marce on the web

This is a critical report written by Nicholas Carr on Web 2.0. I found it quite interesting..it will make you think…give it a try http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2005/10/the_amorality_o.php

I would like to devote this section to write in English and sometimes about English

As an English teacher (B. A actually) ,I know perfectly well, that the more that you use the language, the better competence you acquire, just give it a try, we can always learn from each other.

Academic Achievements:

1-11-2006

This interesting report is a serious reflection on schools’ academic achievements.The CEO Forum on Education and Technology (2001) concluded that in the 21st Century, “The definition of student achievement must be broadened to include the 21st century skills that will be required for students to thrive in the future” (p. 1).

The world in which our children live is significantly different from that of yesterday. Today’s youngsters use laptops, pagers, instant messaging, and cell phones to connect to friends, family, experts, and others in their community and around the globe. They are bombarded with visual messages from the media— messages specifically targeted to tap into the billions in discretionary spending they control or influence. Members of this generation expect to actively participate in and through their media, hence the decrease in time spent by teens in viewing television and the corresponding increase in time spent on computers, gaming, and the Internet. (See “Media Trade-Offs” on page 4.) Our children now have at their fingertips a virtual world—with all its promises and pitfalls.

Hard as it is to believe, the Internet became available to the average American less than a decade ago. Today, we still find ourselves in the process of defining cultural and societal norms for Internet and Web usage. Our children are not looking to or waiting for adults to establish those norms—they are simply jumping into the fray, exploring the world of chat rooms, avatars, MP3s, and digital communication with aplomb.

As cyberculture analyst (and author of Playing the Future) Douglas Rushkoff (2001, personal communication) quips, “Children are native to cyberspace and we, as adults, are immigrants.” And therein lies both a challenge and an opportunity: How do we, as adults, with the least experience in this milieu, provide leadership? How do we help children use their native intelligence about technology in sophisticated, responsible ways that serve them well as they make their way in the Digital Age? The solution lies in public acknowledgment that yesterday’s education is not sufficient for today’s learner. Academic excellence must be acquired within the context of today’s technological environment in order to fully prepare students to thrive in the Digital Age.

The 21st Century Workforce Commission’s (2000) National Alliance of Business summed up the economic implications for us: “The current and future health of America’s 21st century economy depends directly on how broadly and deeply Americans reach a new level of literacy—’21st Century Literacy’ ” (p. 4).

A report from the 21st Century Literacy Summit (2002) contends that “the explosive growth of technology in every aspect of society offers us a unique opportunity to engage our citizens in economic and civic life” (p. 4). The report further states that to take advantage of this opportunity, we must continually acquire and develop new knowledge and skills. Summit participants noted, “Information and communication technologies are raising the bar on the competencies needed to succeed in the 21st century, and they are compelling us to revisit many of our assumptions and beliefs” (p. 4).

The sheer magnitude of human knowledge, world globalization, and the accelerating rate of change due to technology necessitates a shift in our children’s education—from plateaus of knowing to continuous cycles of learning. Therefore, policymakers and educators alike must define 21st century skills, highlighting the relationship of those skills to conventional academic standards. As they do so, they must also recognize the need for multiple assessments to measure these skills within the context of academic standards, evaluating their application to today’s technological, global society.

enGauge 21st Century Skills

Taken from http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/exec.html