To better prepare students to participate and succeed in our rapidly changing world, students need to master the 3 R's as well as develop powerful skills with the 4 C’s. Powerful digital tools, like Wixie, both engage learners in the curriculum and help them build critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration skills. 

Using Wixie requires students to think both analytically and creatively as they develop, implement, and effectively communicate new ideas to others. Students can use Wixie's cloud-based digital canvas to work together to creatively communicate their ideas, understanding, and thinking in a way that both engages with academic content and builds 21^st century skills.

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Topics: Wixie, 21st century classroom, 4Cs

Wixie provides students with tools to combine original artwork, images, text, voice narration, and video to create a range of products including how-to instructions, digital stories, eBooks, comics, and more.

In sixth grade, students are transitioning from thinking like a child to thinking like an adult. They are capable of dealing with conflict and complexity and should be asked to create products for use by other people that challenge their abilities. Work in Wixie should involve lots of writing and creativity as they explore the new boundaries of their thinking.

Here are a few ideas drawn for the Common Core State Standards for Grade 6.

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Topics: Wixie, 21st century classroom, authentic task, comprehension,, secondary

Young students are often asked to retell stories. In fact, from Kindergarten to Grade 3, the Common Core Standards explicitly ask students to be able to “retell [recount] stories." While this may not be the most engaging student task, it is one of the most straightforward ways to assess reading comprehension.

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Topics: common core, 21st century classroom, create, literature, curriculum, retell

From the moment they wake up in the morning, animated cartoons and powerful digital stories surround our students. Animation and digital storytelling provide a myriad of opportunities for high-level performance tasks that engage students in Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.

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Topics: frames, common core, digital storytelling, standards, 21st century classroom, animation, interview

Our world is changing and changing rapidly.  But while we often see digital natives on the covers of contemporary magazines, we have students in our classrooms from both sides of the divide.  A 21st-century classroom must engage and energize both natives and non-natives, preparing all students to be active participants in our exciting global community.

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Topics: creativity, creative software, engage, 21st century classroom, multimedia, constructivism, collaboration