Teaching and Learning in The 21st Century Education

What is the 21st century education? 

 Barnett Berry

       The Founder and CEO, Center for Teaching Quality, Barnet Berry said  "Twenty-first-century learning means that students master content while producing, synthesizing, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and sources with an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures. Students demonstrate the three Rs, but also the three Cs: creativity, communication, and collaboration. They demonstrate digital literacy as well as civic responsibility. Virtual tools and open-source software create borderless learning territories for students of all ages, anytime and anywhere. Every teacher should be proficient in the use of productivity tools. Teachers have to process many different types of data. Productivity tools (word processor, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software) are available on all computers and are the obvious tools to use for most teaching and learning tasks. Every teacher should be proficient in the use of productivity tools. Powerful learning of this nature demands well-prepared teachers who draw on advances in cognitive science and are strategically organized in teams, in and out of cyberspace. Many will emerge as teacherpreneurs who work closely with students in their local communities while also serving as learning concierges, virtual network guides, gaming experts, community organizers, and policy researchers."
Obviously, teaching in the 21-century is an altogether different phenomenon; never before could learning be happening the way it is now -- everywhere, all the time, on any possible topic, supporting any possible learning style or preference. We live in a world where remembering information is no longer as important as it used to be because information is at our fingertips all the time, and  many children now start school technologically literate. They can use a keyboard and are familiar with tablet technology and smartphones. They can access limitless information than what we'll teach, so what we’re trying to do, I guess, is to think about, "What does being a 21st-century teacher really mean?" and "What is it we’re trying to teach?"

Here are some characteristics of a 21st-century teacher :

1.    Learner-Centered Classroom and Personalized Instructions
   In learner-centered teaching, the focus is on the student as learner, on improving student learning and success, rather than on the transmission of information. As students have access to any information possible, there certainly is no need to "spoon-feed" the knowledge or teach "one-size fits all" content. As students have different personalities, goals, and needs, offering personalized instructions is not just possible but also desirable. When students are allowed to make their own choices, they own their learning, increase intrinsic motivation, and put in more effort -- an ideal recipe for better learning outcomes.
2.    Students as Producers    In this modern era, by the time goes by everything changes so fast, as the changing question of “what do computers can do?” and now is “what the users can do with the computer?” As today’s students, they already have the latest and greatest tools, so how they utilize them is the greatest thing, with their own expensive devices can produce beautiful and creative blogs, movies, or digital stories that they feel proud of and share with others. And so do with the learning proccess in the class, students should not only consume contents, but they also create their own content and collaborate in the production of knowledge.
3.    Learn The Technologies 
    Every teacher should be proficient in the use of productivity tools so they have to process many different types of data. Then, they should be able to troubleshoot technology-related problems that commonly crop up in the classroom. They also should be familiar with what's available on the web in his or her subject area, and so on. So that's why in the same way teachers have to learn the technologies more than the students do.
4.    Go Global
    Today's tools make it possible to learn about other countries. Of course, textbooks are still sufficient, yet, there is nothing like learning languages, cultures, and communication skills from actually talking to people from other parts of the world. It's a shame that with all the tools available, we still learn about other cultures, people, and events from media, Teaching students how to use the tools in their hands to "visit" any corner of this planet will hopefully make us more knowledgable and sympathetic.
5.    Be Smart and Use Smart Phones   
   When students are encouraged to view their devices as valuable tools that support knowledge (rather than disctraction) as they start using them. So what for to waste time and teach something that only one or two students would take the benefits. Instead, teaching students to be independent and make sure we are as the teachers know how to find answers they need makes the class a different environment! So, be smart by using smart phone!
6.    Build Your Positive Digital Footprint
      For teacher today, one great way to the learning process is to use social media, how to produce and publish valuable content, and how to create sharable resources. Even though it's true that teachers are people, and they want to use social media and post their pictures and thoughts, we cannot ask our students not to do inappropriate things online if we ourselves do it. Maintaining professional behavior both in class and online will help build positive digital footprint and model appropriate actions for students.
7.    Innovate
     How about to expand the teaching toolbox and try a new learning way that never we haven't tried before. Such as using social media like facebook, to interact, sharing information or giving the announcement, then changing the textbook to the web resources. Im sure they'd love to have a class discussion on social media.
8.    Go Blog
    Educators need to teach important materials in several ways because each one of our students learns differently. What’s more, we also need to provide students with multiple ways to engage with assignments, based on their individual talents. Blogging is one technique for doing so, as it can allow a quieter student, for example, to feel heard online. Those shy and quiet students feel less pressure when they need to “speak” in their blog or when giving peer feedback, as they are discussing the text on their own terms. Additionally, this journaling format works great with read-and-write learners as well as visual learners.
9.    Keep Learning
    If educators want to drive change in their schools, they need to stay on top of what's going on in education of her/his core subejct and absolutely, they have to continue to learn. As someone said "Who dares to teach, must never cease to learn."

Teaching for 21st Century Learners 

So now, after knowing what should the teacher be for the 21st century education, we're coming up to the next question "What is the teacher going to teach?" If we’re not just trying to teach factual recall like we often did in the past, what are we trying to do? Well I guess we’re trying to teach higher level skills. We’re trying to teach critical thinking. We’re trying to teach synthesis, analysis. We’re trying to raise a generation that are cleverer than we are. We’re a generation who kind of screwed the world up and don’t know how to fix it and we have to hope that future generations can do a better job.
So, the future-focused learning are :
1.    To  equip them with the thinking skills,
2.    Their ability to work in teams.
3.    Bring up their ability to understand different points of view.
4.    To use every tool that they have available effectively.
5.    To increase their power, by motivating them.
6.    To affect change in the world, hopefully for the better.
With strategic use of 21st century learning tools, educational institution can provide the supportive productive environment educators need to reach, teach and support each student's learning needs and potential.