The student’s in today’s economy are now competing in a global economy. Many US school are still teaching with the same old methods and the gap between knowledge and skills learned in schools and knowledge and skills needed to survive in a global economy are increasing. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is making a stand and trying to close this formidable gap by creating a partnership between education, business, community, and government leaders. This website offers links to articles on current events in educations and resources and tools to assist educators from all over in incorporating the 21st century skills into the classroom.
One tool that I really liked from this website was a compilation of videos of 21st century skills at work in a real-live classroom. The resource can be found on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website or directly at the following link: https://thepartnershipfor21stcenturyskills238.eduvision.tv/default.aspx. Personal, I read about so many different ideas about how to improve my teaching, and many times I do not get the full comprehension from these ideas until I see them in action. I was surprised with how many classrooms on this web resource only had one computer within the room. My personal classroom has a SMARTboard and basically one computer for the class use, and I am doing a lot of the same things that teachers within the videos are doing.
Overall, I am glad that someone is standing up and addressing the need for a transfer in pedagogical methodology towards the 21st century skill-set. In an article by Zach Miners and Angela Pascopella titled, The New Literacies, they mention that textbooks have been used as a primary resource for the last 500 years and now all of a sudden everything is shifting towards technology (p. 28). I feel that the most valuable element from the Partnerships for 21st Century Skills is the idea of making the need for these skills public, and for creating a meeting ground where leaders can communicate and hopeful solve this epidemic in education. Personally, I feel that I am a contemporary educator and I am excited about the changes that hopefully lie within the future of education.
Resources.
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
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I really enjoyed your blog, and you are right -- it is good that someone is addressing the need for a move to pedagogical strategies that lead to 21st Century Skills. In the beginning, it seemed that most of the discussions regarding pedagogy in education were focused on teaching teachers the fundamentals of how to use technology, and not much was said about how to teach effectively using technology. I am always excited when I hear teachers talk about what works and what doesn’t work.
ReplyDeleteThink of it like a show-n-tell session. If someone shows off their fancy technology, then the normal reaction would be, "WOW, that's neat," but on the other hand, if technology was introduced, explained, and then applied in an effective way, then the normal reaction would be, "I can really use this to improve my teaching." I teach SMARTboard sessions to other music teachers, and I always give away my created lesson, so after I introduce, explain, and show how the SMARTboard can be applied in an educational setting, the teacher can take my file and teach the same lesson the very next day if they want to. Technology is changing the way information needs to be learned and some teachers need explicate instructions in order to jump start their creative minds into this new way of functioning.
ReplyDeleteHi Charles,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I am so excited about this kind of teaching. I have never been a traditional out of the text book teacher anyway--but, I love using all of this technology in the classrooms. I also really liked all the videos even though most of them were math and science lessons.
I feel that many teachers will have a hard to time putting their hands around all of this new teaching sytle. The reason I feel this way is because some people do not like change--also they are not willing to change the textbook, paper type lessons. Hopefully,it will not take 500 more years for schools to completly change.
Tammy,
ReplyDeletePeople need to realize that change is inevitable and in any profession, professionals need to adapt to society's needs. Like I implied before, i do not think that it is only a matter of people not wanting to change their teaching style, but teachers need an easier, more efficient, and paid way to do so. I would love to adapt to any more efficient way of teaching, but with two jobs and graduate school, if the training time can not fit into my work schedule, then it probably will not happen. So many administrators have presenters show off alternate ways of teaching during a staff development day, and then the very next day we are squished into our packed teaching schedule, that by the time we get to prepare a new lesson that involves the training, most of the information is lost.
I am excited about this website and what it represents. I am one of those teachers that tries to evolve with society as much as my work schedule and funding permits. I think this website will help push more innovative and effective policies of change, and I support that notion.
There were so many amazing videos of lessons that can be used in almost any classroom. And I loved the fact that they gave you the 21st Century objectives that were met in each lesson. But most of all, I love the fact that this site promotes skills that can't be tested by a state test.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have my schedule!!! Teaching is a lot of work, which I love, but many people think we have a lot of spare time. Not the case, we do not even have the time to go to the restroom during the day. lol
ReplyDelete