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This article discusses research that has been done regarding the needs of people to obtain media and information literacy skills in order to better many of their experiences in 21st century society. The article states that "knowing how to search for, analyze, and interpret information is a skill that will be used for more than just writing a good research paper: People use media literacy skills for applying for jobs online, getting relevant health information, and sifting through online educational opportunities, for example." Ten recommendations for developing stronger media and information literacy skills are given in the article. Legislative efforts from the federal government to provide funding in support of programs that help to develop these 21st century skills are also discussed.

This article suggests how to use Web 2.0 tools to assess students in the digital age. The article has many useful links. I wish that the examples of the actual rubrics were larger. Overall, I found the article to quite helpful.

How do we assess students' learning in these in Web 2.0 environments? We want to go beyond assessing the mere mechanics of using these tools; unfortunately, most current rubrics for Web 2.0 learning devote only a minuscule amount (usually 16% or less) to actual student academic learning.

This article is about standards-based learning and 21st century skills. How to improve student learning through teacher's decisions and technology. He has a excellent list of rubrics Web 2.0 tools. Some examples "rubrics" are......Wiki/Blog, Images/Photo/Flickr, Video/YouTube,Podcast, Social Bookmarking, Twitter, Videoconferencing, General Assessment: Prensky's 21st century skills, General Assessment: enGauge's 21st century skills, General Assessment: Partnership for 21st century skills. I really liked the links and rubrics and found them very helpful. However the rubrics were small and a little hard to read.

I found this video on Twitter tonight thanks to David Walker (@drdjwalker) who re-tweeted the video from The Partnership of 21st Century Skills. The video is called "Above and Beyond: the story of the 4Cs". Enjoy "In an increasingly complex, demanding and competitive 21st century, students need to learn more than the 3R's they are tested on in school. Although the 3R's are the foundation of learning (most especially reading), students must be prepared to Think Creatively and have Intellectual Curiosity in order to excel in the 21st century.

Oh, what fun! This video is a great tool to share with students. It's simplicity is a delight. The notion is that we all have different talents and skills we can bring to collaborative projects. We need to encourage students to take the time to share their creative ideas together; plan, explore, negotiate, compromise and problem solve together. My fifth and sixth graders will enjoy this video.

This video is fun, interesting and great for students to see. It stresses the collaborative nature of projects and how much more we can do together rather than alone. It reminds me of Odyssey of the Mind type projects, and I will definitely show this to my Advisory. I think they will find it interesting and funny, but more than that it can jump start a discussion about the creative power of collaboration. It also makes me think that it will demonstrate to students that diversity of ideas is powerful.

A great summary of how and why web2.0 technology supports 21st century skills and  and the future of learning.

This truly is a great summary of 21st century direction. Teaching and learning will consist of digital delivery, it will be interest driven, and Web 2.0 skills will be the focus. I believe that this trend is very accurate and that this shift will, ultimately, improve the motivation for learning of our students. I think the drawback is the teachers who do not wish or are not willing to make the shift. I believe the future of education is exhilarating!

Blog post by Ken Kay of EdLeader21 outlining strategies for administrators to assist teachers in implementing 21st century skills (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) into classroom practices .

This article discusses a report published by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and the Meteiri Group entitled "enGauge 21st Century Skills: Literacy in the Digital Age" . The brief outlines the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century, but also reinforces the fact that Digital Age literacy is grounded in the traditional 3R's.

As we are creating new opportunities for students to develop their 21st century skills, it is important to stay current wit rigorous and relevant assessments for real world work.  This blog speaks to this issue

Top education iPAD apps organized according to Bloom's Taxonomy and 21st Century Skills.

1. Digital Delivery 2. Interest Driven 3. 21st Century Skills Thin article, but good conversation starter. Ideal for use in a text-based protocol.

Effective 21st century assessment reaches beyond traditional testing to look at the broader accomplishments of learners. Assembling an e-portfolio, or electronic portfolio, is an excellent method for assessing students' progress toward school, state, or national academic standards, as well as 21st century skills. An electronic portfolio is a purposefully limited collection of student selected work over time that documents progress toward meeting the standards.

Eporfolios would be great for the current teacher to view the strengths and weaknesses of their students. I can find the grade my students received last year but since each teacher grades so differently it really does not give much information.

A discussion of e-portfolios and their use as assessment.

Great 21st century skills oriented wiki.

One of a series of posts on different types of internet based tools and their use in education; backchannels engage students who otherwise might not contribute, evens the playing field; students ask questions on the fly without interrupting; gives teacher feedback on the level of understanding or confusion in the class; does not recommend twitter for classroom alternative backchannels teacher can manage ; It will improve writing and a student's ability to articulate themselves quickly using text. Students must have Effective Digital Communication Skills in order to be successful in the 21st century. One digital communication skill that is needed is to have the ability to articulate quickly and succinctly using text.

This app lets kids access purchased databases and will also let users know available sources within 10 miles of there location. I think this app has the potential of combining 21st century informational literacy skills with "classic" literacy skill.

Students with the "Access My Library School Edition" app for their iPhone can search for their school library, enter a password and then access the Gale Databases . WPS has free access to the Gale Databases through the Massachusetts Library System. It is available online from the school computer network or online. See your school librarian for details.

An Iphone Ap for kids to let them access online data held in a library within 10 miles radius of them.

An interesting look at an "objective" method of assessing student work. Rather than looking at the Web 2.0 tool, this looks at the level of Bloom achieved and the amount of time spent.

Starting in 2013 VA will require all students to take some sort of online course in order to graduate. Taking online courses requires higher order thinking for students and teaches them valuable 21st century skills like collaboration, independence, communication and digital literacy.

Many educators are looking for more outside the box methods to learning and understanding. Many teachers have tried implementing more technology inside the classroom or tried to create a more blended classroom. This article shows another method of instruction that brings higher order of thinking and that is using games to differentiate instruction. Our students have been playing games since they were no more than 2 years old. Why not implement a learning method that they are already accustomed to. This has transformed classroom learning into a more interactive learning style that has shown great success. The articles talks about the importance of moving your lessons to the students strengths so why not lean them towards what they know best? Using games for higher learning is no different then a classroom review. It is no different then a quiz. The only difference is that it is more interactive and it is electronic. This style of high order thinking or critical thinking creates a learning environment that is geared to challenge the students in a way that they want to be challenged.

This article gives a great description of flipped classrooms and how a flipped classroom will expand on media and 21st century learning skills in the classroom and outside of the classroom. It develops a sense of the changing paradigm of the typical sage on the stage teacher and creating the digital literate classroom.

This article provides an overview of Glogster, tips for teachers in using Gloster and links to tutorials for using Glogster in the classroom.

An article about a multi-school blog collaborative class