The Four C's
Andrew Carnegie said, "No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it." In today's workplaces, there is a need for a wide variety of skills and perspectives and communication and collaboration skills are necessary to facilitate the utilization of these skills and perspectives. Creativity and critical thinking are are just as important, yet many people consider themselves to be lacking with these "talents."
There is a lot to cover this week as we focus on of the 4 C's. The renewed emphasis on the 4 C's has been part of educational conversations for about 15 years now, so we hope you are already quite familiar with their importance. In particular, we want to look for ways that technology can help students grow in these four areas.
Collaboration
We will start with collaboration, because for many people there are barriers to overcome. Most teachers and most diligent students have experienced the frustration that often comes with group work: students who seem unable to get on with others and unmotivated students who become "free-loaders."
The following video gives a brief introduction to collaboration. (If the video is not embedded below, please use the link int he reference below.
OnSide Learning (2014, February 6). Education - Collaboration. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Po40I4c94R0
The next articles include suggestions as to how to help students develop collaboration skills.
Sparks, S. (2017, May 16). Children Must Be Taught to Collaborate, Studies Say. Education Week. Vol. 36, 31, 8. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/05/17/children-must-be-taught-to-collaborate-studies.html
Mulvahill, E. (2016, September 12). 8 Fun Ways to Help Your Students Collaborate in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.weareteachers.com/8-fun-ways-to-help-your-students-collaborate-in-the-classroom/
Vander Ark, T. (2016, May 17). How to Avoid the Free Rider Problem in Teams. Retrieved from http://www.gettingsmart.com/2016/05/how-to-avoid-the-free-rider-problem-in-teams/
Creativity
There seems to be very broad agreement about the importance of creativity, but there are also misunderstandings. One of the bests known speakers on creativity is Sir Ken Robinson. His entertaining and thought provoking TED Talk from 2007 is the most watched TED Talk, with more than 50 million views. If you have not already watched it, it would be worth watching first.Robinson, K. (2007, January 6) Do Schools Kill Creativity? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY
In 2014, Brainwaves published another talk by Robinson asking "Can Creativity be Taught?"
Robinson, K. (2014, August 30. Sir Ken Robinson - Can Creativity Be Taught? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/vlBpDggX3iE
We are told that creativity is becoming increasingly important for the future success of our students, so the question asked in the next article is very important.
Rettner, R. (2011, August 12). Are Today's Youth Less Creative and Imaginative? Science on NBC News.com. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44121819/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/are-todays-youth-less-creative-imaginative/#.WsVCxsi-nGI
The next article suggests that technology can be used to boost creativity, although we might choose to use different content to spark the imagination of our students. This is followed by two articles that present a different perspective to the topic.
[Zsolt B] (2016, November 23). How new technology can boost student creativity in the classroom. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.neolms.com/how-new-technology-can-boost-student-creativity-in-the-classroom/
Fleming, L. (2017, October 26). Intersection of Creativity, Technology & Learning: A Conversation. [Web log post]. Retrieved January 2, 2024 from https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/12441
Kowalski, F., Kowalski, S., Kohl, P. & Kuo, V. (2013, August 11)Technology-Enabled Nurturing of Creativity and Innovation: A Specific Illustration from an Undergraduate Engineering Physics Course
Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.2434
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking and terms that have a similar meaning have valued for a long time but like most of the "21st century" skills, have been given a renewed emphasis. We will begin with another short video from OnSide Learning to clarify what we mean by critical thinking.
[OnSide Learning]. (2013, August 21). Education - Critical Thinking. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/nkqBDUyNbIc
How do you know if you are thinking critically? The next video provides questions we can consider to help us determine this.
[NewDemocracy Foundation]. (2016, October 25). Critical Thinking. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/uMFgrHXetSM
Not many people would argue against the value of critical thinking, but it is not an easy task. Willingham suggests reasons for this in the following article.
Willingham, D. (Summer 2007). Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach?, American Educator. (2007, Summer). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/critical-thinking-why-it-so-hard-teach
Communication
This is a very broad topic, so we are going to limit our reading to the intersection of technology and communication. We will examine the affect of technology on students' communication skills and what we can do to improve these communication skills.
The next article is fairly typical of articles you may have read in the popular press and expresses concerns about negative impacts of technology use.
[Apple Rubber] (2016, October 31). Is Technology Ruining Kids’ Communication Skills? [Web log post]. Retrieved April 15, 2018 from http://www.applerubber.com/blog/is-technology-ruining-kids-communication-skills/
From a reading of the next blog post, you will see that similar perceptions are very common.
Pierson, F. (2018, February 2). Tech Industry Workers Express Concern About Children and Technology Overuse. [Web log post]. Retrieved April 15, 2018 from https://blog.asha.org/2018/02/02/tech-industry-workers-express-concern-about-children-and-technology-overuse/
Is this perception of the problem supported by research?
Drago, E. (2015, Spring). The Effects of technology on Face-to-Face Communication. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6 (1). Retrieved from https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/06/02DragoEJSpring15.pdf
What can we do as teachers, to improve the situation?
If you teach young children, or have young children of your own, this article from Creation.com may be helpful.
Tabares, J. (2009) Communication FUNdamentals: 10 Fun Ways to Teach Children Effective Communication Skills. Retrieved from https://creation.com/communication-fundamentals-10-fun-ways-to-teach-children-effective-communication-skills
Mendler, A. (2013, November 5). Teaching Your Students How to Have a Conversation. [Web log post]. Retrieved April 3, 2-18 from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-your-students-conversation-allen-mendler
This final article provides helpful ideas and a web service that can help with implementation of the ideas. We will look more at tools in our Implementation segment this week.
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ReplyDeletehttps://www.lipscomb.edu/education/blog/education/2014/4/17/collaboration-an-essential-skill-for-the-21st-century
Article from Cornell University for teaching innovation pages not found!
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ReplyDeletehttps://arxiv.org/abs/1308.2434
THATS THE KOWALSKI LINK
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ReplyDeleteBoutcheron, L. (2016, March 5). How to teach communication skills that go beyond words. Retrieved from https://www.nureva.com/blog/how-to-teach-communication-skills-that-go-beyond-words
ReplyDeleteSeabrook, T. (2017, September 3). 8 ways to build your students’ communication skills. [Web log post]. Retrieved April 15, 2018 from
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All the other sites had awesome information. some you have to copy and paste URL but that doesnt matter. some may not be working because I'm in BC Canada, not sure
ReplyDeleteI am not able to open any of the article links here. All I get is a blank page.
ReplyDeleteThe article by Ellen Lupton was not accessible with the link provided above. You can find it, though, at https://www.aiga.org/why-collaborate.
ReplyDeleteWriting is one the ways we can improve communication skills among students. In a world where everything has become digital, and technology is at the tips of everyone fingers it is imperative to teach writing skills.
ReplyDeleteCreativity is my biggest challenge as a teacher! I wasn't naturally very creative as a child, and even now it's difficult for me to encourage it well in students.
ReplyDeleteThe 21st century classroom has become truly diverse especially in developed countries because of migration. Students and teachers alike who speak a local language integrate themselves in a totally new learning community and manage to communicate any way possible while working out themselves to learn English as a second language. Students and teachers with diverse backgrounds have different interpretations of languages, signs, and other forms of communication which affects how they converse, make decisions, and approach conflict (Parvez, 2019). Back in the Philippines I never struggled with my English, but when I moved to Canada, I find myself struggling at times with words. Aside from my grammatical construction, in my mind is an automatic bell to always use the right words in their right context so I don’t offend people when I speak.
ReplyDeleteParvez, R. (2019, March). Communication Challenges in a Multicultural Environment (Work & Education). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379047570_Communication_Challenges_in_a_Multicultural_Environment_Work_Education