21st Century Learning

Learning in the 21st century is evolving from the way many have thought of learning in the past. To keep up with the demands and changes of the world around us, education is changing. While there are many different characteristics of 21st century learning, four aspects that are widely agreed upon are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. These aspects have become "essential for modern students to succeed in school and the workplace" (Applied Educational Systems, 2019). As the world around us is constantly changing, so is our approach to education. As an educator, I want my students to be successful in school as well as into adulthood. While these four aspects can differ in how educators approach them, they are all ways students need to learn in the 21st century.

Figure 1: A picture from my classroom showing a poster related to learning in the 21st century
Image is the property of the blog author

As I reflected upon my own teaching practices in response to these 21st century aspects, I realized a lot of what I already do is considered 21st century learning. As I have turned my curriculum into an inquiry-based experience for my students, my classroom is an area of almost constant collaboration, communication, and critical thinking as students are engaged with the curriculum. I am aware that I need to incorporate more creativity into my classroom so I can meet the needs of diverse learners in my classroom.

In the video below, I created a multimodal presentation of 21st century learning along with examples from my own classroom as well as areas of improvement, including technology integration and assessment for understanding. This gave me the opportunity to learn a new video software and get more comfortable with voice recording apps.

References

Applied Educational Systems (2019). What are the 4 C’s of 21st Century Skills? Retrieved from https://www.aeseducation.com/career-readiness/what-are-the-4-cs-of-21st-century-skills

Peers, B. (2019). 21st century learning [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY7J49E9mNw&t=2s

All images in this post are the property of the author

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