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Literacy & Learning in the 21st Century David Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/ http://landmark-project.com/sl/ Redefining Literacy for the New Information Landscape Literacy & Learning for the 21st Century Prepared under fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and restricted from further use. The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. -- Alvin Toffler This presentation is an attempt to expand our notions of contemporary literacy, what it means to be a reader, processor of information, and communicator in a time when information is increasingly networked, digital, and

Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

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Slides for the L&L keynote address, with post-it comments added by the speaker

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Page 1: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Redefining

Literacy for the

New Information

Landscape

Literacy & Learningfor the 21st Century

Prepared under fair use exemption of

the U.S. Copyright Law and restricted

from further use.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

-- Alvin Toffler

This presentation is an attempt to expand our notions of contemporary literacy, what it means to be a reader, processor of information, and communicator in a time when information is increasingly networked, digital, and

Page 2: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

http://landmark-project.com/

Session Tags: redefineliteracywarlick

Online handouts consist of the blog <handouts.davidwarlick.com>, a wiki with many additional resources, a bibliography, an outline, and the presentation slides.

Using these three words in your blog entry will cause your article to become part of the online

Page 3: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

You can also access my online handouts from SecondLife. If you are already a resident of SecondLife, then point your browser to: http://davidwarlick.com/sl/

Page 4: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Suriawang Dapto

My SecondLife avatar, one of the only avatars in all of SecondLife who looks older than his owner.

Page 5: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

• In straight rows

• Performing repetitive tasks

• Under close supervision

Preparing a Workforce that could work...

It was an education system that was perfect in every way for me and my generation. I grew up in a three stoplight mill town, where most of the students I attended school with went right into one of the mills, and had every reason to expect to spend the next 35 years working in straight rows, performing repetitive tasks, under close supervision.

Page 6: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Today’s information-age work place where a consultant, working from home, can provide valuable information-based services to his clients.

Page 7: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

But when we consider the rapid advances in information technologies, it is difficult to impossible to predict how these tools will serve us in the future, or even the tools that have yet to be invented. As we take the obsolete tools out of the workplace of the future, what we have left is what we know about our children’s future.

Page 8: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

For the first time in history

Our job as educators

Is to prepare our children

For a future

That We can not clearly describe.

It is true that our lives have already changed dramatically. What is different is that today we know that our world is changing too fast to predict the environment our children will inherit from us.

So what do children need to know to be ready for an unpredictable future? They must know how to teach themselves!

Page 9: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

RLiteracy as We Know It

Reading

Riting

Rithmetic

And this is why we are teaching literacy, so that students have the skills to find the information they need, to learn what they need to know, to do what they need to do -- right now.

Page 10: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

One of our principal questions is, what does it mean to be literate today. What does it mean to be a reader, when information is increasingly networked, and we are often accessing content from its author, without editor, publishers, librarians, and other filters?

Page 11: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Davis, Matthew. "Congress 'Made Wikipedia Changes'." BBCNews 9 Feb 2006 12 Nov 2006 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4695376.stm>.

We shouldn’t fear Wikipedia. It is simply a microcosm of today’s greater information landscape. We should be teaching students to read everything the same way that we want them to read Wikipedia.

Page 12: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Heidigoseek, "AADL - New Books." Heidigoseek’s Photostream. 20 Mar 2006. 13 Nov 2006 <http://flickr.com/photos/heidigoseek/115581765/>.Althouse, Ann. "September 11th News." Ann Alhause’s Photostream. 11 Sep 2005. 13 Nov 2006 <http://flickr.com/photos/althouse/42300120/>.

There are certainly errors in Wikipedia. But aren’t there also errors in the textbooks we give our children.

It is interesting to consider that our textbooks typically do not include warnings about errors, while Wikipedia does. Who seems more interested in helping you get to the best information? Is it the source that is willing to warn you, or the source that seems more interested in protecting its own authority.

Page 13: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

We were taught to read what somebody handed to us.

What’s changed is that we were taught to read what somebody we trusted gave us to read. In that information environment, all you needed to do is read it.

But when our children are reading in a global electronic library, that almost anyone can publish to, almost anything they want, and for almost any reason they want, our notions of what it means to be a reader expands.

Page 14: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

EReading Text

Expands into

Exposing What’s True

Being a reader expands into a range of skills involved in taking the information that you encounter and finding the true, reliability, and validity -- finding it appropriateness to what you are trying to accomplish.

Page 15: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

•Find the Information,

•Decode it,

•Critically Evaluate it, and

•Organize it into personal digital libraries.

EBeing a reader in today’s information landscape means...

Page 16: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Drasmus, "SUMMON: Animation." YouTube. 24 Feb 2008. 19 Apr 2008 <http://youtube.com/watch?v=UXsR4sMgaqg>.

So what happens to arithmetic, when information becomes increasingly digital?

Page 17: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Math is about making numbers tell their story. ..and when the numbers come in the thousands and they are digital, then there are new skills required to make them tell their stories.

Page 18: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

EAnd what happens when all information today is made of numbers, the ones and zeros that make text, images, sounds, video, and animation. Does the skill to process information by working the digital foundation of that information become part of math?

Page 19: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Expands into

EmployingInformation

EArithmetic

Arithmetic expands into a range of skills involved in employing information to answer questions, solve problems, and accomplish goals.

Page 20: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

EAnderson, Chris. "The Long Tail." WIRED Magazine Oct 2004. 17 Mar 2005 <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html>.

Does writing go away? Absolutely not. Our opportunities to express ourselves, especially in writing, have expanded enormously, as well as opportunities to earn income from the idea that we share.

Page 21: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

More than 200 sets of Encyclopedia Britannica in less than a minute.

...or hours of DVD-quality

video

We’re not producing this astounding capacity to communicate for words and numbers alone. We are producing this capacity to communicate because we know that in the 21st century, we are going to be communicating with multi-media.

Page 22: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Expands into

Expressing Ideas

Compellingly

Writing

EWhen we are overwhelmed by the abundance of information, we must work to select the information we are going to pay attention to, and the info we’re going to ignore.

Therefore, information -- our messages -- must compete for attention in order to have an audience and accomplish their goal.

This is why it is critical that students also learn to communicate with images, sound, video, and animation.

Page 23: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Molina, Consuelo. "A Sacrifice for You." iCan. 2001. SFETT. 19 Apr 2008 <http://www.sfett.com/html_movie/Ican2/sweatshop.html>.

The Sweatshop Video -- and example of a students learning to express what she has learned compellingly to an authentic audience.

Page 24: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Expanding our Notions of what it is to be Literate

• Reading

• Arithmetic

• Writing

• Exposing What is True

• Employing Information

• Expressing Ideas CompellinglyEReading expands into exposing what is true.

Arithmetic expands into employing information.

Writing expands into expressing ideas compellingly.

Page 25: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

ESpam

• ..cost the world $50 billion dollars in 2005 (U.S. $19b).

• Expected to double in 2007 (U.S. $35b).

According to theCopenhagen Consensus

• We could bring HIV/AIDS under control for $27 billion.

Jennings, Richi. “Spam and Other Email Threats: Market and Technology Update.” Ferris Research. 8 Jun 2007. Ferris Research. 9 Jun 2007 <http://www.ferris.com/>.

Kerr, Roger. “Hard-Hedaded Spending Decisions not Cold-Hearted.” BusinessROUNDTABLE. 2 Jul 2004. New Zealand Business Roundtable. 9 Jun 2007 <http://www.nzbr.org.nz/documents/articles/articles-2004/040702Copenhagen.htm>

It’s the cost of the unethical abuse of our information landscape!

Page 26: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

EthicsEthicsEthicsEAny definition of, and

conversation about, any notion of literacy in the 21st century must explicitly include the

ethical use of information.

Page 27: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

EMy Conclusion?

Stop integrating technology,

...and instead, redefine literacy, and integrate that.

If we can expand our notions of literacy and integrat that, the technology will come -- but not because we’re convinced that laying our children’s hands on these machines will make them smarter, but because computers and the Internet are the pencil and paper of our time.

Page 28: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

We see Technology

He sees Information

When my son thinks about his digital experiences, he isn’t thinking about technology. He’s thinking about the information! This is where we should be as educators -- thinking less about the technology and more about teaching from today’s digital, networked, and abundant information environment.

Page 29: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Notfor theWeak

Ver

a B

. Hoy

le c

irca

1969

1983 - 2008

We will have achieved real education reform, when no teacher believes that she can teach the same thing, the same way, year after year.

Page 30: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

It’s Not just Literacy…

It’s learning-Literacy

Today, we should be teaching literacy so that our students can

Find and use the information they need,

To learn what they need to know,

To do what they need to do!

Page 31: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

It’s Not just Literacy skills…

It’s Literacy Habits

And literacy skills are no longer enough. It is literacy habits that our students should be developing.

Page 32: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

It’s Not just Lifelong Learning…

It’s Learning Lifestyle.

And, as a result, we need to work toward our students leaving our schools with a learning lifestyle.

Page 33: Literacy & learning for the 21st Century

Literacy & Learning in the 21st CenturyDavid Warlick http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://landmark-project.com/sl/

Thank You!