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Gautier Middle School

Library » 21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills

Information, Media and Technology Skills: Today we live in a technology and media-suffused environment with: 1) access to an abundance of information, 2) rapid changes in technology tools, and 3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to create, evaluate, and effectively utilize information, media, and technology.
 
 

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to 

  • Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;

  • Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;

  • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;

  • Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;

  • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;

  • Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.