What are the 21st Century skills needed

inside the classroom?

Want to learn the 4 Cs for 21st Century skills in the classroom? Thanks to Twitter, I
found them. I watch social media closely and it's my job to share some of the hot topics
on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other outlets that teachers, principals, students,
and parents are contributing.

Mr. Zac Leonard posted an infographic on his Twitter account explaining the 4Cs for
21st Century skills in the classroom. The 4Cs listed are communication, collaboration,
critical thinking, and creativity. All four of these items are essential inside the 21st
Century classroom. These could be the 4Cs for any century classroom as all of these
skills are timeless and highly valued not only inside the classroom, but in all
professions.

Communication is about sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions. In the

technological age, it's much easier and, at the same time, harder to communicate.
Technology has provided us with more convenient ways to communicate, but
sometimes the various ways can become overwhelming. In addition, the communication
can become more about the tech being used than the message you're trying to send.
Without effective communication, there's no way to get anything done inside the
classroom or anywhere, which is why this is an essential 21st Century skill.

Collaboration is about working together to reach a goal and putting talent, expertise,
and smarts to work. Just like with communication, technology has made collaboration
easier. Actually, technology takes collaboration a step farther, making types of
collaboration possible that weren't before technology. Just like with communication
though, the same breakdowns can happen. The number of choices can get
overwhelming, and the actual collaboration can get lost while we pay too much attention
to the tool we're using to collaborate. As the world goes more interconnected,
collaboration will become a more and more essential skill than it already is, which is why
it makes the list of the 4Cs for 21st Century skills.

Critical thinking is looking at problems in a new way and linking learning across subjects
and disciplines. Just like with the previous two ideas, critical thinking has been an
essential skill in every century and profession. However, technology has changed the
critical thinking platform. The more technology makes menial tasks such
as memorization null and void, the more room that gives us to spend time on more
complex thinking skills. However, it's too easy to let technology do the thinking for us, or
thinking that it does. In order to succeed in the 21st Century, you have to remember
that, no matter how high tech the machine, it's useless without a person telling it what to
do and thinking critically about the result.
Creativity is trying new approaches to get things done, innovation, and invention. The
21st Century is a fun time to be creative thanks to technology. Not only are the
traditional ways of creativity still available, but there are tons of new possibilities made
available. Instead of just painting a picture, you can animate it or arrange a piece of
music on a computer without ever learning how to play an instrument. All that said, it's
still up to you to put things through the creative process. Whether you're going to tell the
world's next bestselling story or you are just trying to find a way to organize your
classroom more efficiently, it's up to you to utilize both your own thinking power and the
technology at hand to get the creative project done.

Do you agree with these 4 Cs? Which ones would you add? What do you think the
future 4 Cs will be?