Literacy is NOT Enough

The factory is gone, and the marketplace has changed.
In a wired-world, anything that can be outsourced will be.
This exponential digital age demands a new set

of skills - the 21st Century Fluencies.

Literacy is NOT Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age

Powerful technologies and information systems have caused facts to become obsolete faster, and knowledge built on these facts to become less durable. InfoWhelm is breaking down the boundaries between conventional disciplines, altering the very fabric of our society, and affecting the way we work, play, communicate, view our fellow citizens, how we learn, and what's important for us to know. Yet schools in their structure, operation, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment models remain largely the same as they have for decades.

In 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age, you'll learn why it's important that students develop essential 21st-century fluency skills to operate in the new living, working, and learning environments of the 21st century. More importantly, you'll learn how these skills can be taught in a structured manner at every grade level and in every subject area, and be the responsibility of every teacher throughout the entire school experience. This is our most requested keynote and workshop and is based on the upcoming book Literacy is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: The New Learning Process

In an education system that emphasizes standards and high-stakes tests, is it realistic or even possible to encourage students to think, explore, and develop their own understanding? Learn how schools can develop a problem and process-based constructivist model to encourage students to think, search, and discover—and still have those students excel at the tests.

The New Learning Process covers a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare digital students for 21st century life. It looks at current teacher practices, and explains how we can teach effectively in an age when new technologies cascade onto the new digital landscape at an astonishing rate, and identifies the principles and processes that transcend these new technologies. You'll come away with a clear understanding of how to address learning standards and improve test scores to meet both curricular goals, and strategies that will prepare students to meet the new realities of the 21st century. This keynote is based on the upcoming book Literacy is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: Real-World Problems and Solution Fluency

The new digital age is here, heralding a future coming at us like a locomotive, ever-changing and always challenging. The children of today are the builders of tomorrow— they both need and deserve a skill set that stresses critical thinking and develops a mindset of discovering innovative solutions to complex problems that haven't even beenwitnessed yet. In the presentation Real-World Problems and Solution Fluency, we take a look at one of the vital 21st fluencies, one that focuses on a creative thought process designed to foster problem-solving skills and a real-time application of the comprehensive 6D model—Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Debrief.

Based on the upcoming book Literacy is Not Enough, you'll see how today's "just-in-time" learners can employ whole-brain thinking abilities to discover and create the best and most effective solutions and apply them to the challenges of 21st-century business and education.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: InfoWhelm and Information Fluency

Our society has been irreversibly affected by a new phenomenon in InfoWhelm—an unparalleled access to a wealth of online information, never before seen or heard of. Learning has truly become a lifelong pursuit, and it can happen anytime and anywhere in our Information age. But how do we determine good from the bad, interpret right from wrong, and distinguish complete, accurate, and usable data from a sea of irrelevance and digital inundation? The skills to help us best understand and make use of the wealth of knowledge at our fingertips is essential to life and success both in the classrooms and workforces of the 21st century.

The presentation InfoWhelm and Information Fluency looks at the fluency skill that helps us to extract essential knowledge, verify its authenticity, and to perceive its meaning and significance. You'll learn about the aptitudes that help to discover and collect data and to explore it thoroughly, using the 5A's—Ask, Acquire, Analyze, Apply, and Assess. This presentation is based on the upcoming book, Literacy is Not Enough, from the 21st Century Fluency Project.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: Inspiring Innovation and Creativity Fluency

Where does creativity come from? How are we inspired to be creative? What thought processes lead us to forge exceptional and unique products and concepts that speak to us on unseen and personal levels, shaping our thinking and inspiring strong opinions and feelings? And how can businesses and education make use of these powerful qualities, and be driven to excel?

This is Inspiring Innovation and Creativity Fluency, a presentation centered around the 21st-century fluency that helps to bring passion to presentation, story to structure, and emotion to innovation. Discover how artistic proficiency adds meaning and relevance through design, art, and storytelling by incorporating the 5I's—Identify, Inspire, Interpolate, Imagine, and Inspect. This presentation is based on the upcoming book, Literacy is Not Enough, from the 21st Century Fluency Project.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: Beyond Text to Media Fluency

The vast expanse of the online Information Age has presented us with a powerful range of new digital media that have become as common as traditional text, and far more impacting and thought-provoking. The chronic bombardment of digitization in our everyday lives has called for a whole new thought process geared towards harnessing its unlimited potential, and decoding its often complex messages.

Beyond Text to Media Fluency is all about the fluency skill needed to become proficient at both. Businesses are continuing to make efficient use of digital platforms to enhance sales and reach new levels of clientele, as are students to boost the experience of learning from an ordinary task to an exciting and meaningful journey.

Using the two facets of media fluency defined by the 2 L's of Listening to decode messages and extract and analyze their significance, and Leveraging the most appropriate media for a message by considering many crucial factors, we can benefit from today's digital media in our schools and workforce in ways never before dreamed of. This presentation is based on the upcoming book, Literacy is Not Enough, from the 21st Century Fluency Project.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: Global Connections and Collaboration Fluency

The students and workers of the 21st century are living in an environment conducive to collaboration. Technology, social networking, and InfoWhelm have broken down long-standing barriers of communication in our society and turned the economy global. Our suburbs are no longer just outside our back door—they're all over the planet, and education and business are looking ahead to the strong partnerships and team environments that will define their future, and connect them to the modern world.

The successful ability to work and interact with partners both real and virtual is the essence of the presentation Global Connections and Collaboration Fluency. Get a sense of how the architects of our digital age will successfully forge partnerships to interact and prosper in both real and digital environments with the help of the 5E's—Establish, Envision, Engineer, Execute, and Examine. This
presentation is based on the upcoming book, Literacy is Not Enough, from the 21st Century Fluency Project.

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Literacy is NOT Enough: Global Digital Citizenship

Carl Sagan once said that our society is deserving of citizens with an acute awareness of how their world works, and that is more necessary than ever in today's interconnected world. InfoWhelm and the rise of social media have given us online environments that can be exciting and entertaining, but also unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous. As such, today's digital citizen must be guided by the principles of leadership, accountability, fiscal and personal responsibility, environmental awareness, and global citizenship. In Global Digital Citizenship, we take an in-depth look at the model citizen in the age of social networking. You'll learn what the defining characteristics of the digital citizen are, the 6 primary tenets of effective digital citizenry, and how students can develop a code of ethics that will help them learn mindsets of conscientious and responsible behavior, and ensure their safety and security in the online world. This session is based on the book The Digital Diet: Today's Digital Tools in Small Bytes, and the upcoming book, Literacy is Not Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age.

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