The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The partnership for 21^st century skills is a national organization that has created a framework of skills that are beyond those of a student’s core academic training. The partnership wants to share this with educators in order to expand the skills in which student’s in this day and age are learning, to better prepare them for the future.  The Framework for 21^st Century Learning, as this vision is called, focuses on the importance of critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and technological literacy.  It also emphasizes the idea that 21^st century interdisciplinary themes, such as global awareness, economic literacy, and civic literacy, should be woven into the core content students are learning, like English, mathematics, and science. It is important that students leave school with a more dynamic educational background to allow them to thrive in our ever-changing social atmosphere.

Being a telecommunications major, I feel that 21^st century skills go hand in hand with my studies. Having all of these skills would prove beneficial to me in my field but there are a few that would aid me more so than the rest. Communication and collaboration are two main aspects of my major because I am hoping to be a news reporter and it is essential to the success of my career. I need to be able to communicate clearly with my team about the ideas that I have for our broadcasts and as a reporter it is of utmost importance that I am able to clearly communicate ideas and information to my viewers. I also believe that information, media, and definitely technology literacy are very valuable to my selected major. I may not start off as a broadcast reporter as soon as I step out of the collegiate realm, I may be working behind the scenes with cameras and computers and such. Technology is constantly changing and becoming more complex and it is pertinent that I can use it appropriately in my field.

In this video, 21st Century Learning Matters, the speakers continue to emphasize the concepts of 21^st century learning and how it is important to incorporate these skills into students’ education. It can be learned, but not unless we change the framework of learning that is tradition. It is mentioned in the video that this is a systematic change and it is important that we overcome the inertia we are already used to in order to open ourselves up to the idea of these 21^stcentury skills. This video has a lot of qualified speakers who support the change for 21^st century learning and want to make sure that kids in all parts of the world are getting the education they need to succeed in their future, in a digital world!