Reflective Essay

Students today are inundated with new technology. This course shed light on the 21st century skills that we must teach our students if we want them to be successful in our digital society. These new tools require an entirely new skill set, new literacies if you will. According to November (2008), we must “teach our students how to think critically about this media,” (p. 3). Our role as educators has shifted and this course allowed me to take the first step in preparing my students for their futures.

By completing a 21^st century unit plan, one that integrated my content with new literacies, I was able to see first hand just how seamlessly the two fit together. At first glance, it seems these new literacy skills and content curriculum are mutually exclusive. That could not be further from the truth. Now that I have experience integrating these 21^st century skills into a content unit, I feel more prepared to do this in future lessons. In fact, many of the projects I already assign my students require them to use these new literacies. This course has taught me the importance of letting these skills share some of the attention that our curriculum objectives receive. Students should be aware that they are learning strategies for effectively searching the internet, for example. They should also be made aware of how mastering these new literacies will benefit their futures in a digital workplace. This course showed me how I could begin shaping my students into digital citizens.

To continue building on the insights I have gained in this course, I have set a professional goal for myself. I would like to infuse more lessons with 21^st century skills, eventually covering my entire curriculum. By incorporating these goals in my subject area, I can be sure my students are learning these valuable skills. My hope is that I can share this idea with my administration, and they will have other content areas follow my lead. Now more than ever, it is essential that we prepare our students to become citizens that will thrive in our increasingly digital world.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousands Oaks: Corwin Press.