The four 21st century skills have upgraded to seven, and I am trying to catch up. The skills are: Critical thinking and problem solving, Creativity and innovation, Communication and media literacy, Collaboration and leadership, Computing and digital proficiency, Cross-cultural and social fluency, and Career, civic and learning self-direction. Many schools may have adopted all 7, or slowly integrating one by one into their curriculum, it's important to learn and expect to teach all. We need to help guide a student to become a well-rounded individual using these skills.
I have been lucky that in the past couple of years, my school has been embracing technology, and now each child has access to their own device in the classroom. I have enough chrome books for each student in my class. I have used a few different programs such as Google Classroom, Quizzez, Moby Max, Khan Academy , Brain Pop, etc., but also have used the internet (with guidance ) to help kids research and learn since we have a wealth of information at our fingertips. Technically, the internet has replaced the old encyclopedia that I had to use for research and learning back in my day (and I'm not that old).
What I need to keep in mind is that 21st Century Skills are not only centered in the use of technology, but technology to being one source of educational success. With all the social media out there and instant entertainment, I feel that technology has begun to make students unsocial in real world situations, they are not successfully collaborating with others. They are submissive to their phones and any information that is instantly given to them. This is why the seven 21st century skills can support a student to becoming a person that is a self advocate, a leader, an innovator, and critical thinker. My job is to allow as many opportunities in the classroom for students to experience these skills.