21st century skills − 20 years in

We may only be a fifth of our way into the 21st century, but already in the year 2000, just a year after the Web 2.0 era was invented, the term ‘21st century skills’ was coined. Now, three web eras later in the web 5.0 era, the shift has moved from the design and implementation of websites (web 2.0) to the intelligent and emotional (symbiotic) web (web 5.0). I find it interesting that several web cycles later, tools are trying to adopt more ‘human’ attributes, because oftentimes tech is correlated with machines and mechanical responses, yet, in reality, tech architects are trying to simulate humans through symbiosis.

You may be wondering how this relates to teaching and learning. Well, when I think of 21C skills, I see them in two veins. Firstly, I think of educational technology and technological literacy skills like coding, which nowadays is a skill primary school pupils in the UK are learning. Similarly, though, I also see 21C skills in the light of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and the more ‘human’ and emotional traits of technology, which have enabled the global village to thrive. Both skill sets will certainly pave the way for our current generation of young learners and teens to have a marvellous armoury of life skills to carry them forward in life, if they are able to hone an arsenal that combines the two. My point being that while tech can make teaching and learning quicker and bring it to the convivence of our own homes, the focus of the pedagogy remains the same; it needs to ensure learning is happening, and this is done by ensuring learner engagement and collaboration.

While it is clear the ubiquity of digital devices means the majority of people have some notion of how to interact at a distance, there is obviously a great difference between social interaction which is both informal and we choose to do at our leisure, and being obliged to teach and learn in a remote context. While it could be argued that the current online teaching solutions in response to school closures and the redundancy of face-to-face teaching means that learners are already becoming adept at communicating via digital interfaces and collaborating at a distance, my intuition from teachers I have spoken to and personal experience perhaps do not align with that reality. I can imagine that teachers and learners feel more ‘comfortable’ learning in the digital classroom now than they did a year ago; however, I am still experiencing the same challenges I did then regarding interaction and engagement in the online classroom.

The current propensity for online learning has exposed a wider number of teachers and learners to teaching and learning solely via a screen. I am sure that many teachers will agree with me regarding the challenges of engaging learners in the digital classroom, which varies from ensuring they are actively participating to having cameras turned on at all times. I personally experience situations where learners try to ‘hide’ off camera especially with platforms that only allow a maximum number of profiles to be active on the screen, which is lower than the total number of students in the class. For me, this has led to the awareness that one of the most important 21C skills is not so much coding or digital literacy, but learner engagement, and empathy. Contrary to the popular selfie culture, there appears to be a negative response to seeing oneself live on a screen for an hour or two. This is reflected in the lack of interaction during class and the lack of confidence to engage in eye contact. I feel that empathy from teachers is required to understand the difficulty for learners to be learning from their homes. Some may feel that it is an intrusive experience because essentially, they are exposing a version of themselves as they are in the home. Another essential skill teachers need to employ is engagement, by encouraging as much interaction as possible with lots of group and pair work discussion and problem-solving activities which promote interaction that is both verbal and visual and not purely written.

In spite of the fact that digital communication is second nature to most of our learners, I have found that this has had a negative impact on ‘real’ social skills. By ‘real’ I mean that learners have become used to messaging blindly with friends, family and other acquaintances they meet while gaming or socialising online; however, the act of ‘physically’ socialising face-to-face is becoming increasingly alien as they spend more time glued to their phones and other devices with screens, and less time interacting in person. This results in the challenge of learners being reluctant to speak in the online classroom. Perhaps this originates from the fact that when one person speaks in an online class, everyone can hear, and it is the main focus at that moment. Whereas in the physical classroom they can speak to the person sitting next to them, or feel that their words become dispersed in the air and they are not the main focus of the class while they are speaking aloud, and other students may well be distracted and not listening specifically to what is being said.

In one multi-lingual class I had this summer, eye contact was a real issue, so I designed an activity where learners had to interact in pairs with one student speaking and the other only being able to respond with facial gestures! It may sound a little leftfield, but it enabled learners to practise expressing themselves physically ‘on camera’, and more importantly made them aware of interaction skills in the digital classroom to avoid a situation that feels like talking to a group of cardboard cut-outs. Another approach I have had recourse to is nominating students and asking them to nominate the next one to speak. This is one sure way of making sure all learners are paying attention, despite being an archaic method.

So, depending on which definition of 21st century skills you choose, it could be directly correlated to the expectations you have of your learners. Does it mean they should be adept at using EdTech? Or does it simply mean that they are comfortable with digital media as a medium of instruction? Either way, I do feel that it is our responsibility as teaching practitioners to promote a comfortable and productive learning environment with plenty of engaging activities to put learners at ease, empathising that they may not like being the focus of attention in the class, while at the same time ensuring learning objectives are met. Technology changes at such a fast pace that no sooner have we got to grips with a new tool or terminology, it has already morphed into another concept. I have always argued, and will continue to do so, that no matter what tool is used for teaching and learning, the ultimate aim of all teaching professionals should be to meet learning objectives based on strong pedagogical groundings, so just because we have now all ‘gone digital’ this shouldn’t mean we veer away from the approaches to teaching we use in face-to-face contexts.