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"The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly. A young learner who is literate in the use of a tool, say a pencil for example, can use it to write, but does so haltingly because a great deal of focus is on the use of the tool. As time goes on, this learner will develop fluency with the use of the pen or pencil, or keyboard. No longer will it be an impediment, instead their thoughts and ideas flow directly to the paper. The use of the tool is transparent. This is the level of proficiency we will need to thrive in this digital landscape and is what we strive to develop in today's learners."

What are teachers doing to support online learning both locally and globally? When interacting and collaborating with others beyond the immediate classroom, what are expected protocols or norms of behavior, and what are the essential understandings needed to forge working relationships between learners? Julie Lindsay, an education leader in digital technology, online learning, and curriculum across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and author of the new book, The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching, explores. Please also join us on Twitter next Thursday, July 28, for a special #globaledchat with Julie Lindsay on her new book!

Essential aspects of incorporating digital citizenship in education. 

Essential aspects of incorporating digital citizenship in education.

"Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use"

Increasingly, students need to acquire the important skill of critical thinking. Content is growing exponentially on the web, and students are exposed to increasing amounts of erroneous material, misleading, biased or opinionated accounts and false research. During the last week I have been thinking about how teachers can address this issue. One of the new digital literacies students need to acquire is the ability to distinguish the good from the bad content. How do we instill these critical skills in our learners?

"Social media and online communication opportunities are important and can have a positive impact on all elements of the teaching and learning process, the school and learning community. We see teachers and other professionals creating networks to share ideas and resources, children and young people crowd source ideas and information. They seek and receive feedback on their work while parents engage more fully with teachers, their children and the school. Furthermore, even if we feel too old or too busy to engage with social media ourselves then we, as teachers, must still be able to model appropriate, safe and positive use of social technology for our learners and the wider learning community."

Alan Levine further refines his approach to searching for relevant images - excellent resource for all learners!

2nd in a series of papers from UNESCO on the skills and competencies needed for the 21st century learner

Unesco Paper on the changing nature of pedagogical practice for the 21st Century learner

I have added this resource as it is relevant to the identity of a learner. In some cases the mindset of a learner needs to be reset when talking about digital literacy.

What skills should teachers have to support 21st century learners? Here's a list.

Great tools and slide shows

Download this free poster sharing the ISTE student standards. 'I am a digital age learner'

very useful list

This is a digital book published in February ,2104. It is about the connected classroom and how to use it to engage students both locally and globally.

With due respect to Howard Gardner, there is not necessarily anything new here. Gardner's notion of synthesis is not far removed from Bloom and his concept of creativity follows the continuum set out by Cohen, with what appears to be references to Kaufmann's Four Cs of creativity. Certainly, the notion of lifelong learning is part of the character of the twenty-first century learner, while the need and process for evaluating information is at the core of information literacy. But this concept of synthesising and the effective evaluation and application of knowledge, is central to the teaching work of information leaders in the twenty-first century.

This is a blog entry report of a webinar in which the presenters discussed using technology to transform learning. "It empowers students to use the tool to access information and engage in the creation of a new product. Fisher emphasized the need to shift to student-centered work; the student is the producer rather than consumer. To make this happen learners need ample opportunities with authentic tasks in alternative instructional contexts." There are lots of suggestions for hardware and apps, with links to the ideas and resources discussed.

The concepts of digital citizenship and citizenship 2.0 are particularly relevant in the context of globalisation and the knowledge economy. The most recent technology standards for students published by ISTE enshrine a major category for digital citizenship (ISTE, 2007). "Digital citizenship" is now being dubbed as "citizen 2.0" and in the simplest terms it refers to the ability to participate in society online and to use technology appropriately. Digital citizenship represents capacity, belonging, and the potential for political and economic engagement in society in the information age (O‟Brien, 2008). Digital citizens practice conscientious use of technology, demonstrate responsible use of information, and maintain a positive attitude to learning with technology (ISTE 2007 cited in Richards, 2010). The affordances of the recent raft of web 2.0 technologies - sharing, collaborating, networking, customising and personalization enable new forms of civic participation which are changing existing social relations (Punie & Cabrera, 2006). Social communication technologies offer new channels for political engagement, contacting officials, and discussing issues. The network effects or benefits of bringing people together online exceed the satisfaction gained by individual participants - creating what economists call "positive externalities" or spill over benefits.