21st Century Educator - Role

21st Century Educators

          What are the characteristics we would expect to see in 21st century educators? They are student-centric andholistic; they are about how to learn as much as about subject areas. They are 21st century learners as well. But teachers are more than this. Below are eight characteristics of a 21st century teacher.

Adaptor

The 21st Century Educator is an adaptor. Harnessed as teachers are to an assessment focused education model, the 21st century educator must be able to adapt the curriculum and its requirements to teach using digital tools. They are able to adapt software and hardware designed for a business model into tools suitable for education and specifically for a variety of age groups and abilities. They must also be able to adapt to a dynamic teaching experience. When it all goes wrong in the middle of a class, when the technologies fail, the show must go on.

As 21st century educators, they must understand and apply different learning styles. They must be able to adapt their teaching style to be inclusive of different modes of learning. The 21st century teacher matches the students preferred learning style to a variety of ICT tools. Gone is the chalk and talk approach that most of us experienced as children. It is replaced by learning that touches all of the senses; auditory, visual, kinesthetic. It also addresses students who prefer the read/write learning style.

Visionary

The 21st century educator is a visionary. A visionary teacher can look at other people's ideas and approaches and see how they would use these in his or her classes. He or she also looks across the disciplines and through the curricula and makes links that reinforce and value learning in other areas and leverage other fields to reinforce student learning. Imagination and adaptability are key, crucial components of the visionary educator of today and tomorrow. The 21st century teacher sees the potential in the emerging tools and web technologies, and then grasps and manipulates them to serve student needs.

Collaborator

Ning, Blogger, Twitter, Wikispaces, Bebo, MSN, MySpace, Second life – The 21^st century educator is able to leverage these collaborative tools to enhance and captivate learners. Educators, too, must be collaborators: sharing, contributing, adapting and inventing. The teacher's role here is often that of moderator, facilitator and referee: shaping conversation, refocusing discussion and leading by example. The teacher learns how to structure and develop conversation. The electronic medium enables students who would normally be quiet, shy or retiring to participate, discuss, debate and argue.

Teachers can collaborate and contribute by becoming involved in the many online communities. They can provide their work under the Creative Commons licence. This allows educators access to a huge array of materials at no cost. The OER (Open Educational Resources) project is a good example of resources produced under the Creative Commons banner.

Risk Taker

The 21st century educator takes risks and is prepared to tap into students’ knowledge of technology. With a vision of what he or she wants and what the technology can achieve, he or she can identify the goals and facilitate the learning. Educators can have students teach each other. The learning pyramid shows that the highest retention of knowledge comes from teaching others.

Learner

We expect our students to be life-long learners. Educators too must continue to absorb experiences and knowledge and stay current. In subject areas like Information Technology and certainly in many of the sciences, knowledge, understanding and technology are fluid and dynamic. They are evolving and changing. Teachers must change and learn and adapt as the horizons and landscape changes. The 21st century teacher is a 21st century learner too.

Communicator

The 21st century educator must be a communicator, fluent in tools and technologies that enable communication and collaboration. They must also know how to facilitate communication, stimulate and control it, moderate and manage it.

Model

Teachers model the behaviors they expect from students. There is an expectation that teachers will teach the value of learning. In fact teachers must model that value. For some students, teachers are the most consistent educational element in their lives.

They make a huge difference by modeling learning. The 21st century educator also models reflective practice; whether it's the quiet, personal inspection of their teaching and learning, or through reflective practice via blogs, Twitter and other media, educators must look both inwards and outwards.

Teachers model a number of other characteristics, not necessarily associated with integration of technologies or the curriculum, but which are of equal importance. They model:

• tolerance and respect

• acceptance

• a wider view than just their curricula areas

• global awareness

• reflection

• human values

Leader

The 21st century educator is a leader. Whether a vociferous champion of ICT integration or quiet technology coach, a teacher leads by example. Leadership, like clear goals and objectives, is crucial to the success or failure of 21st century teaching. The paper, Managing complex change, by Thousand and Villas (http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Managing+complex+change) shows the elements

required to achieve successful change:

vision + skills + incentives + resources + action plan = change

skills + incentives + resources + action plan = confusion

vision + incentives + resources + action plan = anxiety

vision + skills + resources + action plan = resistance

vision + skills + incentives + action plan = frustration

vision + skills + incentives + resources + = treadmill

21st century teachers play many roles. They must have vision, skills, incentives, the resources and an action plan to educate successfully in the 21st Century. They are the subject experts, often counsellors and frequently administrators. The roles that educators play in the 21st century are complex.