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Lectorate New media in education
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Challenge for 21st-Century Educators: Build a 1st-Century Attitude
Content Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Challenge for 21st-Century Educators: Build a 1st-Century Attitude ............................................... 3
Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 4
Stakeholders of 21st-Century Skills ................................................................................................ 4
Shortcomings of Current Frameworks ........................................................................................... 4
Framework of 1st-Century Attitudes .............................................................................................. 5
Fewer Faces, More Books ............................................................................................................... 7
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................................. 7
References........................................................................................................................................... 8
This paper has been published in the peer reviewed Conference Proceedings of ‘Ten Years of
Facebook: The Third Argumentor Conference’, Partium University (Oradea, Romania – 4-6
September 2014).
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Challenge for 21st-Century Educators: Build a 1st-Century Attitude1
Stephanus M. de Bruijn
Driestar University
Author Note
Stephanus M. de Bruijn, Driestar University (Lectorate New media in education)
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stephanus M. de Bruijn,
Driestar University, Burg. Jamessingel 2, 2803 PD Gouda, The Netherlands. E-mail:
Abstract
New media give rise to substantial concerns among educators and teachers. Some fear irreversible
damage to young people’s brains eventually causing psychological disorders. At the same time,
schools are increasingly using computers and tablets for educational purposes. Despite the number of
questions still unanswered so far, educators and teachers worldwide teach young people so-called
21st-century skills such as information literacy, collaboration, communication, problem solving,
citizenship, creativity and innovation. The main motive for this approach is to empower young people
for the change from an industrial society into a knowledge society.
There are few doubts about the importance of these skills. However, the initiative for developing the
framework of 21st-century skills comes mainly from the private sector and the debate about these
skills was influenced by economic interests. This paper describes the necessity of the development of a
set of competences that is essential for responsible media use from another point of view. Media use
not only affects how we work together and how we can be productive in our 21st-century jobs, but it
also affects our personal relationships, well-being, moral standards, empathic qualities, ability to
concentrate, etc. That is why we are proposing a set of 1st-century attitudes to be achieved by children
and young people as a basic pre-requisite for media use, in order to enhance personal competences and
stimulate pro-social behaviour.
The proposed framework consists of four elements:
1. Personal attitude (e.g., self-control, moderation, distance towards entertainment).
2. Cognitive attitude (e.g., concentration, reading- and listening skills, eloquence).
3. Social attitude (e.g., altruism, developing and maintaining relationships, transparency).
4. Organizational attitude (e.g., methodical thinking and working, respecting hierarchy).
Pointing at those 1st-century attitudes in education is not a new phenomenon. These attitudes were
derived from biblical and Hellenistic culture and values. However, in this framework, they are
specifically adapted to media use and proposed as fundamental qualities. The aforementioned 21st-
century skills can be built on this balanced foundation. This framework is currently being developed
for the curriculum of a group of primary schools, secondary schools, and vocational training institutes
for pupils aged 6 to 20 years old in the Netherlands. This would apply to a total of more than 50.000
pupils and students, and all schools involved are Christian schools.
Keywords: 21st-century skills, curriculum, media literacy, media education
1 Published in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Argumentation and Rhetoric, Sept. 4, 2014,
Partium Press, Oradea
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Challenge for 21st-Century Educators: Build a 1st-Century Attitude
Undoubtedly, the rise of new communication media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and
WhatsApp is not only associated with advantages and opportunities, but also with serious drawbacks,
especially for young people. Although there are still more questions than answers, there are serious
concerns about the consequences of heavy use of social media for this so-called Generation Y
(reviewed by Bolton et al., 2013), such as loss of privacy, cyber bullying, depression, loneliness and
risky behaviour.
How should the present generation of teachers and educators respond and what is the best way to
anticipate? This question is hard to answer, since there is still quite some debate about the downside of
social media use. Although it seems too early to predict long term effects, several authors are worried
about the consequences (Carr, 2010; Turkle, 2010, Rosen, 2012) and some of them have made very
strong statements. For example, in his non-specialist book “Digitale Demenz”, Spitzer (2012) warned
about serious and irreversible damage to children’s brains due to excessive media use. He extrapolated
several studies on media use and concluded that digital media use and multitasking cause stress and
counteract the ability of self-control. Spitzer feared that insomnia, anxiety and depression will
eventually cause dementia in young people. The book raised a public debate in Germany and in the
Netherlands though it was refuted by some experts (e.g., Valkenburg, 2013).
In the meantime, the use of computers, tablets and mobiles in schools is on the rise. According to the
National Center for Education Statistics in the United States, the ratio of computers with internet
access to students in public schools increased from 1 to 6.6 in 2000 to 1 to 3.1 in 2008 (Snyder &
Dillow, 2013). More and more schools intend to replace textbooks with computers and tablets. It has
been forecasted that in the United Kingdom the number of tablets in schools and academies will
increase by a factor of 7 by the end of 2020 (British Educational Suppliers Association, 2013).
It is expected that this rise in computer use at schools will also stimulate use at home. For example, the
One Laptop Per Child program in Peru increased the number of computers per student to 1.18,
compared to 0.12 in schools in the control group. This program also considerably stimulated private
use of computers. Of the treatment students, 42 percent reported home use in the previous week
compared to 4 percent in the control group (Christia, Ibarrarán, Cueto, Santiago & Severín, 2012). The
authors of the report found indications that “increased computer use did not alter the time allocated to
reading or to doing homework” but “laptop use may shift time spent reading and doing homework to
other types of activities such as playing computer games.”
At the same time, there is increasing pressure on educators and teachers worldwide to teach young
people so-called 21st-century skills such as information literacy, collaboration, communication,
problem solving, citizenship, creativity and innovation.
In this paper, I will discuss several of these models of 21st-century skills in relation to their
background and to the health concerns mentioned above. Next, I will put forward a framework of 1st-
century attitudes to be achieved by children and young people as a basic pre-requisite for media use, in
order to enhance personal competences and stimulate pro-social behaviour.
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Results and Discussion
Stakeholders of 21st-Century Skills As cited by Magaña and Marzano (2014), many authors stress that educational systems require a
fundamental transformation in order to stimulate the use of Web 2.0 tools and to meet the needs of
mind workers in the knowledge society. However, the initiative for developing the framework of 21st-
century skills comes mainly from the private sector. As an EU report stated, “Young people need a
wider range of competences than ever before to flourish in a globalised economy and in increasingly
diverse societies. Many will work in jobs that do not yet exist. Many will need advanced linguistic,
intercultural, and entrepreneurial capacities. Technology will continue to change the world in ways we
cannot imagine” (European Commission, 2008).
So far, contributions to the debate on these skills have come mainly from public and private
organisations but not from the education sector (Voogt & Roblin, 2012). Several leading technology
and media companies, such as AOL, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and SAP, have contributed to
the frameworks that have been developed thus far, obviously since they were the first to see the need
for knowledge workers and lifelong learning.
As expected, this is also reflected in the frameworks themselves. Voogt and Roblin (2012) analysed 59
documents and found “strong agreements on the need for competences in the areas of communication,
collaboration, ICT-related competences, and social and/or cultural awareness. Creativity, critical
thinking, problem-solving, and the capacity to develop relevant and high quality products are also
regarded as important competences in the 21st-century by most frameworks.”
A closer look at one of the main frameworks, designed by the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills,
reveals that the recommended skills are considered as essential “for success in today’s world” and for
becoming “better prepared to thrive in today’s global economy” (Partnership for 21st-Century Skills,
2009). Another framework, designed by the OECD, “identified universal challenges of the global
economy and culture” and described the framework as competences “we need for a successful life and
a well-functioning society” (OECD, 2005). In a recent brochure, OECD described its strategy as an
“approach to better align education and macroeconomic development” (OECD, 2014). “Our education
today is our economy tomorrow”, says a deputy director of education of OECD (Schleicher, 2013).
In the meantime, several countries have already adapted their curriculums in order to integrate these
21st-century skills (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2013). One very recent example is the statutory
guidance for computer skills in the national curriculum issued by the Department for Education of the
British government. This curriculum is to be taught in all maintained primary and secondary schools in
England from September 2014 (Department for Education, 2013). The goal of the guidance is “to
better prepare pupils for life after school”. Clearly, the emphasis lies on understanding the principles
of computer science, the ability to analyse and solve problems in computational terms, and the
application of information technology. Pupils will start learning about computer algorithms at the age
of five.
Shortcomings of Current Frameworks The need for implementing these new competences in education is hardly disputed. Nevertheless, a
number of issues should be taken into account to make sure that this will eventually result in a
balanced curriculum. First, most frameworks are based on the idea that education should be directed
towards increase of productivity, efficiency and other measurable quantities. However, the gross
domestic product of a country is not the only key factor “for success in today’s world”. Many essential
elements of a valuable and sustainable society cannot be measured in euros or dollars, and this should
be equally emphasized in educational curriculums.
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Secondly, the frameworks for 21st-century competences stemmed from the idea of educating young
people as mind workers in a knowledge society full of technology. However, in the meantime, we
have learned more and more about the downside of media use, and so far this has hardly been taken
into account. Use of technology, ICT and social media is not only an instrumental activity, but it also
affects the user more personally than was noticed before. This is only slightly accounted for in the
frameworks. One of the leading examples stresses the ability to use social networks and digital
technologies such as GPS and media players, however, it doesn’t even mention the word privacy
(Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, 2009). This framework mentions health literacy as a core subject,
and as a means to obtain health information, but it doesn’t underline how social media use can affect
one’s health. It encourages multitasking, whereas experts now doubt whether multitasking benefits
productivity (Anderson & Rainie 2012). Heavy multitaskers perform worse in task switching (Ophir,
Nass & Wagner, 2009), and students using Facebook while studying tend to have lower academic
performance (Rosen, Carrier & Cheever, 2013).
Educating and training young people for the 21st-century should not be one-sidedly focused on
productivity skills, but also on personal attitude, social bonding and pro-social behaviour in relation to
use of technology and media. To some extent, this is already visible in the OECD framework (2005),
which stresses the importance of empathy, resisting the pressure of following the crowd and
organisational skills to cope with fragmentation of life. A similar aim is mentioned in the guidance for
the new British national curriculum: “Pupils should be taught to understand a range of ways to use
technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and
privacy; recognise inappropriate content, contact and conduct and know how to report concerns”
(Department for Education, 2013).
Frameworks for 21st-century skills need to be updated from time to time because of new insights,
changing needs of the labour market or technological shifts. More importantly, they should pay proper
attention to health risks and consequences of media use for behaviour and social life of young people.
Also, ethical questions should be taken into account as concerns about hacking, privacy and cyber-
bullying increase.
However, implementation of the proposed skills into curriculums is a laborious task and takes quite
some time (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2013). Moreover, curriculums should not be swayed by
the issues of the day. Making changes in curriculums is a complex process.
In my opinion, these educational reforms should not be developed in close relationship with industries
since they are, generally speaking, ambivalent on the above-mentioned risks of media use. In several
cases, their business models depend heavily on the amount of time spent on media use, which is
concurrently a factor in health risks.
Framework of 1st-Century Attitudes A balanced model for empowering young people to deal with the challenges of the current knowledge
society should at least pay attention to time management and prevention of addiction, to the ability to
concentrate and single-task, to privacy and group dynamics, to self-control, to interpersonal
relationships etc.
I propose a set of 1st-century attitudes to be achieved by children and young people as a basic pre-
requisite for media use, in order to enhance personal competences and stimulate pro-social behaviour.
These attitudes are not intended to replace or question the 21st-century skills, but they are intended to
be a counterpart, and basic preparatory pre-requisites and traits to resist the negative aspects of
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technology. Most of the required attitudes have already been taught for centuries; however, they need
to be adapted for, and related to, use of new media.
The elements of this framework are represented in Table 1. These indicators were adapted from
regular programmes for skills and knowledge, such as the Programme for International Student
Assessment (OECD, 1997), the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies
(OECD, 2008) and other sources (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Several existing frameworks for 21st-
century competences (Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, 2009; Voogt & Roblin, 2012; European
Commission, 2012) were taken as an example of designing a new model related to education and
teaching during the first centuries (De Muynck & Kalkman, 2005). I discussed the framework with
several experts and educators with practical experience. This resulted in a project group commissioned
to elaborate the framework for the curriculum of a group of primary schools, secondary schools, and
vocational training institutes for pupils aged 6 to over 20 years old in the Netherlands. This would
apply to a total of more than 50,000 pupils and students, and all schools involved are Christian
schools.
Table 1
Framework of 1st-Century Attitudes
Pupils should achieve the competence
to be: and to:
Personal
competences
autonomous
moderate
pilgrims
know and respect themselves
possess and retain one’s self-control
take responsibility for one’s own acts
be patient and repress impulsiveness
be temperate towards media use
be discerning in regards to spending money and extravagance
be resistant to the time-consuming nature of media
be devote, practising and ethical Christians
be resistant to secular and atheist influences from media
be discerning towards entertainment and modern culture
be aware of a non-material spiritual world that influences our society
Cognitive
competences
verbally oriented
concentrated
critical
read and listen comprehendingly and linearly
be articulate and eloquent
be dialogical and interactive
focus on a single task without distraction
be exercised in profound and slow reading
contemplate, meditate and reflect on texts
think linearly, consistently and in a straightforward manner
search for primary sources
be discerning regarding the credibility and authority of sources
be rational and well-reasoned in presenting arguments and cases
Social
competences
social
altruistic
transparent
be empathic, sensitive and pro-social
be open and transparent
be resistant to peer pressure, competitiveness and rivalry
develop and maintain relationships
participate in one’s community
be generous and selfless
be helpful and of service
accept responsibility for the collective
be honest and open
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be truthful
be accountable for one’s acts
Organizational
competences
systematic
cooperative
holistic
be methodical, structured, and analytical in thinking and working
understand and respect hierarchy
be balanced, and to be immune to stress
be flexible and compliant
take initiative for tasks in teamwork
accept responsibility for tasks in teamwork
be aware that reality is not fragmented but coherent and multidimensional
see relevance of interrelationships, contexts and histories of events
Fewer Faces, More Books “Too much face and not enough books”, is the title of an article describing the negative relationship
between time spent on Facebook and academic performance (Junco, 2012). The abovementioned
framework is not intended to withdraw young people from social networks like Facebook, but to make
them more moderate in their behaviour so that they see fewer faces and more books.
The presented 1st-century attitudes are rooted in the biblical and Hellenistic cultures and values. All
schools related to this project share a Christian background and consider the Bible to be not merely an
interesting resource for historians but also a relevant guide for life in the 21st-century. In their vision,
21st-century competences should be built on a foundation of ethical guidelines derived from the Bible.
Gaining knowledge and achieving skills always make one responsible to God for the way one uses
them.
Another important element for these schools is “paideia”, the Greek concept of civilization, culture,
literature, tradition and study. The basic idea is that the conveying of knowledge and skills to others is
not an end in itself, but rather a means of attaining a higher aim in one’s life. Moreover, paideia is
based on a profound relationship between the pupil and his tutor, characterized by intimacy and
inspiration, but also by a distinct hierarchy. The Early Church adopted this concept of lifelong
learning, discipleship and mentorship (Doornenbal, 2005; Carr, 2011).
This combination of Hellenistic scholarship and biblical moral and social guidelines is still considered
to be a useful basis for education. In this framework, it is adapted specifically to media use and
proposed as fundamental pre-requisites that should be taught already starting in primary schools,
preceding media use.
I’m convinced that the basics of this framework are also useful for non-Christian schools, as an
enduring wrap for thorough media education. Elements of its vision can be seen in the slow education
movement (Holt, 2002). It will be a challenge for the project group to implement this framework into
practice. Because of its moral elements and the widespread use of technology and media, it is
impossible and undesirable to compartmentalize media education in a special program. This 1st-
century attitude should imbue the entire curriculum.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from Erdee Media Groep, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. I thank
Cora van den Heuvel, Dick van Meeuwen, Piet Murre, Bram de Muynck and Ad Verwijs for valuable
discussions on the model.
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