Literacy Is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluency for the Digital Age by Ian Jukes

These are my notes from Ian Jukes‘ METC 2010 presentation, “Literacy Is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluency for the Digital Age” at the METC 2010 conference. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I haven’t heard Ian present in quite a few years. He was the first person at an educational technology conference (TCEA) to really make my head spin and inspire me to get on the digital learning mardi gras float. 🙂

Quoting Don Tapscott, “Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World”
consumers vs prosumers

In
have value
entertain
teach

students today may be literate by the standards of the 20th century, but won’t be literate by the standard of OUR society today

we need to move to 21st century literacies or fluencies
– when you are literate, you still have to think about what you are going to do next
– fluencies are unconscious skills, you just “know” what to do next

hands up: who learned to ride a bicycle?
– who has one away from riding a bike for an extended period of time
– riding a bike is a fluency

If I was king for a day, I would tell you the 21st century fluencies are
– technological fluency: I am not looking at a pen as I write, wondering how the creators got the ink
— 2 times I think about the pen: when it doesn’t work or when I can’t find it
— you’re not thinking about your hand or the pen when you use a pen, you are thinking about your purpose

this is NOT about teaching kids MS Word
– this about helping kids become better writers
– helping kids become better problem solvers
– better communicators

learning about the technology is nothing but an essential byproduct
– real issue is the TASK not the tool
– not software or hardware
– headware is the key

decisionmaking, time management, etc.

Let’s assume you work for a magazine
– do they say I need a photograph, or “I need to use a digital camera?”
– the camera is the means to the end, not the end itself

Next one: Media Fluency
– not just about being able to operate digital camera, creating a podcast, etc.
– it is about looking critically at the content of a website, video game, video, etc and understanding why that particular media is being used to shape people’s thinking
– it’s not just about the fact it is being used, it is about HOW WELL it is being used

what is the most appropriate way / medium we need to be able to use to communicate the message effectively
– it may be a blog, video, or a traditional form

Media Fluency is NOT just about the passive ingestion of media
– we live in an interactive world
– teaching our kids HOW to communicate
– the Internet is a wasteland of artifacts created by people with “NCAA” (“No Clue At All”

growing up we were taught to communciate with texts
– kids today are being taught to communicate with images

we were paper trained, kids are light and sound trained
– this requires a different set of skills, different literacy skills

most of these media literacy skills in schools, if taught at all, are considered secondary / optional / elective skills
– I argue they are MORE important than traditional literacy skills

How many times have you heard some

Information fluency: ability to unconsiously and intuitively extract essential knowledge, and perceive meaning and significance

5 stage process kids need:
1- ask good questions: if kids can’t ask good questions, they are not going to get good answers

THAT IS IMPORTANT / CRITICAL FOR ALL LEARNERS: TEACHERS TOO!

In the digital age this isn’t just about going to the card catalog
– these media artifacts are the raw materials of the 21st century

learning is NOT just about having access to the paper-based resources we had in our youth

2- Access and Acquire information from the most appropriate source (high tech, low tech, or no tech sources)

3- Analyze and authenticate: the ability to evaluate information to weight its truthfulness and accuracy

“the internet is an open sewer of untreated information”

“we would never give kids the keys to drive without a license”

how many of you have:
– bought something with incomplete information?
– married someone with incomplete information

Story about Stormfront and martinlutherking.org
– it’s about triangulating information

4- APPLY information: create products that solve real world problems
– kids need to be able to create a movie, build a bridge, make a sound recording, write an essay, perform in a debate
– all those actions are VIP: from Vision Into Practice

Research says this: Edward Dale’s Learning Cone, updated by Glasser and Marzano, kids will 72 hours after exposure to information will retain 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 50% of content that uses two or more media and once ,and 90% of content that asks learenrs to do these things in this order:
1- reteach the content to someone else
2- apply the information in a real world context

“Oh I forgot you are from the Midwest”

5- Assess: both the product and the process, what was learned, how was it learned, how could the product and process be improved next time?

THIS REMINDS ME OF THE VIDEO BACKSTORY / DIRECTOR’S CUT IDEA FOR STUDENT MEDIA PROJECTS WITH KEVIN HONEYCUTT AND I DISCUSSED LAST MONTH. ASSESSMENT IS KEY.

These skills need to be taught at all grade levels, in all content areas

Literacy is NOT enough

PHD = piling on things higher and deeper

We need to shift our instructional model, full frontal delivery, to a model where MORE of the time we are the facilitators of learning
– I know I am contradicting myself here
– we have to resist the urge to tell students the WHOLE story
– when we tell students everything they need to know to pass the test, it takes the fun and discovery out of the experience of learning

Who has seen the movie Avatar? My son told me what was going to happ

Our job as educators is NOT to just stand up and try to show kids how smart we are
– our job is to empower students to become critical thinkers
– we need to learn to TEACH LAZY
– progressive withdrawl in the students’ lives

I AM NOT SURE I ENTIRELY AGREE WITH THIS. I THINK IT IS EASIER TO DO “FULL FRONTAL TEACHING” THAN FACILITATE LEARNING. LESS RISK IS INVOLVED WITH THE OLD MODEL. IT’S BASED ON A PARADIGM OF CONTROL INSTEAD OF EMPOWERMENT. I THINK

Image of Star Wars Imperial Walker that has collapsed. Message: You Fail

We have created a culture of dependency in many of our classrooms

Who remembers your kids or grandkids’ first steps?
– did you give them an F or a 37% score? No.
– you encouraged them to get up again, and try again

independent and self reliant: those are the things we need to help students become

We need to teach lazy: need to move from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”

Keeping them engaged: it’s almost impossible to do today

JUKES IS MAKING THE COMMON ERROR OF USING THE WORD “ENGAGE” WHEN HE MEANS “ENTHRALL”

Now showing triangle: 10% reading, 20% hearing, 30% seeing, 50% hear and see, 70% say, 90% say and do (velcro learning)

LISTENING TO IAN’S PRESENTATION STYLE IS A LOT LIKE LISTENING TO A CHARISMAIC PREACHER. LOTS OF GOOD IDEAS HERE. THIS PRESENTATION STYLE TURNS SOME PEOPLE OFF, HOWEVER.

We can’t just lecture (like I am being forced to lecture to you now)

THAT IS PROBABLY THE BIGGEST

If we want our kids to be successful in life, graduate as more than just hiding, educated, useless people
– people with really good “school skills” but not prepared for the life outside of school
– we can’t just focus on lower level skills
– HOTS: higher order thinking skills

THE WORD FIREHOSE STILL COMES TO MIND WHEN I EXPERIENCE IAN’S PRESENTATION STYLE

Book recommended by Ian: “Teaching for Tomorrow” by Ted McCain

ianjukes.com – www.committedsardine.com

Story of Ted McCain who teaches with “progressive withdrawal”
– gives students a PROBLEM scenario, which includes incomplete information, and asks them to help solve it
– comes in with “C” hat (customer)
– comes in with “T” hat (teacher)

If you email Ian, he will send you a link to his METC 2010 presesntation materials
– 125,000 people are accessing this website per month

INTERSTING TO SEE IAN IS USING A TYPICAL MARKETING SQUEEZE PAGE

Book: UG8JU6MZ code gets you a 10% discount on “Understanding the Digital Generation” book
www.understandingthedigitalgeneration.com

If you email me at iajukes [at] mac [dot] com I’ll get back to you in 48 hours

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On this day..

• Good Fair Use Copyright Example in School: “Communities” and The Lion Sleeps Tonight – 2020
• Cell Phone Digital Storytelling with Narrable – 2013
• Visualizing Sharing #edushare – 2012
• Create iPad Stories with StoryPatch – 2011
• Cool Tools for the Classroom by Dr Carl Owens #msmeca11 – 2011
• Leading Schools with Digital Vision in a Bubblesheet World (Slidecast) #msmeca11 – 2011
• To what countries have you Skyped? (from Mississippi) #msmeca11 – 2011
• Outsourcing school district IT staff – 2010
• Online learning at Crescent, Oklahoma – 2010
• Teaching more content with an IWB is not transformational – 2010