While many core skills haven’t changed, some are becoming more critical, and other skills are new for the 21st century. The world has been changing, in two discontinuous ways, since the early 1990s:

1. The world is more connected, flatter, and moving faster.
   Technology evolution, a maturing world economy, dynamic teaming and collaboration. Windows of opportunity are getting smaller as news flows faster. Reaction time is a critical differentiator.
2. Information is growing rapidly – and all can contribute.
   Information is exploding – but some is accurate, some is not, some are opinions, some are lies, some are personal expressions. Information in the new world is not static – it is interactive and dynamic.

So based on these changes, what are the new and growing skills required in the 21st century? For the benefit of my own school district – and anyone trying to get their arms around the fundamentals – I’ve narrowed the list to seven key skills:

Technology Skills

1. Information Literacy: Navigating, interpreting and effectively using the explosion of information available to us is critical in the 21st century.
2. Media Literacy: IM streams, blogs, streaming video, web conferences – information is being channeled through ever-changing media. The ability to navigate and interpret those media in context, as well as the ability to use those media effectively to communicate are critical skills.
3. Information Technology Literacy: The tools that we use to create or access media that contain information are constantly evolving. Understanding exactly which tools to use, and when, in a constantly evolving tools environment is a critical skill.

People Skills

1. Global Literacy: The world is more connected, and insularity is not an option. Awareness, social and cross-cultural skills are valuable.
2. Flexibility & Adaptability: The world has always been changing, but change happens – and is communicated – faster. Agility is critical in the 21st century.
3. High-Level Knowledge Skills: In a flat world, lower-level skills are a commodity. Critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity and innovation are valuable.
4. Communication & Collaboration: A connected world requires better communication skills, and the ability to dynamically team to accomplish tasks.

Want to dive deeper? I’d recommend the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. And my colleague Daryl Plummer’s post on 20th century thinking. And, of course, my own thoughts on the impact of the web, social software and cloud computing on education. Good luck, and I’d love comments!

My committee has finalized a vision for our school district’s technology plan. This was an effort of about 15 people representing district staff, members of our Board of Education, teachers, students, parents, and a token technology industry analyst. I’d love feedback and comments. Let me also share some of the thinking behind the vision (some of the background pre-discussion is here).

Our school district recognizes that technology is vital to prepare students for lifelong learning and workforce readiness. We will:

• Integrate curriculum and technology to inspire a collaborative learning community that can effectively find, evaluate, use, and create content.
• Identify and utilize existing, emerging, and cost-efficient technologies that enhance learning.
• Promote the safe and ethical use of technology.
• Ensure equitable access to technology.
• Provide professional development and technologies necessary to deliver the curriculum, to communicate, and to access, manage, and evaluate student-related information.

We fundamentally changed our view of technology compared to the previous technology plan vision. Previously, technology was considered a tool used to help educate students. Now, we consider technology an integral part of student and professional life – not just “tools”, but actually a change agent that is shaping our culture and our way of life. The education system needs to take an active role in helping shape student access, understanding, and use of technology as a part of their lifelong learning.

There were five specific elements to this vision:

Integrating Technology and Curriculum: Integrate curriculum and technology to inspire a collaborative learning community that can effectively find, evaluate, use, and create content.

We put a lot in one bullet – this bullet encompasses the 21st century skills that we identified:

• Using technologies to safely filter and find content in order to achieve our personal or professional goals.
• Using technologies to create, communicate, collaborate, express oneself, and influence others.
• Using technologies to safely filter and find people who can help us achieve our personal or professional goals.
• Dynamic teaming and very interactive collaboration.

And we tied the need to focus on these skills with the need to integrate technology completely into the educational curriculum.

We also purposefully used the term “learning community”. This implicitly includes staff, students, and the student’s families. We felt that while the school district is not responsible for educating our entire community at large, we did feel that parents in particular need to understand and be engaged in the program in order to effectively educate students. 

Staying Up-To-Date on Technology: Identify and utilize existing, emerging, and cost-efficient technologies that enhance learning.

In addition to making good choices about well-known and existing technologies, we wanted to include a forward-looking element in the vision. Technology is changing rapidly, and our students are usually among leading-edge users. The school system needs to stay on top of that. Also, the fundamental capital expense equation is changing, as technologies follow the commoditization curve, and as software as a service and cloud computing create new paradigms (e.g., email services, editing services, collaboration tools).

Safe and Ethical Use: Promote the safe and ethical use of technology.

If the school system is going to be more more leading-edge and proactive in using online technologies, it is even more important that the school system take an active role in educating safe and ethical use of technologies. Often, school systems abdicate their potential role here, and instead focus on limiting access to the web. It is more valuable to provide students with the education to make good decisions themselves.

Equitable Access: Ensure equitable access to technology.

This will be a huge challenge. One goal might be to provide one access device or laptop to every student. But is that necessary? Many students already have a laptop, a home computer, an Ipod with wi-fi access, a cell phone with web access. Very similar to consumerization taking place in the workplace, can we take advantage of that fact, and focus on filling in the gaps? Identify students who don’t have access, and provide them with the tools they need? How we fulfill this vision is still to be determined, but there are several possibilities worth trying. For example, our high school students are required to purchase a relatively high-end calculator. A low-end laptop costs only slightly more. Can the school system provide low-end laptops at a lower price – and require high school students to either supply their own or purchase ours? Ensuring equitable access is critical – however, it is important not to drive equality to the least common denominator – more important to bring up those with the least! 

Tools and Training for Staff: Provide professional development and technologies necessary to deliver the curriculum, to communicate, and to access, manage, and evaluate student-related information.

This element is aimed more at the technologies used by the school district to manage, evaluate and communicate information such as grades, trends, etc.

We would love comments and feedback.

Technology plans are usually three year plans, including a vision and strategic action items. The reason these were important in the past was to feed into the capital investment plan for a district – because technology usually meant buying a lot of hardware and software. It was usually sufficient to use the vision and perhaps incrementally change the action plans from three years ago. In fact, I’ve read a number of “current” technology plans (including the one for my state) that could have been written in 1990. They simply don’t get the significance of the web and cloud computing on technology purchases, technology use, and how and what we teach.

Here are my thoughts on three fundamentally new impacts that must be factored into our educational system:

Low-Cost and Free Technology: There has been a huge growth in low-cost and free technology for social interaction, publishing, collaborating, editing, content creation, computing, etc.

Many, many technologies that were previously expensive or unavailable are now becoming free to anyone with a web browser. This is true for web sites, blogs, video sharing, music sharing, social sharing, collaboration software, editing/presentation and publishing, computing platforms in the “cloud”, etc. Our students are already using many of these technologies in their personal lives. In the professional world, the trend of discovering and using technologies in your personal life, and then bringing it into your professional life is called “consumerization”. Our education system should take advantage of this same trend, which will both enrich our student’s technology-enabled education, and importantly, reduce our budget impact.

The need for hardware and software isn’t being eliminated, but it is shifting from being on-premises to being in the cloud. All that is needed is a cheap access device and a web browser, broadband in the schools, perhaps wireless hotspots. While equitable access to technology is clearly important, more and more students already have some kind of access device – a laptop, an Ipod. The district needs to fill the gaps, not replace existing access devices.

Potential vision statement: The district will identify and leverage emerging technologies that are cost-effective, and strive for the broadest feasible and equitable access to technology for students and staff.

Content Growth: The amount of content (art, expression, opinions, true and false information of all forms) is growing at an exponential rate, available to a broad audience, and anyone can contribute.

Content has traditionally come from limited, relatively “known” channels – textbooks, encyclopedias, newspapers, television. Most content now comes from relatively “unknown” sources through the web. Content can be true, partially true, or false. Content can be enriching or unsafe and debasing. There is more of all of the above available to us instantaneously. The ability to use rapidly changing and evolving technologies to safely filter and find content in order to achieve our personal or professional goals is a critical 21st century skill.

But the web is not simply a less-trustworthy encyclopedia – it is also a place to publish and interact with content. Content creation has traditionally been very personal during the K-12 years, and content produced then has often had a very short lifespan. Publishing text, images, films, art, and opinions has been limited to a small audience, and publishing tools were very limited. The scope of a student’s influence was traditionally limited to a class, a school, possibly a small community. Information and content have traditionally been relatively static things, created once and rarely if ever changed. The reuse of existing content was allowed if referenced, but over-use was plagiarism and is strictly prohibited.

This is no longer true. Anyone can create content that is available to the world instantly, and can last for many years – possibly “forever”. Content can be constantly evolving through collaboration and interaction and updates. People don’t just refer to information, or just copy it, they interact with it. They modify it, they add to it – and this is to be encouraged. Tools for publishing, creating, interacting with content are changing every year. Individuals of any age can influence opinions worldwide. It is becoming easier to contribute individually and collaboratively to the art, information and opinions in the world, express ourselves both individually and collaboratively, and influence and lead. The ability to use rapidly changing and evolving technologies to create, communicate, collaborate, express one’s self, and influence others is a critical 21st century skill.

Potential vision statement: The district will help students and staff leverage technologies to effectively, safely and ethically find, evaluate, use, and add to online content.

Collaboration: Technology is rapidly improving the ability to communicate and collaborate with others.

Connecting with people has traditionally been in-person or by telephone, and teams are formed and work face-to-face. The people who connect already know each other. Social tools start as personal tools, but are more and more rapidly moving from the personal to the professional world. It is becoming easier to find and connect with anyone in many new and expanding ways: mobile phones, email, instant messaging, social and collaborative software, blogs. Other people can be safe or dangerous, helpful or not, enlightening or degrading, synergistic and collaborative or not. The ability to use rapidly changing and evolving technologies to safely filter and find people who can help us achieve our personal or professional goals is a critical 21st century skill.

Collaboration has been a one-time, relatively static and sequential process. New technologies make interactive collaboration possible on the web, between students in the same class, or around the world. Dynamic teaming and very interactive collaboration are 21st century skills.

Potential vision statement: The district will help students and staff leverage technologies to collaborate with others efficiently, effectively, synergistically, safely and ethically.