Educators Expectation for the 21st Century Learners

Looking for 21st Century Educators

Today I want you to reflect on your role as a 21^st Century educator we are immersed in and why it is important that you consider updating your classes to meet the needs of the learners. Time has passed and humans have evolved marking a new trend in technology, interaction, communication, creation and information access. You know it because you live it constantly when being in the classroom. The setting is totally different from when we were students. No more limited information from books, magazines or other hard copy sources, when now we have different Internet browsers filled with zillions of informational pages available at the tip of our fingers. No more one set of slow and old technology devices for the entire classroom with limited time use, when now the classes are filled with different devices from laptops, ipad’s, headphones, cell phones, etc. from the students or provided by schools to teachers and students. No more traditional education, where the teacher limits the creativity of the students to one single point of view. This learning scenario is something we can’t stop, but it is important for you to reflect on the different components that provide a quality education in this 21^st Century learning era.That is why educators play an essential position in the classroom and need to renovate old teaching practices into a guiding role of facilitators or mentors to enhance the process of inquiry, analysis, reflection and interpretation of knowledge. Teachers must adapt their learning units to different learning strategies and class dynamics, include in all lesson plans differentiation tasks and drift these to real problems to achieve learning by practice and apprenticeship method.

Technology is an essential key of the 21^st century learner and you know it. We are part of it even though we are not the digital natives and we must cope up with it. As an educator, you need to decide within the objectives and course alignments of the units, to enhance learning with technology and if not required to use other learning strategies to provide the students with learning skills and tools for their future. Another issue is the quality of education that is now geared to collaboration of peers and teachers for the creation and sharing of knowledge. Therefore we need to provide individual and group dynamics learning centers to cover all learning needs to offer tools and skills for the future. Students will be able to outline their own trail of learning inquiry by using different sources: teachers, hard copy sources, online sources and their peers and we must abandon the age of memorization and information ownership. As educators we need to provoke an ongoing learning process where the students are given different tools and learning techniques to enhance their knowledge and to share their expertise to their community.

If you think about it, I am sure you are already immersed in this change or in the process. What we should be worrying today is about guiding our students on a positive digital citizenship when being on the net. The expansion of the net has created new problems of accessing, communication and creation that we need to face. According to Dr. William Ranking’s ACU video, he reflects on the cycle of technology, highlighting what we have being living today in this technology era with a transition. In which humans can solve a problem by creating and adapting new technologies, being successful on these, and how new problems arise with the change in culture by these, that leads societies to a stage of destabilization by threatening the existing culture.

It sounds too familiar don’t you think? We should stand close to our students to keep on guiding them and understanding the new learning needs of this 21^st Century experience. So be ready and update your classes to meet their expectations!

Assignment 7 #EDC601