21st Century: Are we moving too fast?

When I was doing my undergrad work at Seton Hall years ago, the idea of 21st Century learning, skills, and teaching were not even discussed. I'm pretty sure we were still learning about bloom's taxonomy, John Dewey, and how to teach our children the basics of literacy, social studies, and how not to plagiarize.

Since I have been teaching, it seems that nothing I did during my undergrad has truly been worth it. I mean, I literally spent one semester creating a "Web Quest" for a basic computers class. While the web quest idea was interesting and engaging, I didn't see the point for it. Maybe that was their way to moving us towards 21st century skills and teaching. 

Thing is, I have never used, nor probably will ever use, a web quest during my teachings. The Internet, social media, and creativity have surpassed these once educational tools that are on our computers. Web quests are boring, as are watching videos, creating PowerPoint's, and the like. These things that I learned about in school WERE the 21st century skills that we needed. Now, they have been replaced, and rather quickly I might add, with creative blogging, interactive video chat, and more. Things have changed quickly because we are changing quickly. We want, and when I say we I mean our future generations, instantaneous interaction. We want feedback. We want things that will grab our attention and hold it for more than three and a half seconds. 

I am not griping. I was happy, and still happy, about my undergrad education in 21st century skills. These were the skills of the time. I just wish they have the foresight to see that those were educational tools of the 20th century. Now finishing up my graduate work, I realize that items are the wave of the future BUT this wave is already starting to crest. 

Google just turned 13. Facebook is 6 years old. YouTube has already been Time magazines person of the year (or was it people of the year?). Point is... are these items that are hot right now truly 21st century learning? Or are they the start of something larger and more interactive. If you have noticed, all of those websites look nothing like they did when they first started. Facebook is now undergoing its umpteenth change in the last year - this time to make it more user friendly and interactive. Google is always unveiling a new tool to its repertoire, such as Google +, google docs, or google apps. 

My hope is that we as educators can stay ahead of the curve instead of two steps behind it. While the world grabs a hold of blogging and wiki-ing (is that a word??), our younger generations have been there and already done that - they are off to bigger, better, and more secretive things that we will soon learn about. 

How do we stay ahead of the curve? Are we being disingenuous to the things that came before it? Are we smiting the old ways of doing things? 

I don't have answers to those but what I do know is this: 21st century skills and learning does not just happen with the internet, social media, or technology - it is a frame of mind. It is all about collaborating, creativity, and being a part of something bigger than yourself. If we can keep those items in mind, I hope we can be prepared for the 22nd century skills in time.