21st Century Communication Skills Necessary For Today's Students To Develop

The 21st century skills are a set of abilities that students need to develop for living and thriving in the 21st Century. Effective communication is the foundation on which many careers are built on. Communication skills will be necessary for students' lasting success in their personal and professional lives.

21st Century communication skills that should be developed in students are:

Collaborating
Use: This is when students are able to engage and discuss an idea or topic with fellow peers. This may be done digitally or non-digitally.
Necessity: This skill is important because collaborating is crucial for students' learning, mental, and emotional health. It is also essential for students to be able to work in a group to formulate ideas.

Communicating
Use: Students will develop the ability to use multimedia to express themselves in an appropriate manner.
Necessity: This skill is necessary for students to build personal interactions. Students' ability to communicate will help them to put forth their best representation of who they are as individuals in relationships throughout their lives. This skill will assist them in their personal and professional lives.

Social Skills
Use: Students need to be able to interact with various people, different cultures, and people of different ages.
Necessity: This skill is necessary for students to build human relationships and intertwine into society and cultural events.

Problem-Solving
Use: Students need to develop the ability to define a problem, create a solution, and follow through on resolving the problem.
Necessity: Students need to have the ability to devise effective solutions to real-world problems in order for them to be more successful.

Creativity
Use: Students need to be able to think and work in both digital and nondigital environments. They also need to have the ability to develop unique and useful solutions.
Necessity: This can be a method for students to express themselves and their uniqueness. Creativity is an outlet that helps students see who they are and what they can do. This skill also nurtures children's emotional health.

Strategies that I will use to assist my students in attaining the previous 21st Century Skills:

• Create lessons where students will discuss content as a whole class, small groups or in partners.
• Have opportunities for students to give oral presentations, for example, presenting a poster report to the class.
• Teach students to evaluate their voices to enhance their presentation. 
• Have students be able to express themselves by writing in a variety of formats.
• Provide opportunities for students to interact with one another to build social skills.
• Present a problem to the class and have the students create solutions. For example, discuss with students problems in their environment, have students brainstorm to create solutions, and then present their solutions to the class. 
• Students may also create a problem that they would like to find solutions for. 
• Allow students to complete an assignment in their own imaginative ways. For example, students may make a video, a poster report, write an essay, or draw pictures.