Reading through the article “The partnership for 21st century skills”, was refreshing to me because of the “scary” article “The world is flat”, it is refreshing to know that people are aware and are trying to do something about the digital disconnect.
My surprise is the wide range of support the partnership has been able to garner from the federal to state to local business educational and even parents and families. I would expect that with that wide range of support, all teachers should have known about its existence and mobilized it for its support. I think more work needs to be done in getting every teacher to know, appreciate the need, support and implement the partnership vision.
The implication for my students is probably that the days of “double lives” are over. The technology saturated life outside the school can be merged with that inside the school. School and its knowledge/skill will become more relevant and transferable. It is then we can hope that the knowledge of core subject as is being taught will not be intrusion from the past but rather as skill necessary for the future. Kids will be prepared to live and work and over the challenges of 21st century.
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
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ReplyDeleteI completely and wholeheartedly agree! With as much support as this partnership has with local, national, and international businesses, I would have expected to know about being that I am a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that more should done to allocate the importance of technology and its many significant uses. The skills to use these technologies efficiently is sorely lacking from our current student population. As students begin to see the benefits of Web 2.0 in the classroom, their knowledge and skills will become applicable. Miners and Pascopella (2007) state that students spend the majority of their time online at home. It's about time we even out their time online between home and school.
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
Florence,
ReplyDeleteI am surprised at how many states are not involved in this initiative. I feel slighted as a teacher because we are not being informed about these 21st century skills initiatives. It is unfortunate that we are discovering this information through a class rather than the local or state government embracing more of an active role in furthering the educational tools that are available for the students. The states should be reevaluating what their state standards are focusing on in regards to their testing. Like many other countries, we need to be making strong initiatives for change in how technology is being used in the classroom (Miners and Pascopella, 2007). The core subjects are important, but so are embracing the idea of the knowledge and application of technology being one of the standards that should be tested (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php). As teachers, it is fortunate that we are taking the initiative to further our education, but many of our colleagues are not as fortunate to be able to know of the potential technological tools that are available to them in the classroom.
Dawn
References:
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004. Retrieved September 30th, 2009, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php.