Running head: 21ST CENTURY LEARNER SKILLS 1

21st Century Learner Skills

Renée Jackson

Georgia Southern University

FRIT 7136
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21 Century Learner Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss what the skills required of the 21st Century learners are

and some of the strategies on how information literacy can be taught. Information and opinions

from The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards for the 21st-Century

Learner, various articles, teacher and media specialist interviews, and relevant blogs have been

taken into consideration when forming the conclusions of this paper. The main question to be

answered is what are 21st Century skills, and how can we help the digital generation master

them? AASL defines the skills for 21st century learning as inquiry-based. They require students

to be able to locate, evaluate, synthesize, collaborate and communicate all formats of

information. Multiple literacy skills are necessary to turn the learner into a productive and

successful global citizen. The research concludes that most educators are aware of these skills,

and many have been working on ways to teach these vital skills.
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21st Century Learner Skills

It is widely acknowledged that today’s K-12 students are a different set of learners. They

are the first generation to be completely immersed in technology in both their academic and

personal lives. These students are digital learners and as educators we need to address a different

set of skills to allow students to become successful and productive global citizens. Students of

the millennial need inquiry-based learning skills (Loertscher, 2008). It is important that we build

on their prior knowledge to teach them how to use their course content and technology to be

successful now and in the future.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in Standards for the 21st-

Century Learner says, “…learners must develop the skills of multiple literacies (print, digital,

media, visual) to determine the intended meaning and to understand it in context” (2009, p.17).

Today’s learners must be able to discern what information is valid and what information may be

incorrect. They need to be able to discard irrelevant information and tell the difference between

fact and opinion. It was not too surprising when Teacher A responded that her third grade

students were “quick to input invalid information while researching” (personal communication,

September 21, 2009). It was however a surprise that when asked if her eighth grade students

could tell the difference between relevant and irrelevant information Teacher B replied, “No,

they want the information right then” (personal communication, September 21, 2009). She also

indicated that some of her students could not differentiate between fact and opinion (personal

communication, September 21, 2009). With such an increasingly rapid flow of information in

many formats, especially images, students today must be taught how to evaluate all forms of

literacy for content and quality (Regan, 2008).

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It is important that we build on the prior knowledge of the twenty-first century learner to

teach them how to use their course content and technology to be critical and creative thinkers.

They need to be able to take the information they have accumulated from various sources and

process it with their prior knowledge to form new ideas and questions, withdraw needed

information, and come to a conclusion. This is an important skill that all millennial learners need

to perfect. Media Specialist B agreed saying, “I feel that students are digital natives so they

usually know how to use the technology so we need to teach them critical evaluation skills that

they can use to find the most appropriate information for whatever they are researching”

(personal communication, September 28, 2009). With the information technology available to

students today, they can research a problem, assemble data, experiment, and analyze the results

using techniques that are used in real world research situations (Regan, 2008). Students need to

have the critical thinking skills in order to do this and these skills need to be integrated into the

content of all subjects. Media Specialist A said, “Students need to learn how to tread through and

decipher this information. Again, they need to be able to think independently to do this, they

can’t just accept as gospel the first batch of information they come across. Thankfully, we do

have students that are truly interested in what they are working on and who are willing to

question, probe, discuss and keep at it until they have formed their own opinion or idea about

their topic” (personal communication, September 28, 2009). Research projects using “questions

of import” (McKenzie, 2008) rather than just assigning a topic can help challenge students to

develop the skill of evaluation.

Another critical part to the skills of the twenty-first century learner is the ability to

collaborate and communicate their ideas to others as well as learn from them. Social learning

skills are crucial for working with others and finding a place as a global citizen (Regan, 2008).
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As the 2007 video by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, Did You Know 2.0, available on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U, points out the world is rapidly changing to a

much different place and this presents many challenges in education. Using social networking

skills supported by web 2.0 technology creates a world open to a diverse and global community

that will be the twenty-first century learner’s workplace. Along these lines Media Specialist A

said, “Students need access to as much information as possible. We can’t expect them to be

world thinkers and world changers if they are limited in the materials and resources they have

available to them” (personal communication, September 28, 2009). By using the web 2.0

technologies, students can share their thoughts, projects and results of experimentation and

research with other students as well as experts in their content field (Regan, 2008). These

communication and collaboration skills must be taught within the content of all classrooms and

not seen as add-ons to the curriculum. The communication aspect of the twenty-first century

skills can produce active learners. By providing students access to multimedia technologies, and

allowing them to post their work on the internet, everyday learning experiences can become the

opportunities to grow globally. According to Regan (2008), “No matter what field students go

into, their skills in collaborating will be significant factors in their success.”

The new AASL Standards for the twenty-first century learning is an approach that helps

learners formulate their own understandings and apply them to any learning activity. These

skills can be incorporated into any content subject by direct instruction, modeling, student

application, and self-reflection. School Media Specialists need to have a plan to help students

master these twenty-first century skills. Teacher C said, “I think the media specialist should be

fluent in the twenty-first century technologies. They can facilitate and guide students in their

own learning about media technology such as podcasts, discussion boards, wikis, etc.” (personal
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communication, October 21, 2009). There are also many helpful websites to help learners

practice their literacy skills. To help improve information skills students could use FactCheckEd

(http://www.factchecked.org). This site can help students to learn critical thinking, and how to

evaluate and use information found on web resources (Troutner, 2009).

By providing some practice on one of the skills in every content area each day, we can

have help students master and correctly apply these understandings. Doug Johnson (2009)

wrote on his Blue Skunk blog, “We too often think of information problem-solving in the context

of huge projects or term papers, when most of us in both our work and personal lives use

information problem-solving skills everyday.” He suggested using tasks such as checking the

weather for the following day on the internet, e-mailing a discussion question, or researching an

author would be simple but meaningful literacy practice for students (2009). Other simple ways

to incorporate information problem-solving tasks would be to use a blog to discuss books, use

Google maps to locate bodies of water, or to use Google Calendar to combine multiple schedules

into one interface for a whole class or school (Cunningham & Gonzalez, 2009).

Podcasting makes the retrieval of information convenient, simple and plays on the

instinctual skill of listening. While research shows that in the past podcasting has been used in

creating materials by teachers or by using existing materials in lessons (Hew, 2009), a new way

to include complex literacy into practice would be a proofreading exercise using a combination

of a blog and a podcast (Davis & McGrail, 2009). Students write a blog, and their teacher makes

a podcast of the blog. Students follow along and read their blog silently as they listen to the

teacher’s podcast. The recording allows the student to hear how others react to their writing by

hearing how easy it is for someone else to read what they have written, and are therefore better

able to revise their work to be clear, concise, and better able to communicate their true meaning.
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Revision becomes more about making their true meaning understood by others than just about

checking for spelling and punctuation errors.

Another great example is a lesson by Erin E. Hubbard (Hubbard, 2009), a high school

English teacher in Virginia, who teamed with the school media specialist to create a lesson that

included inquiry, critical thinking, and gaining knowledge by creating a learning challenge using

mythology. They gave students the task of teaching a myth to the class but the twist was that

students had to make it relevant to the twenty-first century. The teacher gave a brief overview of

myths, the media specialist gave the students a presentation on specific resources to use with

their research, evaluation of websites and other resources, and modeled using search engines.

The media specialist also provided a bookmarking site for the class and gave them information

on plagiarism. The students then researched, validated and compiled their research into media

presentations using various technologies. During the research and assimilating processes,

students collaborated and worked together. Following their presentations, the students did a

reflection on their projects. This project is a great example of incorporating the twenty-first

century skills in a learning experience in a content area that resulted in an authentic product.

The conclusion of this paper is that twenty-first century skills are not altogether new,

successful people have always needed to be creative and critical thinkers that are able to find and

evaluate information, and communicate their ideas and thoughts. The way in which today’s

students will be using those skills are new. These skills just need to be adapted and taught in a

new way to accommodate the digital learner. Using technology to gather information, solve

problems, and communicate comes naturally to the millennial generation. Educators just need to

find innovative ways to incorporate the twenty-first century skills into everyday learning. Media

Specialists can play a major role in doing this. As Media Specialist A suggested, “Offer to
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provide mini lessons that support what classroom teachers are doing or provide collaborative

lessons with teachers to focus on these skills. I find that there are lots of teachable moments

when students come in looking for a particular book or resource” (personal communication,

September 28, 2009). It is as easy as being aware of the skills these learners need to learn and

taking every opportunity to teach them.

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References

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Standards for the 21st-century learner in
action. Chicago, IL: American Association of School Librarians.

Considine, D., Horton, J., & Moorman, G. (2009, March). Teaching and reading the millennial
generation through media literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(6), 471-
481. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Cunningham, J., & Gonzalez, L. (2009, June). Collaboration: the library media center and
educational technology. Teacher Librarian, 36(5), 33-35. Retrieved September 23, 2009,
from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

Davis, A., & McGrail, E. (2009, March). Proof-revising with podcasting: Keeping readers in
mind as students listen to and rethink their writing. Reading Teacher, 62(6), 522-529.
Retrieved September 24, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Fisch, K., & McLeod, S. (2007, June). Did you know 2.0. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Hew, K. (2009, June). Use of audio podcast in K-12 and higher education: A review of research
topics and methodologies. Educational Technology Research & Development, 57(3),
333-357. Retrieved September 24, 2009, doi:10.1007/s11423-008-9108-3

Hubbard, E. (2009, March). Debunking the myth-tery: How the new AASL standards unplugged
mythology. Library Media Connection, 27(5), 14-16. Retrieved September 16, 2009,
from Academic Search Complete database.

Johnson, D. (2009, June). Research: smaller tasks, more often. Message posted to http://doug-
johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/6/1/research-smaller-tasks-more-
often.html

Loertscher, D. (2008, June). Information literacy: 20 years later. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 42-
43. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

McKenzie, J. (2008, September). Beyond cut-and-paste: Engaging students in wrestling with

questions of import. From Now On, 18(1), Retrieved October 1, 2009 from
http://fno.org/sept08/cut.html

Regan, B. (2008, July). Why we need to teach 21st century skills--and how to do it. MultiMedia
& Internet@Schools, 15(4), 10-13. Retrieved September 26, 2009, from Academic Search
Complete database.

Troutner, J. (2009, February). drill and skill web sites to share. Teacher Librarian, 36(3), 44-46.
Retrieved September 1, 2009, from Library, Information Science & Technology
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