Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

The information presented for Blog 4 really intrigued me. As I was reading through this weeks content, I found myself reflecting even more so than usual on my own practices. I am 28 years old and I consider myself a “digital native “(Prensky,2001) . I was that kid that Marc Prensky was talking about that grew up watching Sesame Street, and playing video games. My gaming journey started with an Atari and has evolved accordingly. I grew up working with computers and creating multimedia presentations. Whenever someone in the family needed a computer hooked up

I was on the job! Working with technology in whatever capacity was as natural as breathing for me, it was and still is instinctual!

Unfortunately, I did run across teachers that were digital immigrants both in my personal and professional lives. I can remember zoning out in high school many times when a teacher was utterly boring. Professionally, I have worked in settings in which I was literally, the youngest teacher in the entire school, wanted to go against the grain and create more student centered and directed learning experiences, incorporate oodles of technology, and get shunned for it. The more seasoned educators just did not understand or want to even try to understand that listening to our students, who are digital natives, is good idea.

From reading Ruth Reynard’s article, 21 Century Teaching and Learning (2008), I realize that the courses at Full Sail University are designed with 21^st Century skills in mind. Our professors model these techniques with us, and we learn, retain, make connections, and synthesize information better. It also makes for an exciting learning experience! The experience becomes what we, the students, make of it. The group projects in the courses allow for self-direction, planning and managing, allows us to produce high quality products, etc. To be able to do such things we have to communicate effectively with one another… The list is exhaustive! At first, I was somewhat frustrated because other graduate courses I have completed were completely different, but now it is all starting to come together.