Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.
Toward A Definition of 21st Century Literacies
On February 15, the Executive Council of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) adopted a statement titled, “Toward A Definition of 21st Century Literacies.” This professional organization has begun to articulate the shift that needs to occur in education if we are to teach literacies relevant in the real world. The connection between reading, writing, technology, social networking, collaborative problem solving, multitasking, information evaluation and ethics is addressed.
TOWARD A DEFINITION OF 21st-CENTURY LITERACIES
Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee
February 15, 2008Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to
- Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
- Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
- Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
- Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
- Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
- Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
How will we carry these ideas into the classroom? What will an expanded view of literacy look like? What will be different? What are we already doing?
I believe the educational system must embrace changes that are bringing about the need for a new definition of literacy beyond simply reading and writing. These will always be important, but for the future viability of our students in a flat world with far fewer boundaries, a shift is necessary.
It is difficult to predict the future, but from examining past and current trends, futurists try to paint a picture of what we might expect. Futurist Ray Hammond in his book, The World in 2030, says this:
The speed of technological development is accelerating exponentially and, for this reason, by the year 2030 it will seem as if a whole century’s worth of progress has taken place in the first three decades of the 21st century.
Most of the world’s futurists, futurologists and computer scientists agree that at some point between 2030 and 2040 a milestone in technological development will be reached that will cause a rupture, a complete disjoint, in human evolution. Around this time we will build the first computer that is the intellectual equal of a human. Because of the accelerating, exponential nature of technological development (fueled entirely by faster and richer information flows) it follows that a short time after that we will be assisted by our super-intelligent computers to build a machine twice as clever as the most capable human. Shortly after will appear a machine four times as clever as a human, then eight times as clever, then sixteen times as clever, and so on.
A few things are certain: the speed of change (technological and otherwise) will continue to increase; and we can barely begin to imagine what the future will be like, but it will likely be significantly different than the world we live in. How can we prepare our students for this uncertain world? Think about it: in 2030, our current students (K-12) will be between the ages of 27 and 50. Will they have the skills necessary to navigate the world? Will those skills be sufficient to adapt to new literacies they will encounter in the future? Will their literacies be sufficient to grapple with and solve the problems of the planet?
Links: Toward A Definition of 21st Century Literacies; The World in 2030.
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Videoconference Provides Students with Innovative Experience
Thanks to Kristen Kelly for contributing this article that originally appeared in The Falcon Courrier (Vol. 28, No. 2), Salisbury High School’s student newspaper.
Teachers are always looking for new and out of the ordinary ways to teach their students. Science teacher Cheryl Criscuolo has found a way for students to gain knowledge of hard-to-learn concepts during an enriching experience. Students in Criscuolo’s Anatomy and Physiology and AP Biology classes attended a virtual knee surgery videoconference on November 14. Criscuolo first heard of the knee replacement videoconference through Director of Data and Technology Randy Ziegenfuss. The webinar provided students with the opportunity to watch a live total knee replacement and interact with the surgeons and medical personnel by asking questions during the event.
While conducting the surgery, the staff went through a detailed, step by step explanation of what was happening, starting with explaining the anesthetic used to put the patient to sleep. The surgeon then opened up the patient’s leg and proceeded with the surgery which included shearing of the leg bones and placing of the metal prosthetics inside the knee joint. The surgery took place at COSI Science Center in Columbus, Ohio, and was sponsored by Cardinal Health Foundation and Mount Carmel Hospital.
Before attending the videoconference, students in Criscuolo’s classes went online and took on the role of a surgeon during a virtual knee replacement surgery. The online program allowed students to go through the motions of a knee replacement operation, foreshadowing what they would see in the webinar.
“The online virtual knee replacement program benefited me significantly because it allowed me to see what exactly happens during an actual knee replacement surgery,” said senior Angela Swavely.
Students agreed that watching the live webinar was beneficial to their learning. “It was a fascinating experience that vastly increased my knowledge of the inner workings of the human body,” said senior Brian Ludrof.
Criscuolo said the videoconference allowed her students, especially those in Anatomy and Physiology, to gain additional insight and preview future topics and concepts addressed in the class. She felt the webinar benefited her students. Criscuolo said, “It allowed them to experience something they would normally not have.”
In the future, Criscuolo plans on hosting another webinar; then, the students will watch a live autopsy. Because of the graphic nature of the autopsy, the webinar may only be viewed by her honors Anatomy and Physiology class.
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Doodle 4 Google
Google is running a contest called Doodle 4 Google. Students can submit a Google Doodle for the chance to win prizes for themselves and their school as well as the chance for their doodle to appear on the Google site.
The Doodle 4 Google competition, offers young artists the chance to play around with the Google logo and perhaps have their artwork seen by people all over the world.
The theme for the doodling competition is “What if...?”
- What if...I could live underwater, or in outer space, or in Colonial America?
- What if...I could see into the future?
- What if...I could build any kind of invention I wanted?
Google will display 40 finalist doodles on their site and invite the public to vote for their favorites. The winning doodler will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and their design will take over the Google homepage for a day (the winning school will also receive a $25,000 technology grant).
Want to get in on the fun? You’ll find everything you need. including detailed lesson plans, at www.google.com/doodle4google Registration closes on March 28th.
Lost in Translation?
Lance Rougeux, Discovery Educator Network Manager, delivered the East Coast Keynote Address for Discovery’s history-making national Virtual Conference hosted locally on February 2, 2008. His presentation, Lost in Translation, addresses digital literacy. His thesis: every student speaks a second language and every educator must learn that language. Here’s the podcast version, good to go for a trek in the snow.
Are You “Lost in Translation”?
Cross-posted on DEN PA and Changing Connections.
The Discovery Educator Network launched its history-making Virtual Conference on Saturday, 2 February 2008 and it proved, as DEN always does, to delight and engage audiences across the nation. What made it ground-breaking? The DEN harnessed webinar technology to face-to-face interactions at host sites throughout the country, experiencing the virtual world uniquely: a national conference hosted locally!
Our East Coast Keynote, Lance Rougeux, opened the virtual conference with a session EVERY teacher should hear: Lost in Translation. His thesis is simple: Every student speaks a second language, and Everyone must become a second-language learner. So, can you read this? Quickly? If not, then you are not proficient in ESL. What is ESL? Emoticons as a Second Language.
Still lost in translation? Here’s your answer on the left. I’d be willing to venture that any eight-year-old (or maybe younger) would have read the 
ESL slide in 20 seconds or under. Why? Because it’s their language. It’s what they use to communicate, and they are highly proficient at it. Like some of you, I am lost in translation (although I do remember Milli Vanilli, Lance). So I can read Lauren Myracle books every day (Lance says he does; bless you, Martha) written in emoticon, or use transl8it!, or both.
I’ve been working with a student to create our School Profile for AFG, and he speaks yet a third language: code. (At this layer, I am really lost in translation.) He writes code faster than I can type, but he IS a digital native. And he’s typical of many of the students in our classrooms. So, how do they learn? Very much like Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind suggests: through the 3 Cs: communication, connectedness, and creativity.
Our students are consumers and creators. They write and speak digital; it’s how they like to learn if we let them. While we were engaged in the virtual conference, an interesting side bar chat ensued about how education has shifted from the “sage on the stage” to the “guide on the side” (a wealth of resources appears in any DEN sidebar, so you do want to check it out in the archives). Repurposing the educator’s role is what I call Educating in the Shift. We are all at different levels, but for many of us, we are behind our students’ collective knowledge base. Do we know less? Absolutely not! They just know more--differently.
And they LEARN DIFFERENTLY! They are consumers
and creators. Here are their tools. Are we using them too? If not, do we need to catch up to teaching how students learn, as the inimitable Hall Davidson said two years ago at PETE&C, with the things in their pockets. And I can’t think of any better way to engage not enrage students than by beginning anywhere with the resources that the Discovery Educator Network offers, starting with Lance’s presentation and continuing throughout the virtual conference.
According to Lance, and I do agree with him, we need to do something else too. We need to master that second language too, at least metaphorically speaking. We may not go out and learn text messaging or code for that matter, but we do need to rethink how we collaborate academically with our digital natives, bell to bell, as Jennifer Dorman said in the chat room yesterday.
So, how do we meet the needs of our ESL students? Start with any Discovery product or resource. My favorites: DiscoveryStreaming and Kathy Schrock. Or find a content-specific Discovery resources like Discovery Education Science (middle school target audience) or Discovery Education Health. Unveiled at the Virtual Conference: Discovery Education Science (elementary school version).
In the spirit of yesterday’s virtual conference and collaborative learning, I made a slightly bigger footprint, although marginal compared to Jen’s. You can see screen shots (individually or as a set) from Lance’s opening Keynote at my new flickr account. You can also view my presentation slide show at my new SlideShare account (feel free to adapt it). Or you can view it here.
Super Bowl Sunday is only hours away, so I’ll end with a Mickey story. Yesterday, in the middle of Matt’s presentation, my husband walked into the kitchen with a post-it note on his forehead. It read, in big black marker letters, COMPUTER. On the plus side, it was a Discovery Educator Network round post-it from last year’s PETE&C. I got the message, and will have to, like some of you, view the rest of the day’s virtual conference from the archives. Enjoy the game!