21st Century Skills

As I continue on with my Master's program in Integrating Technology into the Classroom, we were given a website to check out and familiarize ourselves with. The website is "The Partnership for 21st Century Skills" and can be accessed at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ for those of you are curious. It really is a neat website with a lot of useful information for not only educators, but really anyone who is interested in where our future is going. After all, our students are our future and everyone should take and interest in making sure they have the necessary resources to succeed and keep our world going, while hopefully making some much needed improvements.

One thing about this website that I found particularly interesting was the State Initiatives tab. It was neat to be able to read the different things that certain states are doing to assure their students are indeed getting the necessary 21st century skills. The part that struck me a little worried however was the fact that there are only 10 states listed on this website. Are really only 1/5 of our schools in the United States showing commitment to revising standards, creating assessments, and implementing 21st century skills professional development programs?? I sure hope as a country we are doing better than that!

There is no doubt that we are in need of some big positive upgrades around us. This is not however something that educators can do alone. I was very glad to see that this website addressed that issue. Right in their mission statement, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills talked about how this change must be a collaboration between education, businesses, community, and government leaders. It is so important that we all work together on this issue. This website seems to be a great resource to helping to get the ball rolling. Check it out. I would love to hear what you think about the website and this topic in general.

Magan

Blogs and Bridges

Earlier this year I attended a workshop on Engineering and Technology. The main purpose of this workshop was to get educators better informed on ways we can get our students excited about engineering and technology. One of the lessons that I received from this workshop was a building bridges project. I immediately saw a great opportunity to integrate 5th grade science with technology. After talking to the 5th grade teachers at my schools, we came up with the plan that students would create blueprint type plans of bridges during their technology time with me. The bridges would be designed using a drawing program and printed off so the students could then build their designed structures in their science class. This would continue for three class periods, allowing students to redesign their bridges as need be depending on the success they had during the weight tests.

Now, as I become more familiar with blogs, I can see great benefits a class blog would have on this project. My plan now is to have each small group of students who are working together to create bridge plans, also then blog about what their design consists of, how well it resisted the weight test, and what changes they will make to their future designs and why. Students will then continue making posts after each new design and test trial. All students can then read and respond to other group’s blogs offering suggestions and encouragement. This way, the blog not only serves as a place where students can discuss science and engineering content, but they can also showcase their own work and accomplishments.

Since I teach technology classes to all elementary students, I only see each grade level for 45 minutes a week. This would make it entirely impossible to allow every group to give a full explanation of their bridge design, successes, and weaknesses each week. With blogs, students can give each group the time they deserve and offer insight without having to be interrupted because of a bell. This allows students to work together as an entire class sharing designs, mistakes, and ideas rather than just having one group compete against another. Students then would get a really good idea of how engineers really do work together. Ideas are being built from one group to the next, hopefully allowing all groups to have success in the end. On top of all that, the discussion that each group has before, and while writing the blogs, creates opportunities for great critical thinking.

Teaching with Technology

There is no doubt that the world around us is changing at a rapid pace. The knowledge students are expected to know now before leaving elementary school has by far surpassed the level I would have ever dreamed of when I was growing up. In an article written by Dr. David Thronburg titled "Technology and Education: Expectations, not Options," he discussed how technology is growing and changing at a much more rapid pace than pedagogy, and the gap seems to just be getting larger and larger as the years go by. So what do we need to do now as teachers and as communities to help close that gap?

As an educator, I strive to find new technologies to bring into my classroom to enhance student learning and create an interest in my students that will help them take an active stance on their own education. I have taken my students on virtual field trips around the world, had them create multimedia yearbooks, create PowerPoint presentations in place of the standard essay format reports, shown video clips of science processes, and the list goes on. However, even though I am proud of the use of technology that I use in my classroom, there is still that overwhelming, yet exciting, feeling that there is so much more out there that I can be exposing my students to. My two main goals for next year is to get students involved in creating and keeping up with a class blog and having my students build and be able to control robotic devices.

What are some of your thoughts out there? What technologies do you feel are becoming crucial for our student to learn and be exposed to?