BPICTEICT IN EDUCATION

TOPIC 1

Learning the digital ageDeveloping critical creative and

collaborative skills

As teachers, we believe that every child deserves an

education that prepares them for life. This education

should be built on a foundation of technological skills

that will secure our students throughout their lives.

there are four crucial areas that must be learned and

practiced by our children if they are to tackle the

rigorous school work that the new Common Core

Standards promote.

It is through these 21st century skills that our

young adults will find the power to be globally

competitive in a worldwide workforce and find

the ability to face career challenges in an ever-

changing world of technology.

These fundamental skills are gained

through experience, and they include Collaboration

Communication

Creativity

Critical Thinking.

Collaboration,Communication,

Creativity, Critical Thinking

The 4 C’s

Learning and Innovation Skills

Learning and innovation skills are being recognized as the skills that separate students who are prepared for complex life and work environments in the 21st century.

A focus on collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking is essential to prepare students for the future.

COLLABORATION

What is Collaboration?Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to accomplish a shared, common goal-teaming up to meet that defined goal.

Collaboration, literally, consists of working together with one or more individuals.

To build good team collaboration skills, students must learn to:• Work effectively with different groups of people, including people from diverse cultures.• Be flexible and willing to compromise with team members to reach a common goal.• Demonstrate responsibility as a team member working toward a shared goal.

In the Classroom

COMMON COLLABORATIVE ABILITIESAllocating resources and responsibilities ensures

that all members of a team can work optimally.Brainstorming ideas in a group involves rapidly

suggesting and writing down ideas without pausing to critique them.

Decision-making requires sorting through the many options provided to the group and arriving at a single option to move forward.

Delegating means assigning duties to members of the group and expecting them to fulfill their parts of the task.

Evaluating the products, processes, and members of the group provides a clear sense of what is working well and what improvements could be made.

Goal setting requires the group to analyze the situation, decide what outcome is desired, and clearly state an achievable objective.

Leading a group means creating an environment in which all members can contribute according to their abilities.

Managing time involves matching up a list of tasks to a schedule and tracking the progress toward goals.

Resolving conflicts occurs from using one of the following strategies: asserting, cooperating, compromising, competing, or deferring.

Team building means cooperatively working overtime to achieve a common goal.

COMMUNICATION

Expressing thoughts clearly, crisply articulating opinions, communicating instructions, motivating others through powerful speech…these skills have always been valued in the workplace and in public life. But in the 21st century, these skills have been transformed and are even more important today.

Communication cannot be effective unless the message is received and understood.

Communication

Students communicate daily by texting and posting on Facebook pages and other social media avenues to stay in touch with friends. Teachers can help students make the connections between their recreational writing and the kinds of writing they need to become successful beyond the classroom. It’s important to stay aware of the digital world students live in as we design learning experiences to cultivate important skills.

In the Classroom

COMMON COMMUNICATION ABILITIES:Analyzing the situation means thinking about the

subject, purpose, sender, receiver, medium, and context of a message.

Choosing a medium involves deciding the most appropriate way to deliver a message, ranging from a face-to-face chat to a 400-page report.

Evaluating messages means deciding whether they are correct, complete, reliable, authoritative, and up-to-date.

Following conventions means communicating using the expected norms for the medium chosen.

Listening actively requires carefully paying attention, taking notes, asking questions, and otherwise engaging in the ideas being communicated.

Reading is decoding written words and images in order to understand what their originator is trying to communicate.

Speaking involves using spoken words, tone of voice, body language, gestures, facial expressions, and visual aids in order to convey ideas.

Turn taking means effectively switching from receiving ideas to providing ideas, back and forth between those in the communication situation.

Using technology requires understanding the abilities and limitations of any technological communication, from phone calls to e-mails to instant messages.

Writing involves encoding messages into words, sentences, and paragraphs for the purpose of communicating to a person who is removed by distance, time, or both.

Students must be able to effectively analyze and process the overwhelming amount of communication in their lives today.

Which information sources are accurate? Which ones are not? How can they be used or leveraged effectively?

The power of modern media and the ubiquity of communication technologies in all aspects of life make teaching strong communication skills even more important.

The importance of communication

To build effective Communication Skills students must learn to:

*Communicate using digital media and environments to support personal and group learning.*Share information efficiently and effectively using appropriate digital media and environments.*Communicate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively to different audiences using various media and formats.

These skills are at the core of every organization. It is crucial that we as teachers help students build this vital set of 21st century skills. Effective communication skills are important in many walks of life. Today’s employers look for individuals with effective communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. After graduation students will realize that these basic communication skills are essential in attaining their life’s goals. It is imperative that tomorrow’s graduates communicate clearly and effectively in a variety of languages.

CREATIVITY

What Is Creativity?Creativity is the bringing into being of something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Creativity is the ability to produce new, diverse and unique ideas. Thinking creatively means looking at things from a different perspective and not be restricted by rules, customs, or norms.

main creative abilities Brainstorming ideas involves asking a question and

rapidly listing all answers, even those that are far-fetched, impractical, or impossible.

Creating something requires forming it by combining materials, perhaps according to a plan or perhaps based on the impulse of the moment.

Designing something means finding the conjunction between form and function and shaping materials for a specific purpose.

Entertaining others involves telling stories, making jokes, singing songs, playing games, acting out parts, and making conversation.

Imagining ideas involves reaching into the unknown and impossible, perhaps idly or with great focus, as Einstein did with his thought experiments.

Improvising a solution involves using something in a novel way to solve a problem.

Innovating is creating something that hasn’t existed before, whether an object, a procedure, or an idea.

Overturning something means flipping it to get a new perspective, perhaps by redefining givens, reversing cause and effect, or looking at something in a brand new way.

Problem solving requires using many of the creative abilities listed here to figure out possible solutions and putting one or more of them into action.

Questioning actively reaches into what is unknown to make it known, seeking information or a new way to do something

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking is focused, careful analysis of something to better understand it. When people speak of “left brain” activity, they are usually referring to critical thinking.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is investigating issues that are not always clearly defined and have no clear-cut answers by asking significant questions and exploring different solutions. Critical thinking helps evaluate ideas and add value to them by identifying the most reasonable ones or ones most likely to succeed.

common critical thinking abilities:Critical thinking is focused, careful analysis of

something to better understand it. When people speak of “left brain” activity, they are usually referring to critical thinking. Here are some of the main critical-thinking abilities:

Analyzing is breaking something down into its parts, examining each part, and noting how the parts fit together.

Arguing is using a series of statements connected logically together, backed by evidence, to reach a conclusion.

Classifying is identifying the types or groups of something, showing how each category is distinct from the others.

Comparing and contrasting is pointing out the similarities and differences between two or more subjects.

Defining is explaining the meaning of a term using denotation, connotation, example, etymology, synonyms, and antonyms.

Describing is explaining the traits of something, such as size, shape, weight, color, use, origin, value, condition, location, and so on.

Evaluating is deciding on the worth of something by comparing it against an accepted standard of value.

Explaining is telling what something is or how it works so that others can understand it.

Problem solving is analyzing the causes and effects of a problem and finding a way to stop the causes or the effects.

Tracking cause and effect is determining why something is happening and what results from it.

Critical Thinking Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hypothesizing, and critiquing.

Teaching critical thinking and problem solving effectively in the classroom is vital for students. Learning critical thinking leads students to develop other skills, such as a higher level of concentration, deeper analytical abilities, and improved thought processing.

Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking "out-of-the-box", challenging consensus and pursuing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

Today’s citizens must be active critical thinkers if they are to compare evidence, evaluate competing claims, and make sensible decisions. In everyday work, employees must employ critical thinking to better serve customers, develop better products, and continuously improve themselves within an ever-changing global economy.

Please Note!The teaching of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking are not new concepts for educators. In fact, they are the basis of great teaching, and most teachers aspire to teach in a manner that incorporates these strategies.

It is clear that the “Four C’s” need to be fully integrated into classrooms, schools, and districts around the country to produce citizens and employees adequately prepared for the 21st century.

Communication

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Collaboration

THE END