As an educator for the last 16 years, I have been witness to significant changes inside the classroom. Technology has greatly impacted the world and consequently has forever affected the way people learn, interact, think and behave. As a teacher, it is my job to adjust accordingly. What worked in the past and how I personally learned, may not be what a 21st century learner needs in order to have a successful future. The education world as I knew it, no longer exists.
Having access to a myriad of information at our fingertips, along with the ability to communicate freely with a wide audience, allows students and teachers to have greater connections to foster learning. Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez (2010) state, “Literacy 2.0 represents a shift, not a replacement. Whereas literacy 1.0 was about access to information, literacy 2.0 is about finding, using, producing, and sharing information. The audience is now the world, and students expect to collaborate, interact, and participate with others across time and space” (p.1). Previously, teachers told students exactly what they wanted them to know, students would do some sort of an activity (usually a worksheet), and then take a test that would ask them to regurgitate the information they were given. This type of learning is no longer effective. Students must be able to think at higher levels.
“Today’s students have a deep-seated need to communicate and collaborate, to access information at any time of the day or night, and to have the tools that will enable them to synthesize, evaluate, and create information (Frey, Fisher & Gonzalez, 2010, p.5). As an educator, I must find tools that allow this type of learning to take place. I need to understand the function of digital tools and choose the ones that will best meet my instructional needs (Frey, Fisher & Gonzalez, 2010, p.6). I should be thinking of ways in which I can use technology to support literacy. Anderson, Grant and Speck (2008) suggest, “What we as teachers need to know is how to capitalize on students’ default method of learning so that students can become increasingly literate as readers and writers” (p.3). In other words, literacy in a 21st century classroom uses technology as problem solving tools to augment thinking as opposed to only being used as a delivery mechanism (Anderson, Grant & Speck, 2008, p.7).
This past year, I have been participating in a project based learning initiative through my district. I am part of the pilot program. We are investigating teaching and learning strategies that are centered around projects that are geared towards students solving a problem. They do all the investigation and problem solving while the teacher facilitates and guides them. We equip them with the tools and base knowledge, but allow them to explore and guide their own learning within a topic. This is exactly how literacy is changing and evolving in the 21st century classroom. This type of learning is called social-constructivist learning. Instead of taking in information given by the teacher, students are actively engaged in their learning. Activities require students to analyze, synthesize and evaluate (Anderson, Grant & Speck, 2008, p. 8-10). In addition, there is a shift in how students work. Instead of learning and working independently all the time, students are often required to work in collaborative groups. Anderson, Grant and Speck (2008) state, “Teachers do not teach literacy skills in isolation but instead create meaningful and purposeful tasks that are open ended and problem based” (p. 12). This idea is the foundation of the changes that are taking place for literacy in a 21st century classroom.
References:
Anderson, R. S., Grant, M. M., & Speck, B. W. (2008). Technology to teach literacy: a resource for K-8 teachers (Second ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Gonzalez, A. (2010). Literacy 2.0: reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
