New Literacies for the 21st Century

Do educators play a vital role in ensuring students are prepared to be productive in the 21^st Century? I have two answers to that, yes, and maybe.

Without a doubt educators should be leading the charge—as they always have—in making sure that today’s students are prepared to meet the demands of a 21^st Century workforce. The very act of teaching is one that seeks to prepare people for a productive future, whether it was a future that did not yet contain much technology or one that is busting out with new gizmos every day.  Strangely, though, the way I think that charge needs to lead is not necessarily technology driven.

The first skill students need is the skill of thinking. Maybe I am a bit jaded as a teacher of twelve and thirteen-year-olds, but I am constantly noticing that the skill they lack more than any other is the skill of bearing down and working through problems. That problem might be reading, studying, or writing, but it can’t be solved instantly, and at that age it seems like if it isn’t instant, students can’t be bothered. So for that reason, any conversation I have about what students need to succeed, has to start with them engaging their minds and working things out in their brains.

But let’s assume that they have the tenacity to bear down and learn. Certainly, they also need to have strong reading and writing skills in order to excel with technology of any kind—especially now that our  technology is so participatory. It is a challenge to make sure students are developing the communication skills because as the capabilities of technology are exploding, it seems the ability to take advantage of those technologies is eroding.

As was discussed in our text, you just can’t take advantage of the read/write revolution of Web 2.0 technologies without the proper skills. Nowadays, it seems that technology is dragging down people’s writing skills. Take text messaging. The anti-grammar, anti-spelling platform of SMS messaging isn’t good for standardized communication on the internet. As teachers, we need to be able to encourage them with the new writing that they are exploding with—seeming they write more now than ever—while guiding them so that they know how to use it properly when the venue demands it.

If we can succeed in students getting the thinking and communication skills they need to take advantage of technology advances, we still face challenges as educators in making sure they are up to speed. My “maybe” on whether teachers play a vital role is predicated on the fact that money might be an even bigger factor.

Anybody notice that schools don’t have any money anymore?

Here we are with a ton of cool tools to aid learning, but our economy is not cooperating. Not only are the schools probably going to start falling further behind as budgets are squeezed, but more and more families are likely to find themselves off the internet as other bills take priority in some households. I think we are probably at a point right now where the percentage of our students with access at home to technology has probably leveled off and may very well decrease in these tough economic times.

So teachers do play a big role in making sure we take advantage of the incredible technologies of Web 2.0, but we might soon see our influence blunted by the economic slowdown. I know that I will be incorporating some things into my curriculum, but I am not sure that they will take off