page+9



=** Engage, Motivate and Accommodate ** **The 21st Century Learner** =

** Pekka Baier-Reinio ** Students in the 21st C will need many skills to succeed. A number of authors, inventors, economists, and futurists have taken great pains to outline 21st C skills in books such as __The World is Flat__ by Thomas Friedman, __Rise of the Creative Class__ by Richard Florida, and __Grown Up Digital__ by Dan Tapscott. These authors strongly suggest that in order to thrive and survive in the 21st C, our students will need to be: creative thinkers, problem solvers, innovators, possess strong literacy and numeracy skills. The primary tool to aid them in these pursuits will be computers.

As I outline in my upcoming presentation, __How to Create an Engaging, High Tech Classroom,__ (or the subtitle which I prefer __Drive-In Cinema Lessons)__, as educators, we must engage and motivate our students. We must provide them with the skills that they need to become creative thinkers, innovative thinkers, and problem solvers. This can be achieved through the application of activities such as: Digital Storytelling, Scratch computing, Podcasting, and others… (wait until the presentation to hear my full list). The top 5 assistive technologies (which I will also outline) can then be used to support students to access the curriculum, demonstrate their learning, inoovate, think creatively, and problem solve.

These goals however, are not new. We are familiar with many of these ideas from watching classic 20th C sci-fi films such as 2001 Space Odyssey. I won’t share each of my movie metaphors, but I will share a few. Please add to my list of sci-fi lessons that show us the way forward in the 21st C.

From __Fantastic Voyage__, we learn to be prepared to face obstacles and that we do not need to be experts with all technologies. We must have the confidence to learn about technology alongside our students. Working together, we can overcome all hurdles in learning new technologies.

From __Star Trek__ we learn that diversity and inclusion make our society richer. To support all students so that everyone can have an opportunity to achieve to their fullest potential is desirable.

From __The Day the Earth Stood Still__ (the original) Professor Barnhart reminds us that teachers are still the most interactive, motivating, and influential part of any classroom.

As I prepare for our conference, please add other 20th C movies that inspire us in the 21st C and the lessons we’ve learned from these classics. Other films to consider would be Blade Runner, The Terminator, Star Wars, The Village, The Hulk….