Ten-Minute Tasks for 21st Century Literacy

Inspired by this list of Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional from eLearn Magazine, I created this list of tasks you can do to improve your own 21st century literacy skills. All of us have too much to do, and it can feel overwhelming to keep up with the technology and changes in the educational environment. You don’t need hours to complete these tasks though; just set aside 10 minutes.

1. If you haven’t already, read Natalie’s post and watch the 6-minute video of King Middle School as an example of 21st century literacy skills in action.
2. Discover a new blog. Hundreds of educational blogs are out there waiting for you to discover them. Click on a few links and subscribe to anything that looks interesting. Not sure how to subscribe? Read April’s post on RSS feeds.
3. Comment on a blog. We love your comments here, of course, but you can network and get ideas from educators all over the world through blogs. Don’t limit your comments to just our blog!
4. Watch some Common Craft show videos explaining new technology “In Plain English.” Each video is about 3 minutes long, so you could watch more than one!
5. Try something new and give yourself permission to make mistakes. Risk taking is an important 21st century skill. Push yourself to do something where you might not succeed on the first try. It doesn’t have to relate to technology; the important aspect here is taking the risk and reflecting on the results. As Adam Savage from the Mythbusters explains, “Whether we get what we expected or not, any result is a good result — even if it’s that we’re idiots. Failure is always an option.”
6. Write a Six Word Story to accompany an image and submit it to the Flickr group that collects them.
7. Upload an existing PowerPoint presentation to Slideshare and let the world see your work. Slideshare lets you put presentations online so anyone can view them, even if they don’t have PowerPoint. If you do this, we’d love to see it here, so add a link in the comment area below this post.
8. Check out an educational VoiceThread and leave a text or audio comment. VoiceThread is a site where you can upload pictures and record audio. The best part is that others can comment either with text or by recording their voices, creating a multimedia environment for conversation and collaboration with a personal touch. Learn more on their site. I love this example of backyard habitat riddles created by first graders and this multimedia diary of a trip to Washington DC by a 10-year-old.
9. Improve your inventive thinking by viewing a random card from the online Creative Whack Pack. View the image and reflect on the description to jumpstart your creative thinking. Click the photo at the top or refresh the page to view a new card.
10. Listen to 10 minutes of an absolutely intercultural podcast. These shows are much longer than 10 minutes, but you can still gain some global awareness by listening to just part of a show.

In the comments for this post, let us know if you try any of these ten-minute tasks and how they work. Do you have other ideas for quick tasks to improve 21st century literacy skills? We’d love to hear about them!