple problems followed by hard problems—ones they couldn’t solve. Some hated the hard ones, some tolerated them, but, to my surprise, some relished them. One unforgettable child rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips, and declared, “I love a challenge!” Another said, “I was hoping this would be informative.” They didn’t think they were failing, they thought they were learning. Although this was years ago, they were already 21st century kids.
Preparing a child for the world that doesn’t yet exist is not an easy task for any teacher. Step back and look at that picture from a broad perspective. What are the critical 21st-century skills every learner needs to survive and succeed in our world? What abilities and traits will serve them in a time that’s changing and developing so rapidly?
They want to be challenged and inspired in their learning.
We live in a world of accelerating change. New industries are constantly being born and old ones are becoming obsolete. A report by the World Economic Forum reveals that almost 65 percent of the jobs elementary school students will be doing in the future do not even exist yet. Both the workforce and our knowledge …
Via Dean J. Fusto
Academic libraries spend a lot of time and energy thinking about student learning. A 2016 Ithaka survey of library deans and directors indicate that they perceive the most important role for the library is “helping undergraduate students develop research, critical analysis, and information literacy skills,” with “supporting and facilitating faculty teaching activities” coming in as a close second. A recent round up of projects in the Assessment in Action projects that are intended to demonstrate the value of libraries do so almost exclusively in terms of student learning (or, to use the new buzz phrase, “student success” which isn’t exactly the same, but seems to please administrators more). Countless hours are being spent on interpreting and implementing the new Framework for Information Literacy which has some ambitious ideas about what students should learn
Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education
Via WebTeachers
In an age of technological advancement, it’s easy to feel obsolete. I feel confident that education will always be needed; but, occasionally I wonder if writing education has value in a computer-driven world.
12 Principles Of Modern Learning by TeachThought Staff What are the principles of modern learning? Well, that depends on how you defin
Via Dean J. Fusto
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