Technology Integration for 21st Century Learners

Andie Gingrich, Kellyrose Castro, Amelia Clark

Introduction - Successful Technology Integration is accomplished when…

Its use becomes routine, it is readily available and useful for the task at hand, it promotes
curricular goals, and it helps students achieve their goals.

The Eight Core Competencies

The eight core competencies are the core skills that are necessary for 21st century learners to
have. The importance of the development of knowledge, abilities and mental outlooks of
students will help them on their journey to succeed in school and in their lives beyond school.
Developing culturally competent, engaged, critical thinkers who are empowered in their abilities
to make a difference, manage a task on all platforms, and tackle the problems of the future.

Collaboration
Alberta education defines Collaboration as “working with others to achieve a common goal”
whereby students, exchange ideas, participate, and share responsibilities. Students should be
“adaptable, willing to compromise, and value the contribution of others.” Using ‘Minecraft:
Education edition’ would function as effective technology integration as students utilize a
familiar virtual setting to participate in class wide quests where there are no repercussions for
trial and error or for taking risks to achieve a common goal.

Communication
Communication is defined as “sharing ideas through oral, written or non-verbal media.” The
remind app is an easy and effective way to use technology to share ideas with others. As
teachers, we could use this app to communicate with students or parents to remind them on due
dates, tests, or field trips. This app also features one-on-one conversations between teachers and
students which make it easy to share information and ideas. Remind is a very effective tool in the
21st century because most parents and students have their own phones by their side at all times
so they won't miss the reminders.

Creativity and Innovation

Alberta education’s definition of Creativity and Innovation involves applying ideas to create
something of value, playing while creating, and adapting to changing conditions; being open to
recognizing new opportunities and taking healthy risks while demonstrating optimism, initiative,
perseverance, and ingenuity. Our idea to help develop creativity and innovation in students was
to introduce virtual reality headsets to the classroom environments. We saw one example on the
Powhatan School website of students using VR technology in Language Arts to recreate a scene
from their book that their classmates could explore using the VR headsets. Their job was to
teach, through their scene, three keys elements of their books such as setting, characters, plot,
conflict and/or theme. Some VR systems can even be purchased specifically for early or special
education students so the opportunities for educational applications of VR (or AR) headsets are
endless!

Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking is defined in Alberta education as “using reasoning and criteria to
conceptualize, evaluate, or synthesize ideas” whereby students are continuously “reflecting upon
their thinking in order to improve it.” Interactive ‘spot the difference’ activities are examples of a
21st century student utilizing critical thinking as the activity relies upon a student’s ability to use
reason in comparatively evaluating photographs while continuously reflecting upon their own
thinking of what has already been identified, and what tactics they may try next.

Cultural and Global Citizenship

Alberta education’s definition of Cultural and Global citizenship involves being actively engaged
in local and global cultural, environmental, political, or economic systems as well as
acknowledging FNMI and Francophone perspectives and advocating for the dignity and
well-being of others. Students could use various media platforms to generate content such as
YouTube videos and presentations to fundraise in a year long classroom project to sponsor a
child (or children) on the other side of the world. They could write individual or class letters to
this child to foster relationships and cultural learning across the world, building global
citizenship in the students. One example of a charity is ​Because I am a Girl​ through Plan
International. We like this charity because it offers the opportunity to broach more challenging
conversations about vulnerable children in different countries on topics from the importance of
clean water, sanitation, healthcare and education to topics such as child brides. Giving students
the opportunity to be in control of the entire fundraising process and communicating with the
child they sponsor will allow them to believe in their capacity to make a lasting positive
difference in the world.

Managing Information
Students should be able to access, interpret, evaluate, share, and organize information from any
source for a specific purpose. They must be able to use information effectively and ethically,
ensuring the information they consume is reliable, valid, and has integrity. Factile is one of many
online Jeopardy game creators. Our idea was that rather than the teacher create the end of unit
jeopardy game, the students could be assigned a list of learning objectives and work in teams to
create a jeopardy game they would share with their classmates. This would allow the students to
manage the course information and make critical thinking decisions about what information was
most important to understand for the unit test. One day of class time would be dedicated to the
student teams playing each other’s games, ensuring that ALL students got a comprehensive
review while the project itself would help develop their information management skills.

Personal Growth and Wellbeing

Personal growth and wellbeing are defined by Alberta Education as “managing emotional,
intellectual, physical, social and spiritual aspects of living.” Blogs are a great example of using
technology to increase personal growth and wellbeing among students as it will help students and
teachers see how they have grown throughout the year. Students can blog about the goals they
want to achieve, their hobbies and interests, and their skills and talents. This is very convenient
for 21st century learners due to increasing abundance of technological integration into the school
and classroom, which will allow for frequent blog entries.

Problem Solving
Alberta education defines problem solving as “selecting strategies and resources to move from
what is known to what is sought,” whereby students “analyze situations, create plans of action,
and implement solutions.” Problem solving activities, such as the ipad game ‘Rocket math,’ is an
effective example of problem solving within the 21st century classroom. This game relies upon
utilizing effective strategies and mathematical resources in order to move from levels where
basic skills are already known, such as subtraction and addition, towards levels where the skills
are sought, such as multiplication. While partaking in ‘Rocket Math,’ the 21st century learner
must rely upon their own plans of action as well as the ability to quickly analyze the situation in
order to input solutions and continue onto the next level within space.

END SLIDE:
And so, 21st Century Learners require 21st Century Teaching techniques.
And it is the ​effective​ use of technology in learning environments which will facilitate their
development of the eight Core Competencies.