Understand 21st-century learning
A 21st-century learning community prepares graduates to live and work successfully in the century that is so far characterized by a diverse, technology-dependent, and media-saturated society. To live and work successfully in our fast-paced, technology-rich, and interconnected world requires the traditional skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic and the more advanced competencies of digital literacy, the ability to solve problems, communicate effectively, think critically, and grasp complex systems.
While there’s not a checklist of attributes that define 21st-century learning, we believe that a 21st-century learning community is a connected community that engages many stakeholders, including educators, learners, staff, parents, education experts, and business professionals, in an ongoing process to improve learning to meet the challenges we face today. Committed to this collaborative process, these 21st-century learning communities seek to broaden access to technology for all learners and to prepare all learners for success in the digital age and global economy by:
- Integrating technology into every aspect of the environment, including curriculum delivery, community collaboration, office support, content creation, and sharing content and assessments.
- Providing access to learning anytime and anywhere for continuous learning.
- Offering relevant tools, skills, content, and learning environments.
- Adapting to the individual needs of learners and to the evolving needs of the community.
- Cultivating critical-thinking, creativity, and effective communication skills by engaging learners with real-world situations and community-based projects.
Creating 21st-century learning communities is one of the core initiatives of
Microsoft U.S. Partners in Learning.
