May
7
Written by:
Dan Maas
5/7/2009
Although I am not a Language Arts teacher, I get an opportunity to work with quite a few... and my role means I spend all my time engrossed in just what is different when information technology gets into the mix. So, in light of CDE producing the new draft of Colorado Academic Standards for Reading, Writing and Communicating, these points have come to mind as my input to this work-in-development.
While I really like the layout of this document and the overt intention to make 21st Century skills integral to the new standards, I think the draft is still wholly contained in the 20th Century. At this point, none of the skills and applications of skills represent anything that was not possible as a teaching philosophy in 1909... and while that universiliality is positive, I do think there are aspects of 21st Century literacy that were science-fiction in 1909.
So I would suggest the following 3-point plan for 21st Century writing skill:
1. Writers must be able to defend the validity of the information sources they select.
In 1985 and earlier, finding information was hard and the cost of publishing served as a validation mechanism. But because publishing is nearly cost-free today, our is environment so flooded with information that it's not about just how you find and use information... but how you know you can trust it!
2. Writers must be able to effectively communicate with others both within and outside their immediate community.
Writing a letter to your Congressman is good, but you also need to be able to send a message to a person in China to start up a working conversation because you've been assigned a project to complete together... and your boss only gave you a first name and an email address (or twitter addy... or IM name... or).
3. Writers must be able to globally publish their work for some meaningful effect.
Your published writing needs to be valued by someone causing them to perhaps write back, take some action or even buy a product. "Submit to a newspaper" preserves the passive viewpoint of publishing... today, you don't submit your work to someone else to get it published, you publish it yourself! You have music, skip the record company and post some songs on youtube! You have a political viewpoint, skip the newspaper op-ed and post a blog. You want a new job, skip buying a classified ad in the newspaper and get your resume built on linkedin.com and present yourself as a pro.
To me, the critical question is “What is it about the literacy demands today that could not be met in 1985 or earlier?" CDE is soliciting input so now is the time to chime in: http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/OSA/stand_rev.html
2 comment(s) so far...
Re: 3-point plan for 21st Century Writing
Defending legitimate sources---These are interesting points that have legitimacy in the online instructional environment that I work in as an online instructor for masters degree students.
They have to do online research around problems and "sort" through thousands of references to create a document that addresses the problem with legitimate, scholarly responses. How do they do this and why are some so much more adept than others? How do they decide when a book is a better reference that an online reference? Can this skill truly be taught, or is it a generalized "critical thinking" skill?
Communicating within and outside of community--- Using the China example and my own experience from online instruction, I find that personal introductions set the stage for working together and that developing an agreed upon framework for working together is critical. Usually, jumping into a project can lead to disaster if one person has too strong of an opinion and does not use good communication skills that are the basis of cooperative learning.
Global publishing--- is a fairly new phenomenom that probably needs to go hand in hand with the first statement. I can globally publish anything--does that make it legitimate? What is the responsibility of the publisher and the global society to "police" the publishers? If I have the credibility and desire to publish, should that be a skill I have acquired as a K-12 student, or is that something I can learn as I have the need? Will the skill to do this make me a better wiriter, or is this just something nice to know?
This was fun to respond to. I don't have a lot of faith that large political units would take the step to be at the forefront of new communication skills. Let's continue to do what we believe is best for students based on what we and the students see as next steps.
Charley Brown
By Charles A. Brown on
5/14/2009
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Re: 3-point plan for 21st Century Writing
We are constantly hammered on integrating technology into education and now the new push is for this set of 21st century skills. I believe that the new standard should address this. It's a tough job to make it specific to include these things and yet general enough to allow individual interpretation and flexibility.
If students are not expected to be proficient in writing by the end of 8th grade then why are they expected to be proficient in technology? To me, if the technology is truly being integrated into the classroom the learning of the core subject and the technology should be ongoing and occur simultaneously. The new standards should reflect this and the state should tell the government to get bent over NCLB.
By Chris Rule on
5/21/2009
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