"21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead" Discussion

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Perez on September 30, 2009 at 7:54am

In regard to question #1, the article makes a strong case that educators should teach 21st Century skills and the content knowledge in tandem and treat each with equal importance. Librarians are in a unique position to incorporate both approaches. As the information literacy specialist in many schools, librarians should have expertise in 21st Century skills. They also manage a large collection of content area educational resources - both print and electronic. They are also often the only teachers in the school who collaborate with other teachers across the grade levels and the curriculum. They often have strong collaborative, project management, and critical thinking skills that can be modeled effectively to students. For administrators, this indicates that an approach of actively supporting the school library program can reap large dividends for students. For librarians, this indicates a need to be purposeful and reflective in professional practices to ensure that the content area knowledge and 21st Century skills are being taught in an intertwined fashion.

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Permalink Reply by Cynthia Alvarado on October 1, 2009 at 8:30am

1. Library media teachers must work as collaborators and guides to aid teachers in integrating information literacy skills because many classroom teachers do not have the background in information literacy to understand key concepts and what they look like in practice. We also have the opportunity to model project based learning activities and innovative uses of Web 2.0 tools for those who are unsure of what that looks like, or are afraid.We are uniquely positioned to be "guides on the side" to both teachers and students.
2. Because we see all teachers and all students, we are also uniquely positioned to help develop a well articulated curriculum that makes sure that all areas of information literacy and content are addressed. This is particularly crucial in secondary schools where teaching is fragmented into "content areas" and 'departments" that may not communicate with each other very well.
3. This article really reinforced my role in teaching critical thinking skills as part of the information seeking process. I am very interested in Howard Rheingold's theory of "crap detection" (a term he did not coin). For more information visit http://newinfoliteracies.wikispaces.com/. He and Joyce Valenza gave an excellent presentation about this on Elluminate last night. It should be available on Classroom 2.0 Live soon.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Covello on October 5, 2009 at 7:20am

Thank you for an informative article. I am a graduate student at Syracuse University/School of Education/Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, and we are vigorously discussing this and other 21st century skills-related issues in an online course. Your mention to "think scientifically" is well noted, though in our discussions, we had offered it as "what does it mean to 'think bloggingly'". We would like to see more research that outlines the epistemological shaping of student thinking from having used online/network technologies in educational settings so that we can form a more predictive model for adult behavior in higher education and labor.

Given the limitation of space here, I will simply list the points we have brought up in our discussions (I regret that since our discussions are on Blackboard [yecchh!] I cannot share a link to it):

- Access points: We acknowledge that there is an imbalance between low/high socio-economic groups, though we believe that no one is totally without accessibility. We wonder whether there has been any study to determine what students with low access do with their time of access and whether it is the same as what is being defined in schools as "21st Century Skills". Kids in the South Bronx in 1975 may have had "nothing" in terms of conventional education advantages, though their innovations in using cheap, accessible stereo equipment to create a new form of music was revolutionary. I doubt any of them were given credit in school for this. Does anyone really know what "poor people" are doing with network technologies, and is anyone measuring it? Is it the same thing currently being measured as "optimal"?

- We are concerned about whether a student who is educated to be literate in 21st century skills may prove to be destructive to business in the labor market. We ask whether we are making contradictory statements by encouraging students to be verbose and collaborative using modern network technologies, only to discover that doing this in business could violate communication policy, accidentally disclose critical business information publicly, or create chaos by publishing disparaging remarks about clients or staff.

- We do not know whose responsibility it is to acculturate students into using previously acquired 21st century skills into an acceptably shaped moral intuition about its use in education or business. If it is the school's duty, then will we run into Nanny State forms of resistance? Will there be any encroachment upon free speech issues that may irritate parents?

- We do not know whose responsibility it is to teach students how to discern between valid and invalid information found via online research. Essentially, we realize that it is everyone's responsibility, though we have not seen the issue defined under the same kind of clear headings such as Physical Fitness, Nutrition, or Career Guidance. We also recognize that pre-Internet books, textbooks and articles were equally fraught with bias and centrism (among other things), and that research skills, in general, should be regarded as method agnostic.

- We are not sure whether the use of IM as a method of interacting with a teacher may cause confusion about authority distance between teacher and student. IM feels like a socially leveling platform, which may be beneficial to certain students who feel less comfortable in a classroom learning environment. But is there a risk that the social implication of joining a chat forum - which is comparatively devoid of authority cues - may cause problems in classrooms later on? Or perhaps students will contract into participating only in the method that they feel comfortable with?

- We are concerned that, even if we are successful in defining the areas epistemological growth from developing 21st century skills, will those skills retain relevance as technologies are deprecated or replaced by new ones within a matter of a few short years? Or will all skills retain a certain acceptable percentage of value as they are applied cumulatively to the "next" technology? Is this a relatively safe bet to make as we invest in the long term value of teaching these skills, or using them as tools for teaching concepts and critical thinking? Is it too outrageous to consider that heavily leveraging 21st century skills in education may create an "army" for a hypothetical conflict that might not occur [see: Asymmetric Warfare]? Or is there too much of a risk in NOT doing so?

Thank you. - Steve Covello [www.ApeScience.com]

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Permalink Reply by Monica Treptow on October 5, 2009 at 7:55am

This was an interesting article. I found it especially intriguing that there were some cautionary tones rather than just bandwagon excitement. Library media specialists can have an important role in 21st century learning. I wonder, however, if it will be more with the staff than with the students. We can definitely assist with training teachers on information literacy skills, ways to improve their curriculum and their teaching, and learning new technologies. In my position, this is easier than actually getting to the students because I service two buildings that span 8 grades and include over 1500 students, and this seems to be happening more and more in our field.

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Permalink Reply by Laurie Conzemius on October 11, 2009 at 5:34pm

Over the last couple of weeks several different staff members in my building have attended staff development activities in the areas of reading, gifted & talented education and Title I. Ironically, it was reported back to me that keynote speakers at each of these conferences made very negative comments about library media specialists. It is my goal to be a leader in each of these areas in my school and district, but these speakers had the following to say about school libraries and librarians:
"Today's school libraries focus too much on printed materials and are out of touch with the new electronic age."
"Classroom teachers need to take the lead in utilizing new technologies in their schools. This may mean taking the equipment out of the library where it is stored and bringing it into classrooms where it can be used."
"Libraries are run by little old white-haired ladies who simply keep track of the books."
It is so disheartening to hear these types of comments. I loved the article - but how do we as school library media specialists be leaders when library positions across the country are being cut and many libraries are staffed by noncertified employees? It seems like our image has remain unchanged even though so much of what we do has evolved enormously.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Perez on October 16, 2009 at 12:07pm

In regard to improved teaching, the librarian has much to offer. The article makes the point that teachers believe in problem-based learning and project-based learning, but that they do not often implement what they know to be true. It mentioned that classroom management challenges along with the need to be informed on a breadth of knowledge and be highly responsive in intense learning situations dissuades many educators. Instead, they fall back to traditional seatwork and whole-group instruction. I would ask "Have these teachers leveraged the full resources of their school libraries?" With another qualified teacher-librarian working with the class, student-centered teaching methods become likely to succeed.

Librarians are also the schools' information literacy specialists. The article asks who will build and maintain collaborative wikis. The response is that the librarian will work with the classroom teachers and students, so that everyone builds these online spaces together and the work does not fall on one person.

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Stephens on October 17, 2009 at 9:22am

I was so sad to hear the disparaging comments that Laurie's colleagues heard about school librarians. The ASCD article hints at this, but I think it all goes back to teacher preparation -- specifically, I think teacher candidates don't know about the skills the librarians should have. I had a first year teacher ask me about my work the other day, and she was obviously surprised to know I had an advanced degree. I believe we need to lobby to bring top-notch school library media specialists into teacher ed. programs to showcase the kind of projects that are possible with collaboration, which is something the article lauds. All I could think was, collaborating with WHOM? The article says “among teachers,” but I think adding in the library media specialist will take the student projects to another level.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda D Anderson on October 18, 2009 at 9:46am

Hi Steve - I would like to comment on your paragraph, "We do not know whose responsibility it is to teach students how to discern between valid and invalid information found via online research. Essentially, we realize that it is everyone's responsibility, though we have not seen the issue defined under the same kind of clear headings such as Physical Fitness, Nutrition, or Career Guidance. We also recognize that pre-Internet books, textbooks and articles were equally fraught with bias and centrism (among other things), and that research skills, in general, should be regarded as method agnostic."

I think you are correct in stating that this should be the responsibility of all educators, however, library media specialists have always taken the lead in providing instruction in this area. Check out the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner http://www.aasl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/lear.... In these information literacy standards, you will see the evaluation of information for its validity and accuracy is woven throughout.

Steve Covello said:

Thank you for an informative article. I am a graduate student at Syracuse University/School of Education/Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, and we are vigorously discussing this and other 21st century skills-related issues in an online course. Your mention to "think scientifically" is well noted, though in our discussions, we had offered it as "what does it mean to 'think bloggingly'". We would like to see more research that outlines the epistemological shaping of student thinking from having used online/network technologies in educational settings so that we can form a more predictive model for adult behavior in higher education and labor.

Given the limitation of space here, I will simply list the points we have brought up in our discussions (I regret that since our discussions are on Blackboard [yecchh!] I cannot share a link to it):

- Access points: We acknowledge that there is an imbalance between low/high socio-economic groups, though we believe that no one is totally without accessibility. We wonder whether there has been any study to determine what students with low access do with their time of access and whether it is the same as what is being defined in schools as "21st Century Skills". Kids in the South Bronx in 1975 may have had "nothing" in terms of conventional education advantages, though their innovations in using cheap, accessible stereo equipment to create a new form of music was revolutionary. I doubt any of them were given credit in school for this. Does anyone really know what "poor people" are doing with network technologies, and is anyone measuring it? Is it the same thing currently being measured as "optimal"?

- We are concerned about whether a student who is educated to be literate in 21st century skills may prove to be destructive to business in the labor market. We ask whether we are making contradictory statements by encouraging students to be verbose and collaborative using modern network technologies, only to discover that doing this in business could violate communication policy, accidentally disclose critical business information publicly, or create chaos by publishing disparaging remarks about clients or staff.

- We do not know whose responsibility it is to acculturate students into using previously acquired 21st century skills into an acceptably shaped moral intuition about its use in education or business. If it is the school's duty, then will we run into Nanny State forms of resistance? Will there be any encroachment upon free speech issues that may irritate parents?

- We do not know whose responsibility it is to teach students how to discern between valid and invalid information found via online research. Essentially, we realize that it is everyone's responsibility, though we have not seen the issue defined under the same kind of clear headings such as Physical Fitness, Nutrition, or Career Guidance. We also recognize that pre-Internet books, textbooks and articles were equally fraught with bias and centrism (among other things), and that research skills, in general, should be regarded as method agnostic.

- We are not sure whether the use of IM as a method of interacting with a teacher may cause confusion about authority distance between teacher and student. IM feels like a socially leveling platform, which may be beneficial to certain students who feel less comfortable in a classroom learning environment. But is there a risk that the social implication of joining a chat forum - which is comparatively devoid of authority cues - may cause problems in classrooms later on? Or perhaps students will contract into participating only in the method that they feel comfortable with?

- We are concerned that, even if we are successful in defining the areas epistemological growth from developing 21st century skills, will those skills retain relevance as technologies are deprecated or replaced by new ones within a matter of a few short years? Or will all skills retain a certain acceptable percentage of value as they are applied cumulatively to the "next" technology? Is this a relatively safe bet to make as we invest in the long term value of teaching these skills, or using them as tools for teaching concepts and critical thinking? Is it too outrageous to consider that heavily leveraging 21st century skills in education may create an "army" for a hypothetical conflict that might not occur [see: Asymmetric Warfare]? Or is there too much of a risk in NOT doing so?

Thank you. - Steve Covello [www.ApeScience.com]

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Permalink Reply by Brenda D Anderson on October 18, 2009 at 10:11am

Working at the district level as a library media specialist (LMS) who does contribute to curriculum development, I am working at integrating information literacy skills into the district level curriculum. Hopefully, by having the information literacy curriculum integrated and accessible for teachers and LMS in the same place in this online curriculum environment, teachers and LMS will be able to collaborate with a common understanding of what the students should know and be able to do. However, I still see the need to educate not only the teachers as Wendy Stephens writes about in her response, but the administrators as well. We need to create opportunities to present what we do to current and future administrators. In your district is there a process for being able to present at district level principal meetings? If so, I recommend this as one venue for educating others about our role in the teaching of 21st century skills.

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