Education+in+the+21st+Century

=Education in the 21st Century =  ===*We need your help! Now that we've started our page, we need to get the word out so we can add new & refreshing opinions and ideas! Please feel free to contribute! Thank you in advance!* ===

//"This 21st century teaching is all very exciting, but HOW do we do it?"

We are on the edge of what could be a new wave of FL education -- but YOU will be the ones to invent it.

So. . . let's start **imagining **, **dreaming **, **creating **, and **experimenting **.

That said, we need to adopt some __new assumptions__ about school://


 * Not everyone in the class needs to have precisely the same learning experience. Yes, there's a layer of foundational understanding that everyone needs to have, but beyond that there's room for individuals to have unique expertise and instruction. Students will have more choice and control over their learning.


 * This means that the teacher's role changes. The teacher should have strong expertise in the target language and be adept at teaching and modeling key intellectual skills (create, analyze, evaluate, and apply). But he/she doesn't have to know everything about everything students might learn. Instead of the teacher's role as the main source of information, the teacher takes on a coaching/facilitating role to help students learn using available resources.


 * Assessments are focused on competency rather than completion. (It's no longer acceptable to complete a bunch of assignments without truly learning.)


 * Vibrant classrooms will not always be quiet -- silence is no longer considered a virtue in students.


 * Collaboration is encouraged.


 * 21st century learning does not revolve around particular technologies since they will always be changing. Instead, teachers and students utilize whatever tools are available.

The __relationship__ between student-teacher is now more important than ever - [|Obstinada02]
 * //What would you add to this list?//**



How Could Cell Phones be Used as Learning Tools in FL Classrooms...
====//Cell phones are commonly banned in schools. While there are some understandable reasons for prohibiting cell phones, there are also some compelling reasons for incorporating them into classroom instruction. What are the possibilities?//====

Considering which "Traditions" We Want to Preserve...
====//In teaching and planning instruction for 21st century learners in a digital age, we want to move forward without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We need to carefully consider the underlying intellectual tasks of traditional approaches. Which traditions represent genuinely important intellectual skills or essential language learning purposes? Which traditions are simply traditional?//====