21st+Century+Transdisciplinary+Learning

Digital Citizenship
Confident and skilled users of ICT Understand relevant personal, cultural, and societal issues Practice safe, responsible, legal, and ethical use of digital media Show positive attitudes to the use of a range of current and emerging digital media and formats Appreciate their benefits and limitations in relation to other forms of communication Use ICT both for information access and to engage with other users to develop cultural understanding and global awareness.

Environmental Citizenship
Understand that we form one part of a diverse ecosystem, reliant on the earth for the majority of our daily needs. Act to safeguard our environment and promote sustainability.

International Understanding


Knowledge and critical appreciation of the values, norms, institutions and lifestyles of different cultures, both local and international. A sense of our common humanity at the same time as celebrating diversity and interacting with people from differing cultures with respect and empathy. A firm sense of own individual cultural identities as well as insight into the influences shaping individuals in other communities. Consider ethical questions involved in tensions between tolerance and concern for rights and justice.

Video LInks - Rethinking Education
PLEASE BEGIN OR CONTRIBUTE TO DISCUSSIONS AFTER WATCHING ANY OF THESE VIDEO LINKS. OUR SHARED THINKING IS WHAT MOVES US FORWARD. [|child driven education] [|Wagner 7 Skills] [|Scott McLeod] [|Yong Zhao] [|Sir Ken - RSA Animate] [|Learn to Change - Change to Learn] [|Computer Maths] [|Failing to Learn]



Thinking skills

 * Acquisition of knowledge** - Gaining specific facts, ideas, vocabulary; remembering in a similar form.


 * Comprehension** - Grasping meaning from material learned; communicating and interpreting learning.


 * Application** - Making use of previously acquired knowledge in practical or new ways.


 * Analysis** - Taking knowledge or ideas apart; separating into component parts; seeing relationships; finding unique characteristics.


 * Synthesis** - Combining parts to create wholes; creating, designing, developing and innovating.


 * Evaluation** - Making judgments or decisions based on chosen criteria; standards and conditions.


 * Dialectical thought** - Thinking about two or more different points of view at the same time; understanding those points of view; being able to construct an argument for each point of view based on knowledge of the other(s); realizing that other people can also take one’s own point of view.


 * Metacognition** - Analysing one’s own and others’ thought processes; thinking about how one thinks and how one learns.

Social skills
assume a share of the responsibility.
 * Accepting responsibility** - Taking on and completing tasks in an appropriate manner; being willing to


 * Respecting others** - Listening sensitively to others; making decisions based on fairness and equality; recognizing that others’ beliefs, viewpoints, religions and ideas may differ from one’s own; stating one’s opinion without hurting others.

materials; taking turns.
 * Cooperating** - Working cooperatively in a group; being courteous to others; sharing


 * Resolving conflict** - Listening carefully to others; compromising; reacting reasonably to the situation; accepting responsibility appropriately; being fair.


 * Group decision-making** - Listening to others; discussing ideas; asking questions; working towards and obtaining consensus.


 * Adopting a variety of group roles** - Understanding what behaviour is appropriate in a given situation and acting accordingly; being a leader in some circumstances, a follower in others.

Communication skills

 * Listening** - Listening to directions; listening to others; listening to information.


 * Speaking** - Speaking clearly; giving oral reports to small and large groups; expressing ideas clearly and logically; stating opinions.


 * Reading** - Reading a variety of sources for information and pleasure; comprehending what has been read; making inferences and drawing conclusions.


 * Writing** - Recording information and observations; taking notes and paraphrasing; writing summaries; writing reports; keeping a journal or record.


 * Viewing** - Interpreting and analysing visuals and multimedia; understanding the ways in which images and language interact to convey ideas, values and beliefs; making informed choices about personal viewing experiences.


 * Presenting** - Constructing visuals and multimedia for a range of purposes and audiences; communicating information and ideas through a variety of visual media; using appropriate technology for effective presentation and representation.


 * Non-verbal communication** - Recognizing the meaning of visual and kinesthetic communication; recognizing and creating signs; interpreting and utilizing symbols.

Self-management skills
strength is primary.
 * Gross motor skills** - Exhibiting skills in which groups of large muscles are used and the factor of


 * Fine motor skills** - Exhibiting skills in which precision in delicate muscle systems is required.


 * Spatial awareness** - Displaying a sensitivity to the position of objects in relation to oneself or each other.


 * Organization** - Planning and carrying out activities effectively.


 * Time management** - Using time effectively and appropriately.


 * Safety** - Engaging in personal behaviour that avoids placing oneself or others in danger or at risk.


 * Healthy lifestyle** - Making informed choices to achieve a balance in nutrition, rest, relaxation and exercise; practising appropriate hygiene and self-care.


 * Codes of behaviour** - Knowing and applying appropriate rules or operating procedures of groups of people.


 * Informed choices** - Selecting an appropriate course of action or behaviour based on fact or opinion.

Research skills

 * Formulating questions** - Identifying something one wants or needs to know and asking compelling and relevant questions that can be researched.


 * Observing** - Using all the senses to notice relevant details.


 * Planning** - Developing a course of action; writing an outline; devising ways of finding out necessary information.


 * Collecting data** - Gathering information from a variety of first- and second-hand sources such as maps, surveys, direct observation, books, films, people, museums and ICT.


 * Recording data** - Describing and recording observations by drawing, note taking, making charts, tallying, writing statements.


 * Organizing data** - Sorting and categorizing information; arranging into understandable forms such as narrative descriptions, tables, timelines, graphs and diagrams.


 * Interpreting data** - Drawing conclusions from relationships and patterns that emerge from organized data.


 * Presenting research findings** - Effectively communicating what has been learned; choosing appropriate media.

THANKS TO JAMES FOR THIS ARTICLE FROM: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/26/innovation.tips/index.html  ** London, England (CNN) ** -- Coming up with brilliant, game-changing ideas is what makes the likes of Apple's Steve Jobs so successful, and now researchers say they have identified the five secrets to being a great innovator Professors from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University have just completed a six-year study of more than 3,000 executives and 500 innovative entrepreneurs, that included interviews with high-profile entrepreneurs including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell, founder of Dell computers. In an article published in December's Harvard Business Review the researchers identified five skills that separate the blue-sky innovators from the rest -- skills they labeled  associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and discovering.  One of the men behind the study, Insead's Hal Gregersen, told CNN, "What the innovators have in common is that they can put together ideas and information in unique combinations that nobody else has quite put together before." The researchers describe this ability to connect ideas as "associating," and say it's key to innovators' ability to think outside the box. But they add that the secret to how the great innovators think is the way they act. "The way they act is to observe actively, like an anthropologist, and they talk to incredibly diverse people with different world views, who can challenge their assumptions," Gregersen told CNN. "For them, everything is to be experimented upon -- for example, if they walk into a bookstore and they're used to reading history they might try psychology. All these behaviors are powerfully enhanced by a capacity to ask provocative, challenging questions of the world around them." Because the ability to think differently comes from acting differently, Gregersen says anyone can become a better innovator, just by acting like one. "Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired," he told CNN. "We found that it's like exercising your muscles -- if you engage in the actions you build the skills."  To improve your questioning skills, Gregersen recommends identifying a problem and writing nothing but questions about it for 10 minutes a day for 30 days. He says that over that period the questions will change, and so will your understanding and approach to the problem. To build your observation skills, identify a business, customer, supplier, or client, and spend a day or two watching how they work so you can better understand the issues they have to deal with. Marc Ventresca is a lecturer in strategic management at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, and he agrees that innovation is not an inherent trait, but a set of skills that people can learn. He told CNN that one key to being a better innovator is building a diverse network of contacts. "Data says that people who have more varied connections hear more diverse information, and see patterns before other people," he told CNN. "They are able to put together something they hear from a conference they were at last week with a briefing they're at tomorrow and come up with a new idea." He says the goal is not simply knowing lots of people, but knowing people from varied backgrounds, who work for different companies, in different industries, have different skills, and deal with different issues, so that you are exposed to varied ideas. When it comes to developing your ability to innovate, Ventresca recommends simply setting aside 30 minutes a week to talk with a contact you wouldn't normally talk to -- for example someone you met at conference six months ago. Ventresca told CNN, "If you do that every week, that's 52 conversations in a year taking up 26 hours of time. "Say 10 of those yield something interesting, and two of those 10 let you do something new and valuable -- by investing just 26 hours a year you've come up with something pretty remarkable."
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font: normal normal normal 11px/14px arial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">researchers say they have identified the secrets of being a great innovator
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font: normal normal normal 11px/14px arial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Innovation is not an inherent trait, it's a set of skills that anyone can learn
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font: normal normal normal 11px/14px arial; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 9px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 7px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Exposing yourself to new ideas and observing the world around you can drive innovation