21st Century Skills – Importance and Cautions

This week I’ve had a good look at the debate about 21st century skills and their importance in our education system to help prepare our youth for the global economy that is driving our world today. 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, innovation, technology literacy, self direction, and global awareness are suggested to not only help prepare students of today for the workforce but also prepare our students to be global citizens. I have mixed feelings and ideas about this debate and how it should be impacting our education system and educational pedagogy.

The first pressing argument seems to be fueled by the rapidly changing world, especially in the technological sense. New technologies which cause a new way of life for all of us is changing so rapidly that it has brought about a sense of urgency in the need to change how we teach our students. Arguments presented by Chris Johnson and Ken Kay have really emphasized the need to make rapid and immediate changes in our schools and classrooms.

Johnson suggests that the “perception” of what schools should be is not preparing workers for the 21st century. His main argument is wrapped around the learner, the student. What our students are “doing” now is directly related to what school now means to them. Students today no longer want what our schools are currently providing for them. Kay suggests that students now don’t know how the content areas of Social Studies, Math and Language Arts translate into global citizens. Although Kay’s perspectives does see the need to make learning relevant to our current learners, his arguments also pointed out the importance of still holding on to the content that we teach.

The document, 21st Century Skills, Education & Competitveness – A Resource And Policy Guide, created by the Partnership for 21st century skills has pointedly stressed the importance of making immediate and rapid changes to how we educate our students. “Our ability to compete as a nation—and for states, regions and communities to attract growth industries and create jobs—demands a fresh approach to public education. We need to recognize that a 21st century education is the bedrock of competitiveness—the engine, not simply an input, of the economy” (Partnership for 21st Century Skills).

Although I can see the importance of making changes, the biggest question that I have is how much. In some ways I wonder how much change has already taken place in our teaching pedagogy. Many of the skills mentioned as “21st Century Skills” seem to be skills that have been stressed as important ways for students to learn for quite a few years now. Creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and communication have always been a priority in my teaching career as well as a priority for me when I was a student. I guess my concern is how quickly we will jump on to too many changes which will cause a pendulum swing that will eventually need to come back. Jay Mathews writes about this question in an article titled, The Latest Doomed Pedagogical Fad: 21st-Century Skills. He cautions the changes suggesting that it is an all-at-once syndrome. He questions why these changes need to be made all at once.

One of these all at once changes is wrapped up around the “content” that we teach. With technology, we have immediate access to a wealth of content which we can communicate, and collaborate at very rapid speeds. The movement seems to suggest that we don’t focus as much on content, but stress the “skills” needed in accessing it, interpreting it and communicating it. I wonder how successful we will be if we don’t establish a foundation in content. I believe that students will have a harder time using these 21st century skills if we evade the foundation of content. It’s like teaching someone the skills to read, and to read quickly, but their comprehension of what they are reading is what is lacking. What use is the skill of phonetically sounding out language if we cannot understand what we are reading? I believe with a foundation of knowledge and content, students will be able to evaluate and use their 21st century skills that are needed in this day and age.

Teaching upper elementary students I see a need for knowledge and content, but yet the use of these 21st century skills can help us keep students engaged and actively involved with the content. Getting students to collaborate, communicate and solve problems are always a big part of my classroom experience. Having technological literacy is also very important and that is the piece that will continue to change the most. As educators we need to be willing to incorporate those changes which will not only aid us in our teaching by keeping students excited and motivated, but it will also develop their literacy in technology. If we teach our students to be critical thinkers and good communicators while stressing creativity, personal best and innovation it is inevitable that we will be helping our students be prepared for the world they will be participating in. But we must hold on to our content to build a foundation that will provide understanding for our students.

Response to Marco & Donald

I really enjoyed the humor of Marco Torres and Donald Henderson when they illustrated the changes of technology through time from a cave man using slates and stones to a chalkboard, white board, overhead project and finally PowerPoint. With this illustration it was made very clear that the medium to which the instructions were give had changed, the method of teaching did not change. This is so important to think about. Learning how to use technology to fit the same exact teaching methods that we are accustomed to will not produce creative and innovative students who will be prepared for today’s world.

We need to be thinking outside of the box. We need to think about what these technology tools can really do or provide for our students. We must make education to be relevant to the real world for our students.

Marco and Donald talked about how business were not looking for people who had “Office” skills (skills in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) but that they were looking for people who were creative. Not just creative but also people with the ability to present their ideas and communicate their ideas.

I’ve been thinking about this discussion with my grade 5 & 6 class in mind. Many of the things mentioned are not relevant to the age level of my students but I have been thinking about what types of educational experiences I could be doing or beginning with these students. I believe that I can begin teaching my students good collaborative skills, peer tutoring, and communicative skills even with my curriculum. Some of the communication that can take place might be best put into a blog for my students. I know many of my students don’t have permission from their parents to have their own email accounts yet, but they all have access to the Internet.

If I can find an blog site that doesn’t require them to have their own account or email account than it would be a great place for my students to collaborate and communicate ideas with each other at school or even at home. I definitely need to do more research on this idea…but I am excited about the possibilities.

Mr. Winkle Wakes - Embedding & Response

Here is an interesting video titled "Mr. Winkle Wakes". It is about Mr. Winkle who awakes from a 100 year slumber. He finds the world drastically changed and is quite uneasy about these changes. He finally comes to a school and walks through the hallways and classrooms. Here he relaxes and feels at home, simply because the school has not changed much from when he remembers it.





Is it a good or bad thing that Mr Winkle feels that he is in a familiar place when he finds a school?

Mr. Winkle finding the school to be so familiar after 100 years, exaggerated as this might be, makes a good point about our education system. This leads me to think about what our education system is set up to accomplish. Is the education system not a place where we are to train and prepare our young people for the world they are living in and will soon be responsible for? If this is the role of our education system than the answer to the above question is that it is a bad that Mr. Winkle feels the way he does.
This would mean that the school is not accepting the changes and the advances the rest of the world is. The school will be stuck to its old ways, old thinking, and old methods where the rest of the world is leaving it in the dust. Where then do our young people gain the experiences and skills they need to be able to contribute and work at the level the rest of the world is working? They will be learning this on their own, outside of school. If that is the case then our students will continue to feel that school is a big waste of time and they will lose respect for it as it will not prepare them for what lies ahead of them.
In the video presentation “The World is Flat” Thomas L. Friedman discusses how the world has flattened with its communication, and collaboration. Businesses and corporations are now able to be linked with others around the globe through the use of technology and it is completely changing the way we do things. Friedman is suggesting that we are at the beginning of major change and the acceleration at which things are changing.
Our schools must be on board with these changes to prepare and train our students to function in this world. If we are not, our students will be crippled and they will be behind in their skills to contribute and collaborate with the rest of the changing world. We need to prepare our students to be “global” citizens more than ever.
Teaching students to become global citizens can begin even in grades 5 & 6, where I’m currently teaching. Here we can stay informed and close to many of the events happening worldwide. We can train our students to be open minded to many different viewpoints. We need to value the perspectives of others more than ever. We need to continue to have compassion and have a desire to help make our world better.
Educational opportunities can be given to our 10 and 11 year olds to utilize this technology and communication tools to give them basic skills as well as having relevant learning opportunities. Why don’t we set up blogs, or discussion boards for our students to discuss topics with other students there age from other countries? Here they can begin to relate to other children and begin to build that International friendship that will be so needed in their future.
At the very least, our educational system can be a springboard to launch our young people into the mindset of being a global citizen. We will never be able to prepare them for what kinds of tools or technology they will be using in the future, but what we can be doing is instilling in them the qualities and values that will help them to respect whoever they will be working alongside with.

Reaction to "Those Wacky Kids" by Mark Pesce

I have been one that has enjoyed the use of technology and I am very interested in new devices or “toys”. Of course my budget doesn’t allow for much change but I must say the presentation that Mark Pesce gave with “Those Wacky Kids” left my head spinning with ideas. He talked about the interconnectivity of our world and the rapid change that our students are growing up in. The only constant in the world for our average teenager is “change”.

I don’t think that the students in our school in our little town are quite as connected as the students being described in Pesce talk, but it won’t be long before they probably are. Pesce left me wondering what I need to be doing in my own classroom and school. How do I make my classroom an engaging part of my students lives while also upholding the learning objectives given to me by our curriculum?

A few projects utilizing this technology in hyperconnectivity have come to my mind during the course of Pesce’s talk but I also have some major hurdles to get over. The biggest question that keeps coming to my mind is how to be an overseer of these projects that can properly give guidance to protect against the dangers of students who are bound to speak inappropriately to each other or do hurtful things.

The classroom is broader and has become intertwined. It will become impossible for me to step in when I need to. It is the same with parents whose lives are now becoming increasingly busy and stressful. There is no guidance, supervision or council. It is a world that “seems” to the kids as unpoliced, a place where they could say and do what they wish. They are increasingly bold behind this technology, but yet their words and decisions carry so much weight with their “co-existence”. Texting, My Space or Facebook are all places where students live most of the time and for a majority of them they are places that are unwatched by their parents or adults.

I’m excited to find out more about strategies and techniques that can set up a “focused’ and “controlled” environment where interconnectivity can be had with the presence and guidance of teachers and parents. But most importantly the presence and guidance of our Creator and Savior needs to be closer than the “co-existence” of the rest of the world.