Education for the 21st century the basics

This article talks about how to teach students of the 21st century. It focuses on the elements of 21st century learning. “The elements include focusing on the core subjects, the areas identified in NCLB legislation; 21st century content, the emerging content areas such as: global awareness; financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; and health/wellness awareness”. The article goes on to explain that students are partly shaped by their environment, which is, “media rich, immediate, fast, engaging, dynamic and instant. It is electronic and digital, a communication medium implying instant gratification”. Therefore as teachers we must change the way we teach to fit their needs.

The ideas in this article sounded awfully familiar to me since the author discussed how to teach digital natives. Given that we have covered this topic before, the article did not hold my interest at all, and to be bluntly honest I wanted to stop reading after the 2nd page. Obviously children of the 21st century need to be taught differently than children 100 years ago. Because there is more technology, students are used to quick results, thus teachers need to adapt their teaching styles to better meet their learners needs.