What is the 21st Century?

The start of the year 2001 bought on the 21^st century. The world is diverse, globalised and very complex.  The 21^st century has come with many problems such as poverty, global warming, sickness and shortages.  

The 21^st Century bought about a technological revolution. The technological revolution allows for numerous possibilities, new discoveries, easy communication and exploration like never before. Things that were never thought of possible are becoming possible at a very hasty pace (21^st Century School, 2010).

Answered by Hailey

Which skills are seen as 21st Century skills?

According to Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (2011) the following skills are seen as 21^st Century skills:

·         Global awareness to protect the earth.

·         Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy to be able to cope in the big wide world, where jobs are scarce.

·         Civic literacy to have a good understanding of what is going on around the learners.

·         Health and wellness awareness. As health illnesses are on the increase learners need to be made aware of them and the symptoms and consequences thereof.

·         Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills to deal with all the different issues of today.

·         Communication skills to be able to communicate through any means to anyone, anywhere.

·         Creativity and innovation to stand out from the rest and to be different.

·         Collaboration skills to be able to work as a group and not individually.

·         Contextual learning skills to learn how to learn.

·         ICT literacy to be able to make use of the latest technology, to make the most of learning.

·         Leadership to have initiative, to not only be followers.

·         Ethics to deal with what is right and wrong especially in the 21^st century.

·         Accountability to be responsible for your own actions.

·         Adaptability to adapt and be flexible to any situation that a learner faces.

·         Personal Productivity to make the most of one’s life to be a success.

·         Personal Responsibility to have responsibility for all your actions.

·         People Skills to deal with people you come into contact with.

·         Self Direction to know where you going and what you doing with your life.

·         Social Responsibility to protect the world we living in, not only for our future but the future of others as well.

Answered by Hailey

How should education be structured to meet the needs of students in the 21st Century world?

Less emphasis needs to be placed on the amount of material memorised, but focus more on making connections, thinking through problems and solving problems. Learning is now about dealing with change. The basis of education in the 21^st century is learning how to learn (Rodgers, Runyon, Starret & Von Holzen, 2006:3).

Moving towards group activities, that has flexibility. Visual and kinaesthetic such as touch and feel is preferred over reading, writing and listening, this can be done with the use of new technologies. Because children live in world of technology such as television and computers they expect to learn in that way as well. Children are not interested in just learning things for the sake of learning, they want to learn things for a reason, what they learning must benefit their lives. Learners want to be able to participate in their learning and want to be able to reach their own conclusions (Rodgers, et.al., 2006:2-3).

The classroom does not need to be the only place where learning takes place it can be done virtually as well. This could include online quizzes, online voting, online games, message boards and spaces for sharing and receiving information (Rodgers, et.al., 2006:4).

Answered by Hailey

How do we now define "School"?

Schools are no longer just the building where learning takes place. A school is a place where teachers, students and the community are connected to the outside world where there is an abundance of knowledge (21^st Century School, 2010). School is the place where education can take place. A school hosts as a place for the learners and teachers to meet.

Answered by Hailey

How do we now define "Teacher"?

When one looks up definitions for a teacher, the explanations are along the lines of "a person whose occupation is teaching others, esp children" (Collins English Dictionary 2011). However, these explanations fall short as a teacher nowadays is not just a facilitator or an educator. A teacher plays many roles in their students' lives such as a listener, an advisor, a mentor, a coach, a friend and finally sometimes a parent. 

Answered by Annika

How do we now define "Learner"?

A learner is someone, especially a child who learns, as from a teacher or takes up knowledge or beliefs who is in the process of learning something or acquiring knowledge (Princeton's Word Net, Not dated). A learner has no specific age, gender or race. There are no limitations on what a learner is, as long as they are in the process of obtaining knowledge, information, beliefs, morals, values etc. they are considered a learner. To be more specific a learner in the 21st century is very interactive, social, they are increasingly digital, constantly connected and always have access to information that they need. They are critical thinkers and evaluators (Slideshare.net, 2012).

Answered by: Daniela

How do we now define "Curriculum"?

Curriculum is the organisation of education. It is thus the learning that has been planned in the school and in the province/country. The school guides this learning in the curriculum (Smith,M.K.2000:1) Curriculum is thus always changing and being adapted.

Answered by Leanda

 

Which media literacy skills do we need?

In the 21^st century, and with the growing reliance on and popularity of technology, it is important to highlight the skills that are necessary to have.

Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society (Baker, 2009:1).

A media literate person needs to be able to read and write text, image, sound and structure of different systems, they need to be able to use the technical tools of the digital media, which includes computers, mobile phones and the internet. They also need to be able to relate these systems to the broader social and cultural contexts in which they live. They also need social and ethical skills to navigate through the media environment they are now a part of (Baker, 2009:1).

They need to be able to adapt to the ever changing ways of use of technology, and they need to be able to cope with the large amounts of information that they are being faced with. They need to be able to reason with information and judge for themselves what is true and false.

Answered by Leanda Jones

What is the Global Classroom?

Global classroom is an educational programme which was established in “1988” (Global classroom partnership-living locally, learning globally [sa]). This programme allows senior students from each school that is involved in the partnership to join together as a team (of international students) to travel and research learning issues in each partnership school. They are able to travel to diverse countries with different social, cultural and economical situations. During these extended trips (sometimes up to one year) students research and discuss issues such as environmental stability, global conflict, health and human development and economic development with others in order to find solutions to improve global conditions.

Global classroom does not only provide exchange programmes but it also provides the most outstanding video-conferencing technology to support distance education by enabling large groups of people to communicate globally (East Carolina University welcome to the global classroom [sa]).

Global classrooms partnerships’ mission “is to engage youth and international students and scholars in meaningful face-to-face intercultural exchange that cultivates stronger communities... within our diverse... global society” (What is global classroom?-Global Guides [sa]).

Answered by Annika

What is 21st century literacies?

In order to make sense of what 21st century literacies are, we can compare it to 20th century literacies. An English literature lesson in the 20th century would make use of hand-outs and written notes provided on the blackboard when in a 21st century class, teachers make use of technology to provide notes through visual presentations or show them the movie adaptation of the novel etc. Literacy has always been linked to technology and therefore rapid growth in technology ultimately leads to a rapid growth in literacies (Collier 2007). 

Types of 21st century literacies include blogging, text messaging, podcasts, visual presentations or video productions. Literacies such as these are beneficial to students as the will them to cope and evolve in a  constantly changing technology orientated world and workplace.

Although these literacies seem beneficial some educators are not keen of incorporating 21st century teaching strategies as they feel that they replace the more traditional methods of reading and writing. Some educators argue that children are not reading or writing anymore but they do not realise that they are, but in a different way. For instance, a student who may have poor writing skills now has the opportunity to create a visual presentation where their own handwriting is not needed.

An ideal literacy based environment would be to incorporate both 20th century literacies and 21st century literacies so that they can co-exist, this way students get the best of both worlds and are exposed to different types of skills (Collier 2007).

Answered by Annika

What is Green Education?

Green education is teaching students about the world around them and making them aware of how it is changing. It involves discussing themes such as pollution, sweatshops and the loss of biodiversity with students. However, the problems are not going to go away by simply talking about them, educators should move towards making sure that students implement what they are taught into their everyday life. For instance when students are lectured on saving energy they should actually turn off lights, the television and appliances when they are not being used at home in order to save energy. Therefore, it is not only the responsibility of the teacher but it is also the responsibility of the student to help create a better world.

Answered by Annika