Learning in the 21st Century

Connie Yowell’s talk was very enlightening and interesting for me. She talked about the role of technology or digital media in the 21^st century learning. Reports conducted by different researchers say that those learners who are digitally literate have strong results than those who don’t. It is important to know that kids become digitally literate outside the school without any guidance from school administration, therefore, school stays behind and sometimes ‘out of date’.

Connie Yowell also talks about 3 conceptual shifts:

Ø Shift from education to learning. The first one refers to what institutions do and the second one refers to something that the youth and adults do.

Ø Shift from consumption to participation. Today learners are more doers than consumers. Thomas Freidman also talked about the need to move learners from consumers to makers, doers.

Ø Shift from institutions to networks.

The speaker also focused our attention on the necessity of conducting more and more qualitative or descriptive research on how kids use digital media in order to identify new categories and theories for a quantitative research. Besides, she pointed out the fact that it is not about technologies, it is more about social practices that technologies can afford. In order to satisfy 21^st century learners it is critical to move away from all traditional skills and to try to link the virtual reality with the real one and to support the whole learning environment both online and offline.

As a future EFL educator I think that is it necessary for me to explore the technologies that students are interested in and try to include them in face-to –face language learning. It is crucial to figure out the context in which the kids learn and try to operate in the best practices of the learners. Also, we should involve parents in the whole learning process and raise their awareness in the need of digital media in EFL learning.

To wrap up, nowadays learning has become more dynamic, more flexible and more learner-centered. Learning can’t be limited only in an offline context but includes other sectors situated in an online environment, like Google. The teachers should be open to innovations and try to recognize the new literacy practices whenever or wherever it occurs. The digital media is a powerful tool that if used correctly in an EFL classroom can be a real “springboard” in the successful language learning. Also, I would recommend using those technologies that are the most effective and can be applicable in for research agenda. They are digital storytelling, podcasts, blogs, Google apps, social bookmarks and wikis.