I just started reading, Literacy Is Not Enough, by Lee Crockett, Ian Jukes and Andrew Churches. Great book!
The book focuses on 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age. The authors contend that “learners must become discerning and creative consumers of information.”
What are the skills learners need?
- Cognitive Intelligence –rational higher-order thinking skills including how to manage, interpret, validate, transform, communicate and act on information.
- Emotional Intelligence – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
- Assessing Learning – real learning is more than just standardized tests.
In the first Chapter of the book, the authors outline 5 Fundamental Changes that need to occur in education today.
- Acknowledge the new digital landscape. “Transforming education is about developing the full spectrum of cognitive and emotional intelligences that are increasingly required in our 21st-century culture. (4)
- Provide guidance as well as access. “To understand the new digital landscape – to leverage our students’ world – we must be willing to immerse ourselves in that world and embrace the new digital reality. If we can’t relate, we don’t “get it,” we won’t be able to make schools relevant to the current and future needs of the digital generation.
- Change minds. We have to acknowledge the new digital landscape has brought about a change in the way our students not only think but how they learn. As educators, we need to accept this so that we can begin to rethink learning, learning environments and assessment.
- Teach the Whole Learner. Standardized tests measure information recall. Taking the whole learner into consideration, assessment should include portfolios, demonstrations of learning, and the application of theories to real-world problems.
- Emphasize relevancy and connections. We have to better connect instruction in school to what is going on in the world outside the classroom.
And that is just the first chapter!!
I found this post by Wesley Fryer that has great information from an earlier presentation by one of the book’s authors.
Literacy Is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluency for the Digital Age by Ian Jukes