Teaching with the Tools Kids Really Use: Learning With Web and Mobile Technologies by Susan Brooks-Young

21st Century Skills:

What does the phrase “21st Century Skills” mean? 21st Century Skills refer to the content, skills and knowledge students will need to be productive in a world that is constantly evolving. Does this mean that educators should use the latest technology without any regard to the curriculum? How can schools keep up with the latest and greatest technology? Is it really necessary to keep up with the latest and greatest technology to cover the skills outline in NETs*S? Brooks-Young states that educators must not replace the content in the curriculum but use technology and “modern tools” to enhance and support the curriculum whether students move into the work force after graduation or go to college.
The National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS*S) identifies the standards that are needed to help students thrive in a rapidly changing world.
1. Students can use web tools, power point, word processing, photo and video processing tools, etc. to promote and enhance creativity and innovation.
2. Group and project-based learning is necessary to teach communication and collaboration skills. Tools available to enhance the communication and collaborative process are email systems, wikis, blogs, social media sites, web meeting applications, etc.
3. Learning skills to quickly effectively search the web to find and evaluate quality research information and disseminate between fact and fiction is imperative to research and information fluency.
4. Solving real world problems involve critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills.
5. Teaching digital citizenship to students encompasses ethics and social responsibility while using technology and 21st century skills
6. Incorporating the use of technology and operations is important but is it important to keep up with the latest and greatest? Learning technology is similar to learning a foreign language. Once you know one foreign language, it is easier to learn another. This concept can be used when learning technology. Once you learn to use one email system, blog application, photo applications, it is much easier to learn others.

When using technology and modern tools in the classroom, educators must ensure that the tools used in the classroom are not for the entertainment value or merely an updated look of a lesson. Technology and modern tools must engage students in the learning process and encourage students to “dig deeper” into the subject resulting in higher achievement. In my opinion, rewriting lessons into power point presentations to display using an overhead projector does not count.