Twenty-first century learning, in all of its varied expressions, is integrated and interdisciplinary, recognizes increasing globalization, addresses specific skills needed for the 21st century, emphasizes the flexible mindset essential to lifelong learning, focuses on individual student needs and incorporates the use of cutting-edge technology.
Twenty-first century learning draws upon the concept of holism, the Aristotelian idea that systems can only be understood by looking at them as a whole, and not simply by investigating their parts. As such, the 21st century learning approach is holistic and inspired by modern systems theory. This approach, therefore, integrates disciplines that may have seemed unrelated in the 20th century.
Because the need for global cooperation is becoming more evident with every succeeding year, the need for creating global classrooms to facilitate such collaboration is apparent as well. This global communication within the education system is considered by virtually all 21st century learning proponents to play an essential role in creating and maintaining cross-cultural peace, justice and tolerance.
From the perspective of 21st century learning, the skills considered most essential for you in the 21st century include collaboration, systems thinking, empathy and communication, technological skills, civic engagement and intrapersonal intelligence.
Adaptability demands commitment to personal and social evolution, and 21st century learning, therefore, incorporates methods that foster flexibility and avoid rigidity. This kind of commitment to lifelong learning is recognized as being essential to our continued successful adaptation to the ever-accelerating changes we face as a global society.
In an age when schools fail to teach students how to discover their own deepest longings and strengths, 21st century learning recognizes that such neglect only results in many graduates and professionals with toxic careers that fail to reflect who they are inwardly. This toxicity in turn has ripple effects that influence economies, politics and global relations.
Instead, 21st century learning utilizes an individualized, student-centered approach that more readily establishes students in careers better suited to their inherent drives. And better career-fit means greater emotional stability in the long run, both personally and socially.
Web-based communications systems are playing an ever-growing role in education, the most highly used of which are HTML forms or scripting language forms, podcasts, audio, video, blogs, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and browser-based digital storage systems.
These interactive, web-based technologies offer unprecedented access to learning, and require only that you have access to a computer connected to the Internet. Using this format, you can receive assignments, complete and return them almost entirely electronically, which in turn cuts down on paper waste.