Reflecting on Technological Integration and 21st Century Literacy Skills

One of the most important goals of education has always been to promote literacy in our students. In the past, this consisted of being able to read, write, and understand written text. Today, however, literacy is much more complicated then being able to read and write and includes technological skills that are essential to compete and succeed in today's global economy.

I was first specifically introduced to this concept when I read the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. In this book, Friedman focuses on the impact that technology has had on today's world and spends a considerable amount of time is spent detailing the way our educational system needs to reflect these changes. I read this book about two years ago and it is one of the reasons that I chose this program for my Master's Degree. I realized quickly that the integration of technology into the classroom was becoming increasingly relevant and important for today's students and I wanted to take steps to ensure I was fully capable of succeeding in doing this.

One aspect of this course that impacted me considerably was the material regarding the importance of teaching our students the need and importance of referencing sources and giving credit to those that are deserving of it. After the section of this course that focused on this topic I realized that most of the students I interact with daily do not take referencing very seriously. They may do it with minimal effort but they don't truly appreciate the necessity for the practice. This is definitely one thing that I want to focus on in my classroom. I want to get my students to appreciate the practice, understand its' importance, and make it become second nature to give credit where it is due. This is one of the most important characteristics of 21st century literacy and I believe it is often overlooked in secondary education.

The next practice that was highlighted in this course is the importance of evaluating the legitimacy of websites and information located on the internet. Students typically assume that any information they find on the internet is accurate and reliable and this is definitely untrue. One practice that I will always use in my classroom is to search for and show my students highly inaccurate websites on the internet to demonstrate that a lot of information you can find on the internet is in fact false and inaccurate. Getting students to understand that websites designed to mislead you exist is the first step in getting them to understand the importance of evaluating the legitimacy of websites on the internet.

Personally, my one goal as a social studies teacher is to incorporate the strategies and tools I learned of in this course into my classroom seamlessly. Although I believe that 21st century literacy skills go hand-in-hand with social studies, I want to ensure that I make a dedicated effort to incorporate these types of tools into my course material. Therefore, I want to ensure that at least 1 time a grading period, an assignment is conducted in my class that uses 21st century learning skills to complete an assignment. I do not want to limit myself to just 4 of these types of assignments but I do want to place a minimum at 4 21st Century Learning Skill assignments per school year to ensure that I am incorporating these ideas and strategies into my classroom.