21st Century Literacy Summit
21st Century Literacy Summit
Hannelore B. Rader
From March 7-8 AOL Time Warner Foundation and the Bertelsmann Foundation sponsored a summit in Berlin, Germany on March 7-9, 2002 entitled "Twenty-first Century Literacy Summit". More than 300 invited representatives from 33 countries and all five continents, including four librarians from the United States, were in attendance. The conference was conducted in German, with simultaneous translations.
The main theme of the meeting was that "society in the twenty-first century is changing quickly as it moves into becoming a knowledge-based society". To ensure full participation of all members of society a new literacy for the twenty-first century is needed based on:
sensible use of new technologies;
changing educational environments;
new learning styles.
The twenty-first century literacy was defined as including technology literacy, information literacy, media creativity, social competence and responsibility, education, workplace skills and civic engagement.
The information available increases dramatically at all times and people need new skills to critically access and process the information. They need to be able to use new technologies and critically assess content to ensure the best social communication and interaction. They need to continue to learn throughout their life. The conference was held to promote a transatlantic dialogue of decision makers from government, business and academia to address issues related to education, the workplace and public policy. Speakers presented international examples to demonstrate what is currently being done to meet the challenges of the new literacy.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder from Germany was the first keynote speaker. His main points related to education as the key to twenty-first century literacy. He stated that education must be open to everyone, regardless of social or economic status. He also spoke about the liberalization of communication in Germany and described the German e-government project as the largest in Europe.
Steve Case, Chair of the Board, AOL Time Warner Inc., spoke about "Convergence and the new literacy", and stated that convergence of networks and devices will build bridges between people and countries. Governments are moving toward digital democracy to make citizens productive and engaged participants in democracy. In the workplace more people are needed with technological skills and we are moving toward the digital marketplace worldwide. Lifelong learning will be a necessity to ensure that everyone can stay informed. Universities will have to lead research efforts to identify the skills needed in the twenty-first century. Other speakers were the President of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar Lopez, and former US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, who stated that serious investment in people and education is needed to insure that all citizens receive the benefits of technology.
Several panels elaborated on the themes explored by the speakers such as:
Digital divide. There is a digital divide in Europe, more in the north than in the south, people need to learn media skills so they can use their computers appropriately. Only 20 percent of teachers have computer skills and this must be improved. The content of the Web needs improvement as well, 70 percent is comprised of pictures, and more substantial content ought to be made available systematically. In addition to reading, writing and mathematics skills students need to learn media and computer skills. In 1998 Europe had about 10 percent e-learning, in 2002 this has gone up to 40 percent.
The Web environment in Europe. Several policy makers felt that they needed a university for industry in Europe. Jobs will have shorter lives than in the past and in Germany there are already 24 competencies centers to teach workers new information skills. It was felt that Europe is somewhat behind the USA in Internet training and utilization. The European Commission is working on improving the Web, online public services and broadband access. Speakers expressed their views in terms of technology's ability to bring people together.
In summary it was stated that different paths are needed for different countries in technological development and related education. Technology is only a tool but how people use it is important, and that will eventually make a difference. New and evolving competencies are needed to address the constantly changing needs in the digital age. One of the conference's goals was to define twenty-first century literacy beyond the required literacy of the twentieth century. The new literacy will have to be defined in terms of education,workplace skills and civic engagement. Ultimately, individuals as well as governments need to assume responsibility for education and training to enable citizens to take advantage of the many new and evolving opportunities provided by new technology.
Several recommendations from this conference are:
Democracy in the digital age takes commitment from all parties involved and requires testing new ideas and challenging old assumptions.
E-government should not simply provide electronic delivery of services but ensure that diverse ideas are integrated into public decision making.
Web offerings to the public must recognize and evaluate people's preferences and provide appropriate vehicles for solutions.
Adequate resources must be available to train citizens in information literacy to ensure equitable access to information.
An e-democracy competence center should be established to coordinate appropriate tools for use of the Internet.
Non-government interest and action groups need to be supported and their value should be recognized. It has to be decided which public sector tasks can be provided by the private sector.
Hannelore B. Rader (h.radar@louisville.edu)is the University Librarian at the University of Louisville, Louisville,Kentucky, USA.
