By Dr. Violet Dickson, Curriculum Coordinator
About a dozen years ago, as the educational focus shifted to 21st century skills, educators began to think beyond the traditional emphasis on academic knowledge and consider other skills that are equally important, not only in the classroom, but for success in college, career, and essentially~ for life!
This list of skills was eventually narrowed down to what is now known as the 4 Cs: Critical thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.
My personal belief is that good teachers have always incorporated these skills into their classrooms by doing things such as posing questions, presenting scenarios or discrepant events for students to consider, having students work in collaborative groups, encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, providing research choices, allowing students to conduct experiments and explain their findings using creative formats and presentations.… and the list goes on.
Today, however, the challenge becomes how to teach students the necessary skills to be successful in the technological and global society in which we now live. For example, how do we teach effective uses of digital communication and how to use technology to interact and collaborate with others from diverse backgrounds and from other parts of the world? What are the best ways to teach students to analyze, validate, and effectively use the vast amounts information available to us today, and how do we prepare and motivate students to be the creators, innovators, and inventors needed in every aspect of society in the coming years?
In light of the new challenges our students face in the 21st century, let’s take a new look at the 4 Cs and consider some ways that teachers may become more intentional and purposeful in teaching critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT)
One recommended change is for teachers to encourage students to bring their own technology for use in the classroom. In the BYOT classroom, students connect with the teacher and with each other through the use of their own personal technology devices, such as tablets, laptops, and iPhones. In this way, the teacher creates a classroom environment that is conducive to technological inquiry, exploration, and expression.
In this environment, scaffolding and modeling are present, but it’s not always the teacher who is doing the coaching. Sometimes the teacher is also learning alongside the students. By using their own technology in a learning environment, students have the opportunity to practice and develop the 4C skills, and then use those skills in learning how to learn.
Web Tools
Another strategy for incorporating the 4Cs into instruction is to implement web tools along with project-based learning activities. Some examples of web tools, which are successfully being used in each area of the 4 Cs, are listed below.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to make decisions, solve problems, and take appropriate action. Students need critical thinking and problem-solving skills, not only to think through current issues, but also to consider challenges that they will face in our changing society and in the future workforce.
The four Cs actually overlap and work together, because critical thinking also includes the ability to think creatively, and sharing information with others involves both communication and collaboration. Therefore, many of the web tools listed below can also be used to build skills in more than one area.
Some free apps that are available to classroom teachers and that support critical thinking include:
- Socrative: Allows teachers to engage students with activities and real time questioning on tablets, laptops, or smartphones so the whole class can collaborate and discuss issues as a community of learners.
- November Learning: In this day of information overload, this site helps teachers demonstrate and impart vital skills so students can analyze, validate, and appropriately use materials on the web.
Communication
Effective communication involves the ability to first of all, be a good listener, then to synthesize and formulate ideas, and finally to transmit those ideas clearly in both oral and written formats.
Some effective apps that support communication include the following:
- Edublogs: A free, educational blogging service that allows students to create their own blogs, participate in discussions in the classroom and in a global community, create a class publication, and post videos, podcasts and other documents for analysis and discussion.
- ePals: ePals is a classroom exchange that maintains a community of collaborative classrooms involved in cross-cultural exchanges and project-sharing through monitored email, language translations, discussion boards, maps, and more.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the ability to work effectively with others, including those from diverse groups as well as those with opposing viewpoints. Students should be able to use technology to interact with others and to participate effectively in a range of conversations in which they express their own ideas clearly and precisely.
- Wikispaces: A collaborative area where students construct learning experiences by writing, discussing, editing, creating content, sharing files, and working on projects together. Teachers can easily track students’ progress and participation.
- Edmodo: Edmodo is an excellent resource for teachers and also provides a safe and easy way for students to connect, collaborate, share information, and hold online discussions anytime and from any place.
Creativity
I once heard someone say that creativity is the ability to see what’s not there and then make something out of it. Creativity involves brainstorming and trying new approaches. It is sometimes accomplished by simply elaborating on an original idea, which can result in a new innovation or invention.
Since creativity involves brainstorming, a good digital brainstorming app for iphones and ipads includes:
- Good Notes: A digital brainstorming device and note-taking app. It is also used for recording thoughts, taking videos, sketching, and capturing ideas via photography.
- The Marshmallow Challenge: A wonderfully fun design exercise that encourages teams to participate in collaborative, innovative, and creative experiences.
These are only a few of the many resources and digital tools that are available to help teachers integrate the 4 Cs into classroom learning in meaningful and effective ways. These tools give teachers the needed flexibility to use technology in ways that facilitate learning and encourage students build on ideas to produce, interact, collaborate, and create something new.
There has been a lot of talk about 21st century skills for learning which are required for progressive learning in modern ways. These skills will help develop the qualities that the students need to possess in the 21st-century for success in college, careers and citizenship.
