The article got me thinking about the interesting dynamic that's developing between the modern "21st century" student and his/her counterpart, the 21th century teacher. Throughout the article, the writers advocate for an increasing presence of technology and media literacy in the classroom. This is all well and good, but the fact remains that the students are almost always more technically savvy than their luddite-by-comparison teachers. Whether they are more media literate is debatable. This obviously presents a problem for the 21st century learner group. There's a defecit among the current crop of teachers who will be teaching the younger generation.
The modern student will, by virtue of growing up in the modern age, begin to take on some of the attributes described in the article. The ability to handle multiple sources of data, rapid adoption of new technologies, and overall media literacy are abilities that are not foreign to the students of today. The current generation is the first to grow up alongside computers, and more specifically, the web. Most have developed an intimate relationship with technology and rely upon it for their social existence. Herein lies the problem...
Ironically, as the web binds us closer together with an ever-growing mass of social networks, IM channels and blogs; face-to-face communication skills are eroding. I hear of teachers complaining that their kids are unable to talk to each other, preferring texting or myspace. The values of "team building" and interpersonal relationships that the 21st century writers extol are in serious jeopardy as the social world becomes more like a cloud of bubbles then a shared sphere.
To further the irony, as our culture becomes again more reliant on text as the main method of communication (text messaging, email, blogs, etc.) the value of the written word is deflating. In other words, there is an emphasis more on speed and less on flourish when it comes to the written medium. Getting your message across as quickly and sparsely as possible is the rule of the day. While the economy of language is an important principle in writing style, the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater in this case. In short, kids don't know how to write.
To sum up, I think the goals for the 21st learning project should be to shore up the technology skills of teachers, develop strong media literacy skills for the students (as opposed to blindly teaching technology for technology's sake), and lastly, not to lose focus on the core skills of writing and interpersonal dynamics.
