Teaching 21st Century Skills

Sometimes inspiration comes from an unexpected combination of sources. This week, we read chapters in the text about supporting student creativity and problem solving. We also looked at a very interesting web resource called netTrekker. The common denominator is that both items relate to 21st Century Skills; the skills students today need to master in order to compete in the new and future global economy.

I didn't really make the connection between the two until I watched a YouTube video by the developer of netTrekker, Randy Wilhelm in which he talked about the value of using netTrekker to help teach 21st Century Skills. Two of the skills he specifically mentioned were creativity and problem solving.

Wilhelm points out that traditional learning tools like text books and memorization drills are still important, but they are not enough for today's students to compete in the digital information age. We live in a society in which we are constantly bombarded with information. In the old model, simply finding the information was the major challenge. Today's students, Wilhelm says, "...must learn how to garner the best information from numerous sources and then be savvy enough to evaluate and act upon what they have learned." As educators, it is our responsibility to ​teach our students the right questions to ask​, "and then give them the tools to effectively and efficiently find the best answers."

The text outlined several strategies for supporting, developing and assessing student creativity and problem solving, which are two of the 21st Century Skills. And netTrekker can certainly be used to support student learning in those areas. ​netTrekker's stated purpose is to harness the power of digital resources to identify information that is educationally relevant, current and accurate. The tools in netTrekker help students work creatively, think critically and collaborate in new ways and look beyond the way things have always been done.​ I like the fact that netTrekker is organized by subject area, grade level and readability level and that all the resources are educator reviewed for safety and accuracy.​ It also has an extensive read aloud feature to help make it accessible to students who struggle with reading or are not English proficient. ​

I think the topic of understanding and teaching 21st Century Skills is vitally important and I plan to continue to educate myself on this topic and look for ways to incorporate these concepts at my school. If you are interested, I recommend the book "The Global Achievement Gap" by Tony Wagner.