In this blog, Teaching in the 21st Century, a teacher discusses a question that was posed at a conference that she attended at the University of San Diego. The question was, " What is the most important 21st century skill?". There were six choices to choose from 1) collaboration 2) communication 3) global empathy 4) problem solving 5) multi-tasking 6) technical know-how.......The author of this blog chose "collaboration". Her argument was that "In a world that has become more complex, sophisticated, and globally integrated, there must be collaboration in order to solve increasingly difficult problems that confront our world".
The presenter at the conference argued that the most critical skill was global empathy. Global empathy is actively seeking to understand different points of view and perspectives. The presenter suggests utilizing authentic methods to connect with other cultures through Skyping, tweeting or creating YouTube documentary.
In my opinion, all of the choices that were given go hand in hand in teaching our children in the 21st century skill. One point that stood out to me in this blog was "We must be the lead learners in our classroom, modeling what we are asking of our students". I think that this is a great and true statement. We all learn from each other in society. No one person can learn and live independently without the influence of others. As I end this blog, I would like to pose this question, "How can we connect and learn from others, in terms of global empathy, if we first do not possess the skill of collaboration or the desire to collaborate?"
In your opinion, what is the most important 21st century skill?
Here are some others links that you can read on the topic:
21st Century Schools and Education
Defining 21st Century Education
My vote would have to go towards Communication, which reemphasizes the point made by Karl Fisch about the conversations that need to take place beteen teacher and student. If communication, true communitcation, is taking place in a classroom, empathy will simultaneously exist, as will collaboration, as will all the others. This is where I would definitely put my focus. So the obvious question would be how we would teach communitcation. I don't know completely, but I know practicing it with our students is a start.
ReplyDeleteTeaching in the 21st century is a very important things these days. The teachers should be up to date on whats going on in the world so they can keep theor students up to date also.
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