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
Magan,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the website as well. You bring up a point about help for making teachers better at teaching these 21st century skills. I think you are right, we need help. It is nice to see groups out there focusing their efforts on helping teachers and lobbying states to focus on the skills that our students will need upon graduation. My question is, will these 21st century skills gain traction in education or will this be something that is forgotten in a few years in exchange for higher reading, writing, arithmetic scores on state tests?
Winner
It is very interesting that only 10 states are listed on the website. Thinking optimistically, maybe the others just haven't agreed to post their statistics yet. I was disappointed when I didn't see Ohio, the state in which I currently teach, on the list. I am hoping that we are moving in the right direction, but it does not look like everyone is on board with the importance of technology yet. Let's hope that changes soon.
ReplyDeleteI really was intrigued by the article regarding President O'Bama's ideas on education found in this link:
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=628&Itemid=64
Many of the issues he discussed with redesigning education complemented the ideas of the 21st Century Skills Organization. He reflected on the importance of using technology to develop necessary life skills students will face in the near future. In addition, he discussed collaboration and creativity in the classroom to build necessary critical thinking skills. If you haven't looked at it yet, it is worth reading.
I watched some of the president's town hall meeting last night. The first question posed to him was regarding changes that need to be made in education. He stated the obvious in noting that the current school year is designed for a 19th century agrarian nation.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that a restructuring of the school year might be the first step in educational reform. This article outlines many of the benefits:
http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/41
I think there's no turning back. And I'm hoping the new administration will rethink NCLB so that government will also be held accountable through funding and resources to 21st centurize schools.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan, It is just crazy to think that only 1/5 schools are showing a commitment to 21st century skills. I wonder where they are getting those numbers.
ReplyDeleteI live in Ohio and my school is working hard to build these skills; however, we are not listed as one of the states.
How is your school working towards it?
My school is building the technology department and or goal at the moment is interactive whiteboards.
I was prompted to return to the site after looking through the posts here. I had missed the part with the state initiatives. Near as I can tell, the states that are listed are deemed as being "leaders" in the shift to a system that supports 21st century standards in the classroom.
ReplyDelete"To become a P21 Leadership State, a state demonstrates commitment from the governor and chief state school officer and submits an application to P21 that describes the state’s plan to revise standards, create assessments and implement 21st century skills professional development programs."
It is disturbing that the larger and more populus states are not represented here, as well as the fact that it is a smallish number of states represented.
Magan & others,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to change the way we approach the educational process from the top! The Federal government has tied us to testing so heavily that creativity is practically taking a back seat to "passing the test." It is discouraging that so few states have aligned themselves with P21.
It is interesting that so many of us agree that collaboration and creativity are keys to developing critical thinking skills yet our districts are hesitant to trust students and teachers on networking sites. Also, it takes time and practice to develop this type of atmosphere... we just don't have that luxury with the responsibilities of preparing for standardized testing. Funny - we want to promote INDEPENDENT thinking and CREATIVITY, then we give a STANDARDIZED, one size fits all test!
Molly
Magan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that schools need to be thought of a memeber of a collective society with companies, families, business, and government. Right now, schools are just told what to do by the government and there is no communication with the business world. Schools and some teachers act like education is some sort of independant faction, when in theory it should be fully integrated into the business world to teach the skills businesses want. It will be hard to build the connections between industry and education, but it must be done.