21st Century Education

The education of a 21^st century ‘digital learner’ should be a balanced one. Oftentimes when curricular or pedagogical shifts occur, education and those responsible for its development swing the pendulum so far in (or away from) the direction of the shift, that all else, and all before, gets lost and it is only later, when test scores plummet or market demands don’t match the labor force, do we reflect on our shifts to try and find possible sources for the disconnect. With this metaphor of the pendulum in mind, I think about the digital learner and the need for a balanced education. When Freire (2000) argued that education should lead to liberation, he was asking for critical engagement with the texts, policies and practices that shape the discourses we live in. In order to accomplish this, we have to take Taylor’s (1996) warnings about the complexities of open-learning and its potential to undermine student mobility through the development of ‘knowledge mobility’ to heart. I think that education, especially a digital one, should work to support students as they straddle the “border” between the center, which I see as curriculum, and the periphery which can all too often in classrooms and lesson plans be the “bells and whistles” that teachers sometimes use to obscure learning. – We get so caught up in using the technology and teaching the technology that the content of the lesson gets lost in the delivery. – If the knowledge provided by the technology is not explored, critiqued and used to build a solid foundation for learning (beyond regurgitation or memorization) then we have failed to mobilize the knowledge in a way that can mobilize students towards liberation.

          
It is in this light, that I think the education for the 21^st century digital learner should be a balanced one. Jenkins notes that “Literacy skills for the twenty-first century are skills that enable participation in the new communities emerging within a networked society”( 55). This networked society is both human and cyber and students need to learn how to mediate between and within the two. Computer/technological literacy skills then should translate and be transferable between and within contexts to support students as they straddle environments. To this end, one medium that I think should remain, be further opened, but not all encompassing to students in their scholastic endeavors, is social media sites. Specifically, spaces like Facebook, should not be blocked or left unregulated for student use in school. Instead, a balanced approach should be used whereby students are taught how to harness the information, resources, and tools in Facebook to help them think through particular curriculum and life demands they may encounter. Secondly, sites like Facebook help bridge the digital/human divide by allowing students to interact technologically with real bodies - a skill they need to know. Also, the skill sets necessary to (for example) clearly condense a complete thought into a tweet, or create a profile for a character reflective of their essence, based on a literary reading, should not be dismissed or underestimated. Further, the transferability of such skills into other social or academic contexts will greatly support the learner as they develop their academic and personal identity in the networked world.

Consequently, a balanced approach of allowing, teaching and supporting social media for example will teach students context appropriateness as well as allow them to develop a plethora of skills which as Jenkins says can support them as they endeavor to participate and succeed in a networked world.