21st Century Literacy Resources

21st Century Literacies refer to the skills needed to flourish in today's society and in the future. Today discrete disciplines have emerged around information, media, multicultural, and visual literacies. It is the combination of literacies that can better help K-12 students and adult learners address and solve the issues that confront them. (Hewlett Packard, 2005)

On this resource page the focus is on four 21st century literacies - information, media, multicultural, and visual. The resources are to assist in the understanding and integration of 21st century literacy skills.

The tools presented here are based on a 21st Century Literacies Framework and seek to promote the skills, knowledge and attitudes to help students develop effective lifelong literacy awareness, seeking, management and presentation strategies.

Enjoy the future....

21st Century Literacies Theory- This webliography includes links to national and internation organizations that have developed standards and best practices based on research. Explores the skills needed by our students to work, live, and thrive in a knowledge and information based society.

Information Literacy- This critical component of an information-based society where critical thinking meets information evaluation for accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.

Multicultural Literacy - The 21st century is bring changes to the American demographic as minorities today become a majority tomorrow. Students can expect, more and more, to work with colleagues of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Ignorance belongs in the past, not the future, as the American dream becomes a many hued landscape of opportunity and diversity

Media - Is reporting really unbiased? How can information be skewed, manipulated, and used to move the masses? Students must prepare to be educated consumers in the information they digest. Whose perspective is being shown, whose side is being ignored, is it just the facts or a misinformation masterpiece?

Visual - They say we eat with our eyes first. They take in huge amounts of information in rapid progression but can students use this to present their ideas, dreams, and critical thinking? The information age has given us tools to create multimedia presentations of our concepts, students need to be able to create such moving images and to understand the information being conveyed.

Courtesy of Janet Damen-Jackson, Oakland Library DPS