Assessment in 21st Century Learning

This chapter contributes a more complex understanding of how formative assessment can support the practice of 21st century literacies. The study is situated in discourses of assessment for learning and 21st century learning in Ontario, Canada. Vignettes from narrative inquiries with four, junior elementary teachers explore different enactments of a literacy program, drawing on perspectives of teachers as curriculum makers and sociomaterial theories on practice and relational space. Findings present a conceptual framework of how practices for convergence or divergence in teacher improvisation and inquiry enact inferential, iterative, resonant, or fluid formative spaces for learning.

Building Capital at the Library: Financial Literacy Programming and Partnerships

Lack of personal financial knowledge negatively affects both individual and collective economic vitality, making financial literacy programming an important way that libraries can contribute to strong communities. Financial literacy is one of five essential 21st century literacies identified and supported by PA Forward, an initiative of the Pennsylvania Library Association to support libraries in their literacy efforts. Offering these events and workshops is a daunting task, but connecting libraries with partners who are trustworthy financial literacy experts can ease the difficulties. Using examples from public and academic libraries in Pennsylvania, this article will discuss PA Forward Financial Literacy partners, illustrate a variety of programming opportunities, and highlight best practices for library financial literacy programs.

Creating a Balanced Literacy Curriculum in the 21st Century

This chapter explores new ways of envisioning a balanced literacy curriculum where through a balance of Literacy 1.0 with Literacy 2.0 educators can sufficiently prepare students to navigate the complexities of 21st century literacies. It presents examples of how digital storytelling and multimedia responses to literature call for a knowledge of school-based literacy practices, while at the same time allow students authentic learning engagements with multimodal composition and media production. Further, the chapter highlights how these literacy engagements can provide students use in the vocabulary of multimodalities and create students who are producers and critical consumers of 21st Century texts.

Learner Dashboards a Double-Edged Sword? Students’ Sense-Making of a Collaborative Critical Reading and Learning Analytics Environment for Fostering 21st Century Literacies

The affordances of learning analytics (LA) tools and solutions are being increasingly harnessed for enhancing 21st century pedagogical and learning strategies and outcomes. However, use cases and empirical understandings of students’ experiences with LA tools and environments aimed at fostering 21st century literacies, especially in the K-12 schooling sector and in Asian education contexts remain relatively scarce in the field. Our paper addresses this knowledge gap in two ways. First, we present a first iteration design of a computer-supported collaborative critical reading and LA environment, WiREAD, and its 16-week implementation in a Singapore high school. Second, we foreground students’ evaluative accounts of the benefits and drawbacks associated with this techno-pedagogical innovation. Our analysis of students’ collective sense-making pointed to a number of potentialities and perils associated with the design and use of LA dashboards. Positives included (1) fostering greater self-awareness, reflective and self-regulatory learning dispositions, (2) enhancing learning motivation and engagement, and (3) nurturing connective literacy among students. The motivational value of peer-referenced LA visualisations for stimulating healthy competition and game-like learning was identified, alongside the perils of these serving to demoralise, pressurise and trigger complacency in learners. By focusing on students’ experiences and interpretations of how the LA dashboard visualizations impacted their learning motivation and outcomes, this paper aims to shed insights into the pedagogical complexities of designing LA that considers the voices of learners as a critical stakeholder group.