For anyone interested in a roadmap to educating students in the 21st century, stop what you are doing and go to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. Watch a short Video form the National Summit on 21st Century Skills. Partnership Video
It is obvious that our educational system is becoming less and less relevant in regards to preparing students for the new communication age. In many ways our schools are years behind other countries that have communication technologies and curriculum in place. We need to educate students that can adapt and learn in this quick paced “flat” world. We must have a vision and have a plan to carry it out. This website is thorough and complete. Leaders of education and technology have created a vision with foresight on many different interconnected levels. Stop by Route 21 to see how the group Links 21st Century skills with support systems and resources.
Being a Social Studies “geek”, I am happy and surprised that the Social Sciences of History, Economics, Geography, Government and Civics are core content areas that this group highlights as relevant for 21st century learners. Standardized tests create a narrow vision of education being centered through Language Arts and Math departments. In my opinion, Social Studies have been pushed to the side by the NCLB driven test frenzy. Look at these interdisciplinary themes suggested for 21st Century success that are saturated with Social Studies content!
- Global Awareness
- Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy
- Civic Literacy
So what’s the catch? Is this pie in the sky optimism that we can bring this new age of learning to the fore front of our educational system? Can our system change as dramatically as the Partnership calls for.... or are we doomed to education being bogged down by the same old bureaucratic quagmire of the past? Although this is a “dialogue about education", this is also backed by many big companies like Dell, Cisco, ATT, etc ... a who’s who in the technology industry. They are trying to advocate for a better trained American workforce for business reasons. The workforce is changing therefore so does the education system that supplies them (Levy & Murname, 2005). If we don’t supply a workforce with 21st century skills these same companies have already started going elsewhere like India and China.
One of the implications here is that while a roadmap and vision for the future is in place, the future is now. We as a collective nation must make dramatic changes quickly. As an educator I must lead by example and immerse myself in teaching the skills for the future. Students already are digital natives and they must see me as one also. I agree with Partnership’s position that standardized tests for accountability are needed ,so to are classroom assessments that challenge students to become adaptive learners. Students must embrace this technology. Many are technically advanced in the social use of technology but do not know how to use the technology in an academic setting (Miners and Pascopella, 2007).
References
Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62.
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf
Jim, Very nicely done post. I am glad that you noticed some of the same things I did. Route 21 was a nice link http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/
ReplyDeletefor me and I got some good things to use for next week already!
I do see that social studies is kind of forgotten with NCLB, but knowing that there is a focus in many areas in the framework do you think that you can take this and run with using these skills? I think that with the excitement that you have you can really start working with these skills in your classroom and spreading the knowledge about the issue of the lack of preparation and structure that is in the school setting now. Can you make changes? I think you can. It would be great to start and "all-out" campaign with your kids in the class to get the "word out" and start some kind of technology movement. Wow. It would be powerful. Would that be possible?
Marilyn Goodrich
K-12 Educational Consultant
Jim, I also teach high school social studies. I was very impressed with the Partnership for 21st skills inclusion of social studies in the core subjects. I think that we need to make the necessary changes to be able to use technology to meet the needs of our students. Their web site is a poweful tool. The worforce is steadily changing and we need to prepare our students for the rapid changes. I agree with you that our schools are behind other countries with the inclusion of the use of technology in our classroom. School districts need to set aside funding to better prepare our classroom with the necessary tools. Administrators, teachers and business profesional within our society need to collaborate to find ways to better prepare our school for 21st century skills. I often think about what are some things that I can do to initiate the process of making this a priority for our schools.
ReplyDeleteJulie Luton
Social Studies
Julie and Jim, I have a friend in PA near the NY border who puts on a huge History fair each year. This is the year I will be visiting for the first time. He spends hours and weeks on working with this. What an amazing man. He was the one to make the change in his school to work with bringing the importance of Social Studies skills and learning to the attention of the students and the school board. It is amazing how many people come to see him and the kids present plays, eat authentic food from the time periods, see projects, look at costumes,...and I can go on. One man with his classload of students making a change such as this is incredible. We can do things---he started out small and now they actually do not have class on the 2-3 days he does this and it has become a school wide project with many other SS/English...etc teachers working to make it better each year. The kids want to be in his class. They are eager to participate and they are not even old enough yet. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteCan we get things changed? Sure. Does it take time? Sure. Will it pay off in the long run? Sure. He is incredible and is a great model for me as I try to tell teachers that they can be a change agent.....If they don't believe me I talk about my friend and what he has accomplished in a short period of time.
Julie and Jim---you can make a lot of changes...a little at a time!
Marilyn Goodrich
K-12 Educational Consultant
It was great to see that The Partnership for 21st Century Education recognized the need for all of the core content areas in addition to the learning of world languages and others. I agree that they have a well organized and dynamic vision about what this country needs to do to make itself competitive again.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Jim, I think you are onto something regarding the "pie in the sky optimism" severely handicapped by the "bureaucratic quagmire." I think that is evidenced by the fact that only eleven states have adopted The Partnership's Framwork for 21st Century Learning and although we can't be sure as to why this is, I think it definitely points to a number of things: one being the unwillingness of the masses, including government, to invest in education.
I would like to see the expansion of this initiative or others like it in the near future because I do believe that the changes that they are advocating are definitely in the best interest of schools and of students and sooner or later, eleven states will become twelve, twelve will become thirteen and so on. We just have to figure out how to speed up the process before the gap becomes an irreversible chasm.
Rebecca Webster
7-12 English
Marilyn, Julie and Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteYou are my first responses to my blog so I am a little bit honored.
This is a big turning point in our profession. The workplace is changing and the economy is leaving the unskilled non-adaptive learners across our country in a tough spot. I think we all need to do our part just like we always have. Until the powers that be realize it is better to give billions to our children's future instead of bonuses to our business leaders, do what is right and keep spreading the word.
Jim