21st Century Learning: Continuous Innovations to Reach an Evolving Goal

For many of us, including myself, 21st century learning feels like nothing more than a natural progression as society continues to advance and evolve. Why shouldn’t it? These new technologies are meant to enhance our lifestyles and make certain tasks easier so we can divert more of our focus towards deeper levels of growth. Others, however, can feel that their way of thinking or doing things is being labeled as outdated or archaic. When that happens, it’s as if part of your core identity is being replaced. I did some research into the cornerstones of 21st century learning in the video below, but as I noticed that we are only a quarter of the way through this 21st century, who can say whether these will stay prevalent the closer we get to the year 2100.

My biggest takeaway from my research was finding out there is more to this new learning style other than just integrating technology. Prior to this, I would never have considered collaborative learning to be a new and rising system attached to 21st century learning. It definitely made me question whether I should familiarize myself more and try to implement it into my own practice. Conversely, I saw the concept of technological literacy from different viewpoints. It was amazing to see how differently others would define this style of learning based on their position and experiences. What intrigued me, however, was the response from Richard Allington (2010), who made the case that, in terms of literacy, there is no evidence through research that these modern technologies have as much effect on reading and writing compared to traditional books and libraries. In that regard, it would seem that to benefit from new technology, you cannot simply disregard previous innovations that have worked in the past.

References:

Allington, R. (2010, October 11). How do you define 21st century learning? Edweek.

How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? (edweek.org)

Banko, N. (2023, June 10). 21st Century learning video [Video]. YouTube.

https://youtu.be/U9y2CWHDzkw