Truly Twenty-First C. Literacy (Beyond Buzzwords)
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Ben Grey’s “21st Century Confusion” post asks a simple question that I’ve often toyed with too:
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills believes demonstrating originality, communicating, being open and responsive, acting on creative ideas, utilizing time efficiently, accessing information, etc. are all 21st Century Skills. I’d retort that in reality, these skills have always been in existence and of the utmost importance. They don’t need to have the 21st Century moniker on them to make them significant.
I’ve often wondered the same thing: “What’s all this talk of ’21st century literacy’? (Ben somewhat conflates “literacy” and “skills” in his post.) Is there anything really new here? My comment:
The only uniquely “21st century literacies” I can think of involve the web.
Students need to be able to evaluate information on screens upon which any sage, charlatan, or idiot can publish. That’s new (sort of. Books really are open to the same range of authors).
They need to learn “online identity management,” and I would argue that’s a new literacy. New because they’re publishing themselves, and that means reading/writing/speaking/filming/photo-ing (literacy), and 21st century because privacy has never been so porous as now. They need to know how to keep Big Brother, Big Employer, and Big Google from knowing too much.
They need to learn “social reading” online. By that attempt at a cute label I mean the ability to evaluate communication acts by strangers in social networks, emails, comment threads wherever, and the whole range of places people can attempt to connect to us individually now. They need to be able to “read” a phish, for example, and a fraudster, and yes, a p&rv.
Hm. What else. Co-writing might be new. “How to participate in collaborative writing communities.” Wikipedia, for example. I know I don’t know how to do that.
Could we even go so far as to say that social networking online is itself a “new literacy”? That networking is (or may be) an essential skill for adulthood in the 21st century?
Hm. Searching. That’s new, yes? How to effectively search for good, timely information online, and do so efficiently. I know I’m still not great at that.
I’ll stop there. Thanks for the prompt. I agree the “21st c.” buzz can be as tiresome as the “2.0.” But I think the Berners-Lee Revolution has created some unique changes, just as Gutenberg’s did. Can you see any I missed?
- How Radio News-Writing and -Announcing Make for Ideal, Literacy-Focused Performance Assessment
- Very Presidential McCain “Aware of the Internet”
- Wrapping Up the “Web Legacies”: Reflection and New Directions
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[...] Truly Twenty-First C. Literacy (Beyond Buzzwords) | Beyond School The only uniquely “21st century literacies” I can think of involve the web. (tags: literacy 21stcenturyskills) [...]
Langwitches » links for 2009-01-01
2 Jan 09 at 8:05 am
I agree “21st Century Skills” have always been important. I do think that it is a bit silly that we are re-packaging them with a new moniker–but I am all for it. For the 90% of the teachers whose units do not include an emphasis on these skills, I think it is an easy way to begin talking about why they should change what they are doing without being insulting. I know from having meetings with parents that it is easier to sell them on the types of activities their kids will be doing in my class when I call them “21st Century Skills.” It’s not that we are trying to create a new set of skills that students should have, we are trying to create schools that that focus on them. That is what is new about “21st Century Skills.”
PAul Bogushs last blog post..Make a New Year’s resolution to update your blogroll!
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Clay Burell Reply:
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Paul, that’s some good reasoning there, from start to finish. Love the pragmatics angle. Thanks for the value-added
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PAul Bogush
2 Jan 09 at 3:02 pm
I like your view on this. I thought of two more.
One you alluded to with online identity management and social networking online. That is the public character and conversation that reflects respect, responsibility, and ethics. I know kids don’t seem to take the “public” presence as seriously as adults do, and yet it seems a form of “literacy” to *be* the kind of character presented online.
The second literacy relates to putting all this together in a personalized learning connection, whereby all of us, adults and kids, choose the goals, directions, paths, and actions for truly life-long learning. Thanks for prompting thoughts on this.
Sheri Edwardss last blog post..Fine in 2009
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Clay Burell Reply:
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Sheri,
The “like” is mutual.
Re: point one, an amoralist like me – or at least funky perspectivist – might want to frame things not so much in terms of “respect, responsibility, and ethics” (depending on where you’re headed with those), but instead in terms of something closer to “persona development.” By that I mean something closer to what we writing teachers call “voice” in our online identity. Our words make that voice, and make that identity. And while DISrespect, IRresponsiblity, and UNethical online behavior are all to be avoided the way being a jerk anywhere, online or off, is – what I want is a strong personality that makes a powerful impression online. So I’d call that voice. It’s sort of the positive corollary to your point, I think: don’t be a jerk, but DO be – impressive, creative, uniquely you, hard to forget.
I tell students every year how many perfectly good, safe, and correct essays the best students write are still horrible yawners, due to lack of voice and style. If you want your online identity to have any value, the same warning applies to how you walk the web.
Re: two: I like that a lot. You’re absolutely right that learning to chart a course and then navigate it with all the unpredictables of weather and wind is a new literacy. I love the way you put it, so I won’t add anything.
Except this: You make me think that in addition to searching for information, searching FOR PEOPLE is just as important in the social media age. Both pre-identified people – I’ve been searching for a way to contact Gilgamesh translator Stephen Mitchell for a podcast invitation since 100,000 readers clicked into the Unsucky English posts based on his translation, but my search skills have failed to find a way to contact him. I regret not having that skill.
And then there are those people we don’t know, but need to find for whatever it is they hold that we seek.
Great extension, thanks for the fun.
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Clay Burell Reply:
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
“God doesn’t notice good people.” – A line I wanted to sketch out as it popped into mind.
It brings to mind the Todd Rundgren lyrics:
“You’ve got to dance your dance,
And do your act,
And get His big attention –
that’s a natural born fact.”
(The humanist in me loves the refrain right after:
“I’m on my knees.
One question please:
‘Will the real god please stand up?’
Jesus and Moses, Mohammed and Sri Krishna,
Steiner, Gurdjieff, Blavatsky and Buddha…”
Todd’s a wag. He ends the last refrain with,
“Will the real god please SIT DOWN?”
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Scott Schwister Reply:
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 am
You gotta wonder how many other Gurdjieff references exist in pop music. Zero? Maybe more…some ripe rhyming possibilities.
Gurdjieff couldn’t possibly be Rundgren’s real god. He’d be too busy doing manual labor to sit down. A friend was in WI for a Gurdjieff group-work weekend last month. Have to ask if he was blaring Rundgren on the car stereo on the trip.
Hey, good to hear new things are shaking for you in 2009. New frontiers.
Scott Schwisters last blog post..laboring for invention
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Sheri Edwards Reply:
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Yes, the constructive concept of “persona development” clarifies the idea of public presence — our “voice”in text, audio, and visual conversation; “DO be – impressive, creative, uniquely you, hard to forget.”
Excellent, and definitely what I want for my students. I do struggle with the “jerk” who doesn’t consider him/herself inappropriate; they are “Popeye” kids (”I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam”), and this walking on the web with a vivid voice may be just the way to work with them to modify their Popeye persona. Thanks so much, Sheri
Sheri Edwardss last blog post..Fine in 2009
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Sheri Edwards
2 Jan 09 at 3:09 pm
[...] Ben Grey asked some critical questions recently about 21st century literacy. What are we really saying when we toss around that handy phrase in mixed company? Does it really mean anything? Ben wonders if it’s all really just an exercise in semantics, and worries that too much imprecise talk about skills, new literacies, and proficiencies is muddying the water. He argues that the 21st century skills/literacy concept is an emperor with no clothes, and that behind the label are familiar literacy tenets: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing. Is there nothing new under the sun? Ben’s question has spawned some excellent discussion here, here, and here. [...]
laboring for invention « Higher Edison
3 Jan 09 at 3:25 am
Clay-
Thanks again for posting the topic here for others to engage in the discussion. I just wanted to clarify my position a bit. I wrote a more lengthy piece here http://bengrey.com/blog/?p=63 if anyone is interested in a more in-depth explanation of where I’m coming from.
I do agree with you regarding the unique and emerging set of skills that have developed due to the web. However, I would maintain the skills you mentioned in your comment are skills rather than literacies. At first blush that may appear an unimportant semantical difference, but I believe it is imperative to distinguish the two.
Literacy involves gathering and producing meaning through communication. At its core, that involves the capacity to effectively read, write, speak and listen. If we can develop those four essential components in people, we can greatly increase the opportunity for them to then engage in learning the deeper level, era specific skills such as the ones you mentioned.
I won’t keep going so as to preserve your comment space, but the reason I am so vehemently advocating for the literacy vs skills distinction is so we can all start working off the same foundation and foster true change in our educational system. Imagine what would happen if we all started working together on this to ensure populations everywhere in the world became truly literate. I think the change we’d witness would be quite astounding.
Ben Greys last blog post..21st Century Clarification
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Ben Grey
3 Jan 09 at 2:54 pm
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