SMART CH1: 21st Century Skills

All while reading this chapter, my mind kept going back to my first memory of a computer in my house. It was probably I was around the age of 6 which would have been the year 1995. I remember we had a little office area and in that office was the computer. As a kid, I was instructed not to touch it or most importantly be careful when turning it off. I didn't use it much except to watch my parents on it and I only remember watching my grandparents playing free-cell on it... So much has changed now in just 15 years and the debate now stands, do we teach the content knowledge or do we need to teach 21st century skills? Which is more important? I don't know! I continually go back and forth.

21st Century skills are skills very different from all other generations before. While skills continually change, the skills needed in the 21st century have to do with being able to thrive in a constantly evolving society. It's a sink or swim world out there in technology and many technology immigrants are having to learn that the hard way. For the technology natives, there is still a possibility of sinking but it is easier to float since technology is the world that surrounds them.

One quote that really stuck out to me in this chapter said this, "Of course, one of the problems is that we do not know precisely what kinds of job skills today's kindergarten students will need when they graduate from high school." What a powerful and shocking statement? How do you prepare these students? What skills do they need? We don't know yet! Technology is always, always changing and it is hard to stay ahead of the game. But I guess this just means that teachers need to do the best of their ability to teach the students with the technological skills that are around at this moment and keep building on them so that when these students grow up to be adults they will have all the skills of the past and the future.