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media type="youtube" key="dMsNct4X_GU" width="468" height="367" align="right"The skills being deemed "21st Century Skills" aren't limited to this century. They are skills that scholars and educators have been touting since the beginning of time. The changing from an industrized age to the information age has brought these skills to the forefront. Changes we see in today's world are summed up well as "an ever-changing, global society where communication is ubiquitous and instantaneous, and where software tools allow for a range of creative and collaborative options that yield new patterns and results that we are only beginning to see." Argules-Torres sites the research results as published in the 2002 article //Future job market; Will there be enough good opportunities?// to further support these claims. "As technology changes, individuals need to update their knowledge or training. discussed in his research that employers will pick their employees from an international pool rather than from the United States exclusively because computers, communication devices, and the Internet allow people from other countries to acquire outsourced jobs. U.S. companies can employ these individuals for less money and fewer benefits. (Tanner 2002)" (Argules-Torres 2010)

While researching the changes in the skill set that American's need in today's work force, professors and ecomomists, Richard Murnane and Frank Levy found that "Declining portions of the labor force are engaged in jobs that consist primarily of routine cognitive work and routine manual labor—the types of tasks that are easiest to program computers to do. Growing proportions of the nation’s labor force are engaged in jobs that emphasize expert thinking or complex communication—tasks that computers cannot do. (pp. 53–54) Murnane illustrates his point in his graph Skill Demands Changing Across the Economy (1969-1998).

As this shift continues Rotherham and Willingham (2009) point out that " . . . changes in our economy and the world mean that the collective and individual success depend on having such skills." (p. 18)

This phonemon is a challenge that is not unique to America. In the Department of Information Science at the University of Rijeka in Rijeka, Croatia; Topolovec, Marija Marinović, Mile Pavlić (2008) note "Modern information and communications technologies play the main role in these changes. The speed of creation, transfer and use of new knowledge demands a continuous effort and learning for nearly every kind of work or occupation." (p. 293)

Therefore as the world changes so should the way we educate the future work force of America. Silva (2008) states that in the information age there is " An emphasis on what students can do with knowledge, rather than what units of knowledge they have . . ." (p. 630) Agular-Torres (2010) expands further, "Today with the Internet, information is literally at our fingertips. Having the correct answer has always been what is important and necessary; however, for tomorrow’s student, asking the right questions will be what matters most." (p. 11) 21st Century Skills media type="youtube" key="8_ehGLqzBVM" width="425" height="350" align="center"