Using Social Networking to Build 21st Century Skills – Finding Common Ground – Education Week
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21st century skills are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity
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For those of us who have been educators for a long time we have always taught our students how to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative.
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Today’s students are surrounded by many more distractions than we ever thought were imaginable. Those new tools that educators often see as distractions need to be used to positively engage the social network generation.
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With an increase in handheld devices, does the social network generation have the same communications skills that we do? Or do they just communicate differently?
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Whether we like it or not that is how students communicate with each other these days. They actually thrive on connecting with their peers in numerous ways.
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The truth is, I have become a huge fan of Twitter and I’m inspired by some of the tools that my students have in our schools.
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We built an instant community of learners and ended up creating our very own professional development session that lasted about an hour.
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I had the opportunity to follow up with some educators in one-to-one conversations. They sent me blogs that I never would have found on my own. If you’re an educator who loves education and connecting with other educators, you should seriously consider joining Twitter.
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Using these amazing resources allows us to really teach students to think critically, communicate with others, collaborate on projects and be creative. In addition, students will see that we are not behind the times because we are suing tools that we know students enjoy and use every day.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.