Building Digital Communication Skills for the 21st-Century Workforce
Educators, economists, and forecasters all agree on the growing importance of so-called "21st-century skills" in the workplace. While reading, writing, and arithmetic will always form the foundation of any solid education, digital communication and media literacy are on the verge of being elevated to the same level of importance. In addition to requiring advanced skills in reading and math, the employers of tomorrow are going to require a high degree of digital and multimedia fluency.
To meet the demands of the 21st-century workplace, today's educators need to prepare students for this reality through teaching and organizational philosophy, hands-on application and exercises, and a dedication to implementing the most relevant technology and software in their classrooms. That's why, with the generous support of Adobe Systems Inc., the editors of eSchool News have assembled this field guide to digital communication skills for the 21st century. Through this collection of stories and articles from the eSN archives, we aim to supply you with the news, information, and ideas to help you apply these skills in a hands-on way in your own classrooms.--The Editors
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News Stories
• Study aims to improve internet literacyResearchers at the University of Connecticut and Clemson University are in the middle of a three-year project to find a proven method of boosting the internet literacy skills of disadvantaged students. As part of the study, they're testing a new way to teach students how to read, understand, and critically evaluate the information they find online, through a "reciprocal" model that has been proven to work well in teaching traditional literacy skills...
• $1.3B slated for voc-ed bill
Lawmakers have approved a bill that guarantees federal support for vocational education through 2012, stymieing White House efforts to funnel the $1.3 billion that goes toward voc-ed programs each year into other areas. That's good news for the roughly 15 million students who take voc-ed classes, many of which increasingly rely on technology to prepare students for 21st-century careers.
• To educate the 21st-century workforce, schools must change
Editor's note: When Intel Chairman Craig Barrett addressed the Education Writer's Association annual conference in New Orleans on June 2, he spoke of an era of hope and opportunity--an opportunity not just to rebuild the thousands of homes and buildings destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but one to improve the current state of education in the region and, eventually, throughout the nation. His message: Computers are important tools for learning, but teachers are the real difference-makers in students' lives. What follows is a copy of Dr. Barrett's prepared remarks as approved by Intel Corp...
• How to achieve 'results that matter' for students
The nature of education, work, life, and civic engagement is changing in our increasingly competitive and globally interconnected world. Unfortunately, most high schools in the United States have not kept pace with these changes. Studies such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science and the Programme for International Student Assessment demonstrate the United States does not fare as well as some other developed countries in preparing students with skills critical to success in this century...
• W.Va. focuses on 21st-century learning
As educators nationwide consider ways to address the need for 21st-century learning, West Virginia appears to be ahead of the curve and could serve as a model for other states to follow.
• Thornburg: Ed tech stalled by 'fear'
eSN Exclusive: David Thornburg is an award-winning futurist, author, and consultant whose clients range across the public and private sectors worldwide. He is the author of The New Basics: Education and the Future of Work in the Telematic Age, a handbook on teaching the skills necessary for success in the 21st-century workplace, and, most recently, Campfires in Cyberspace: A Guide to Teaching with the Web.
• Global competitiveness: Does the data match the rhetoric?
n era where world figures from Bill Gates to President Bush have expressed concerns about the state of American education, suggesting that a trend of substandard student performance might eventually strip the United States of its status as a world economic power, some in education have begun to question the accuracy and pessimism of such forecasts.
• Ed 'visionaries': Schools must change
Today's educational system needs a complete overhaul--and technology is precisely the agent to accomplish this change, according to the speakers at Intel Corp.'s fourth annual Education Visionary Conference. Held May 18 in Washington, D.C., this year's event was titled "Educators Driving Change in Communities: Creating New Uses for Technology and Impacting Economic Development."
• NC Gov. announces 21st Century Center
Faced with the challenge of preparing today's students for success in an increasingly global economy, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, April 21, announced the development of a first-of-its-kind Center for 21st Century Skills.
• Today's kids are 'media multitaskers'
The type of students today's educators are likely to encounter--and the kinds of challenges educators might face as they seek to engage those students in learning--may be seen in a new light, thanks to a survey released March 9 by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
• New guides help teach 21st century skills
A coalition of high-tech companies and nonprofit organizations has issued a series of free tools to help teachers, administrators, and lawmakers incorporate specific "21st-century skills" into the core curriculum to better prepare students for today's technology-infused workplace.
• Schools urged to teach '21st-century' skills
A new organization called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has issued a report and a free planning guide to help educators incorporate specific "21st-century" skills—such as problem solving, critical thinking, and communication—into the core curriculum of schools to better prepare students for today's technology-infused workplaces.
• Leaders seek consensus on 21st-century literacy
The infusion of technology into an increasingly digital society has created the need for a new form of basic literacy among students, according to leading educators, policy makers, and corporate executives who convened Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the need for 21st-century skills.
• Report: Schools need better media literacy teaching
By the time today's children in the United States reach age 75, they will have spent nine years of their lives watching TV, including two years of ads alone. Yet media literacy education in the U.S. still lags behind that of every other English-speaking country in the world, according to a new report commissioned by Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry's education foundation.
• Teacher-created video portrays students' skills for parents
A growing number of schools are using digital video as a powerful tool to convey to parents how their children are performing in the classroom. The use of dynamic video can communicate a student's abilities far more effectively than paper-based progress reports, proponents of the trend say.
• CEO Forum: Students need tech-age skills
America should begin to equip students with a set of 21st-century skills, according to a report released June 25 by the CEO Forum on Education and Technology, a national partnership between business and education executives.
• Gerald Bracey disputes U.S. learning deficit (Video)
America should begin to equip students with a set of 21st-century skills, according to a report released June 25 by the CEO Forum on Education and Technology, a national partnership between business and education executives.
• Digital Arts Summer Camp (Video)
Organized by the Pearson Foundation, the philanthropic branch of educational publisher Pearson Inc., along with cellular provider Nokia Inc., these "Digital Arts Summer Camps" have given approximately 500 middle-school students from New Orleans, Plaquemines Parish, La., and Bay St. Louis, Miss., the chance to learn valuable technology skills while also channeling their creativity.
Classroom Collaboration (Conference Correspondent Reports)
• Primary and Secondary Classroom Activities to Foster Civic Engagement
"Growing" active citizens who vote and participate in elections is the mission that Jo-Anne Hart, of Lesley University, voices in this session. To that end, she provides a ready-to-roll set of lessons and ideas in which students are actively engaged as citizens...
• International Best Practices: Collaborative Project-Based Learning
I arrived at this symposium about 15 minutes early. I was a little concerned about whether this next hour was going to worth my time. The presenters were attempting to connect to the 13th International iEARN World Conference taking place in Enschede, the Netherlands. As they were attempting to connect there were screen shots of the top of peoples’ heads, lost picture (just a blue screen), and laughing on the other end. I thought this was going to be a mess! The clock was ticking down to the beginning of their presentation and I began to feel a little anxious for the presenters...
• Collaboration Convergence Realized: Everywhere, Everyone, Anytime, Any Which Way
This session was all about where the education community is going with the tools, policies, and practices of emerging technologies. The Committee's goal is to accelerate and facilitate the use of these technologies in K-12 schools. The presentation began with an overview of the typical educator's hopes and dreams for ideal projects, lessons, and assessments that promote authentic learning, communication, civic action, and collaboration. The presentation addressed "How does technology fit in to these ideal situations?" We now have tools like high speed networking, access to computing, instant messaging, blogging, wikis, portals, content management systems, handhelds, tablet pc's, cell phones, and laptops...
• Teaching Tech Integration through Collaboration K-12-University Learning Communities
It is quite refreshing actually to hear from the trenches, testimony that may not be as slick and polished as the professionals who do the school and conference circuits. I sat in the front of the room where I could see the nervousness and small fonts that was projected onto the screen which also had to compete with the bright lights in the room that were not dimmed at all during the presentation...
Web/Blogs/Multimedia Resources
• Dynamic Digital Photo Creations with Photoshop Elements
Photoshop Elements is a cross-platform digital image editor that is based on Adobe's PhotoShop, but its tools are more intuitive and user-friendly. Based on her experience with both, Linda Dickeson contends that 80-90% of the capabilities of PhotoShop are part of Photoshop Elements. In addition, it's a lot more affordable, especially for education. This powerful application has several output methods for projects including web photo galleries, PDF slideshows, picture collages and easy print layouts... (Conference Correspondent Report)
• Dynamic Digital Photo Creations with Photoshop Elements
Many, many people have digital cameras, and many, many people take pictures that could use some touch-up to make them more memorable and visually pleasing. Linda Dickeson is someone most of those peole should meet. She is a professional development trainer for the 3,500 staff in Lincoln NE public school district, and for ed tech conferences like NECC. She is an Adobe Master Teacher and her publications include the CLICKstep Teacher Training book series (FTC Publishing, Inc.). She began using Photoshop Elements because she wanted materials and couldn't find any that met her needs, so she began to create her own – that ultimately led to her publishing books... (Conference Correspondent Report)
• Panelists: Blogs are changing education
At a ceremony to honor excellence in education blogging yesterday, winners of the first-ever eSchool News "Best of the Education Blog" Awards talked about the significance of blogging in education during a panel discussion. All agreed: The impact that blogging is having on teaching and learning is profound...
• Here's how to get started with blogging in your schools
Interested in blogging, but not quite sure how to get started? A web site from the Instructional Technology Center at the University of Houston at Clear Lake provides some guidance for building and utilizing blogs in the classroom. The site offers a list of reasons why blogs are useful tools for teachers and students...
• Show Me How, Now
Atomic Learning provides this software training using a unique, just-in-time approach. Our library of thousands of short tutorials on dozens of applications are focused on answering the common questions teachers, students and anyone else may have when learning software. We like to call them "atoms of learning" and they are easy to access whenever and where ever you need them...
• Students, teachers: Learn the art of digital storytelling here
Storytelling used to be something kids did huddled around a campfire or sitting Indian-style, books in hand, in a semicircle on the classroom floor. But as computers and other high-tech gadgets proliferate in schools, a new form of the art has emerged: digital storytelling, where a combination of multimedia tools--including graphics, audio, video, animation, and web publishing--are called upon to bring the story to life...
• Video Goes to School, Part 3
Editor's Note: This is the final installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education...
• Video Goes to School, Part 2
Editor's Note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education...
• Video Goes to School, Part 1
Editor's Note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on the use of video in education...
Related Conference Correspondent Reports
• Student Reporters: Using Video Cell Phones as an Educational Tool
• Student Reporters: Using Video Cell Phones as an Educational Tool
• Podcasting and Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner
• The Power of Collaboration in the K-8 Classroom
• 21st Century Education: A Blended Environment
• Lights, Camera, Action!
• Open Your Eyes, Listen: Digital Storytelling in the Elementary Classroom
• Say Cheese! Using Digital Cameras in the Classroom
• Telling the New Story: Painting a New Vision for Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century
• Blogging, Reinventing Teaching and Learning for the Information Age
Additional Web Resources
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Gateway to 21st Century Skills
• Contemporary Literacy: Essential Skills for the 21st Century
• The Center for 21st Century Skills
• Route 21: An Interactive Guide to 21st Century Learning
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