21st Century Learners

Some tidbits from a panel discussion for county school media center staff (to which county YA and children's librarians were invited) follow.

Twenty-first century learners:

• collaborate
• use technology tools to get information
• must make analytical decisions
• multi-task (one panelist said, Think of it not as "doing 3 things at once," but instead as doing one think at 100% attention for three minutes, then another thing at 100% for 30 seconds, then another thing....)
• blur lines between work and play (The university instructor said, We had to institute a campus-wide rule, "Don't bring your dog to class"; it had never occurred to many students that that was not okay.)

Employers seek:

• Communicators
• People who are "on-the-ball"
• People who love what they do

Panelists: Daniel Arkin (Va. Society for Technology in Education), Gail Dickinson (School librarianship program, Old Dominion University), Stanley B. Jones (SunTrust), Leslie S. Remington (ESL Coordinator, schools)