In the face of noise, which is what this 21st century has brought, I struggle sometimes to know what is important, and what is fluff. To begin with, already sixteen years into this century, I wonder when we are going to stop referring to it as if it has just begun. The phrase itself puts the perspective of its user in the 20th century. The novelty of “partying like it’s 1999” with Prince has already passed; the millennium computer bug did not shut down all the computers; even the Mayan apocalypse did not end the world. So let’s just be here, now. A sociology class I once took mentioned that the culture of a new decade takes a few years to transition out of the last one. For instance, the culture of the 80’s didn’t really start until about 1983 when Madonna released her self-named album. The 20th century ended with AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” and that culture bled past the hysteria of Y2K into the blinding date of June 29, 2007 when the first iPhone was released. In 1965 Gordon Moore wrote an article for Electronics Magazine, where in talking about how computers would drive exponential change in the world, made a prediction, now referred to as Moore’s Law, “that the number of transistors (a computer’s electrical switches used to represent 0s and 1s) that can fit on a silicon chip will double every two years as technology advances.” (Sneed, 2015) That doubling of processor speed, feeds the barely controlled chaos of this 21st century. Deciding not to adapt to the new environment is as silly as not dressing for the weather outside: at best you’ll be uncomfortable. In my classroom I have a guiding poster, to which I refer throughout the year when I feel an individual student or group member has demonstrated good modeling, or needs to shore up their focus in the following areas: C4 21st Century Skills
Having spent so much time thinking about situations CEO’s and managers described in Wagner’s (2014) book about the needs they had of their employees; about how the structure of the workplace with so many fewer middle managers put more stress for seamless teamwork and resourcefulness on workers, it would be irresponsible of me not to allow my students to develop those seven survival skills. As an adult in the work world, I don’t like to think about survival skills, because that qualification suggests coping as opposed to living well. I prefer to practice life skills outlined alongside Wagner’s as follows: Dr. Sam Chu of the University of Hong, in a presentation grouped my C4 skills as “Learning and Innovation Skills”; my Seven Life Skills, would fall under his categorization of “Life and Career skills.” The person I need to trust the most is myself -- if I say I am going to do something, I need to follow through. Doing so, makes me more confident of decisions I make about my future, and that translates into confidence and calm. From here, I can make promises to others, gradually expanding my circle of trust to family, friends, and coworkers. This is contagious. Simon Sinek says in his TED Talk on NPR, that leaders go first, showing empathy for others by putting their own safety at risk for the good of the group. In so doing, safety builds trust, and that allows the group members to take risks. My second skill of being careful with my words leads me to be kind to myself first, recognizing that self-deprecating comments give others permission to be disparaging to you. That it’s okay to criticize behavior, but important to respect the person. Each person comes at life from their own perspective; even within a family people perceive the same situation differently. With that understanding, a person’s idea of you has more to do with them than you, so don’t take it personally and move through the moment quickly, because there’s a lot of work to be done. Asking good questions allows you the best information upon which to decide what the next best thing is to do. My commitment to staying connected implies not only to social media, but to the friends with differing opinions, especially those in older and younger generations. The former have experiences that can save a lot of pain and time, and the latter new ideas that challenge the status quo and move things forward. Paying attention takes energy and focus, but is essential to feeling alive and purposeful. It also allows you as Wagner (2014) talks about in his “critical thinking” piece, to consider cause and effect -- what is the root cause of this problem? How can we not only solve it, but avoid getting back to this place? A little doubt, or skepticism is important to slow things down a bit, and reserve a little space to question what you’re hearing. Is it credible, or meaningful, or just a new version of the same old thing? My seventh skill, is so simple and just as easily overlooked. Always try your best. A college professor once mentioned that in the United States, if you are able to be just better than mediocre, all choices open up to you. If you’re going to do it, why not do it well? Dr. Chu (2012) further develops a third grouping: “Information Media and Technology Skills.” This, I imagine, would be the umbrella under which social media and internet functioning falls. The truth is that this is the realm under which students operate; not being aware of how they relate to one another, and information in general is naive, and misses a huge opportunity to engage them. Our Common Core English grades 4 - 12 standards use the same tag line with each grade, “include … multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.” It’s useful to note that multimedia is not asked to accompany final products for its own sake, but the author is asked to use judgement to include it when helping the piece make more sense. In full, the 21st century is already here, and culturally has been very present since the iPhone was introduced, fundamentally changing how the world flows, by putting a computer in our pockets. The device not only puts an unquantifiable amount of information at your fingertips, but speeds up an exchange of ideas, and ways of personal expression. If you are a 13 to 20, part of the Gen Z crowd, then if you agree with me emphatically, you won’t say Amen! Or Hell Yeah!, you’d simple wryly say, and I’m not making this up, @me! Pay attention, or get left behind. References Sneed, Annie (2015). Defying Expectations, Scientific American. Retrieved June 20, 2016 from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/moore-s-law-keeps-going-defying-expectations/ Ruiz, Miguel (2010). The Fifth Agreement. Amber-Allen Publishing Wagner, Tony (2014-03-11). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need —and What We Can Do About It. Basic Books. Kindle Edition. Sinek, Simon (20160. How do you get your coworkers to trust you? NPR TED Radio Hour. Retrieved June 16, 2016 from: http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/406238794/trust-and-consequences?showDate=2016-06-17 Chu, Dr. Sam (2012). Developing students’ 21st century skills: inquiry learning through collaborative teaching and social media. Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. Retrieved June 16, 2016 from: http://www2.infowi.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/Information_Literacy/Material/slides_chu.pdf
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