Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a website that is challenging education policies and infrastructure. What I found particularly reassuring was the article Learning Environments Must Break Through the Silos that Separate Learning from the Real World, the article discusses the urgency of schools breaking from the traditional form of education to one that supports the technological advances seen in the real world. However, the article states that we also must be sensitive to the human interaction that takes place within education. Paige Kuni, worldwide manager of K-12 education for Intel Corporation and chair of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills states, “Learning supports are only valuable if they effectively reinforce human relationships, give relevance to learning and encourage student engagement. Schools must devote themselves to more than the mind-body connection to ensure student achievement" ("Learning Environments Must Break Through the Silos that Separate Learning from the Real World", 2009). As I have said in previous posts technology is a great tool and must be used as such. A tool. There must be discretion and moderation with all that we use and do. When we begin to negate the person as a whole we are no longer educators but simply technicians.
The website is progressive and addresses so many issues, concerns, and ideas that it must be viewed in order to be appreciated. It is up to date and discusses the most recent areas of education-- from legislation to civic literacy.
Learning Environments Must Break Through the Silos that Separate
Learning from the Real World. (2009, January 23). Partnership for 21st
Century Skills. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
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I was impressed with this website for the same reasons you mentioned: progressive, up-to-date, and inclusive of so many things. I could have probably spent days going over the wealth of information found here and agree that there is a necessary progression in order to understand completely. I was in the dark that an organization like this even existed and I hope to see more states jump on board. This class we're in keeps reminding us of the shift to a technology based society and I have to say, the information about the 21st Century learning skills website confirmed that theory completely. It's intimidating to think that these things are really happening and that we have a whole new set of challenges to face within the classroom. It sounds as if you embrace the idea of change and technology and I'm glad you found the website worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI too found the information on the site interesting and innovative and like BethLCS felt like I could spend a vast amount of time exploring the site. There seems to be so much to learn when it comes to educating children in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteYour statement about technology being a tool and being used as such it a good one. I hope that technology will never take the place of educators completely. How will we teach students to interact with others if we are not interacting with them ourselves? Do we want to become a society where the human connection to knowledge is forgotten? Finding the balance between technology based instruction, the human interaction factor, and preparing students for the “real-world” will be challenging, having a partnership between business and the education system seems like a great way to start.
Kudos! I also share the premise that human relationships and human interactions are essential for students to flourish in a classroom setting. Effective teachers use appropriate instructional strategies, technological tools to meet student learning and social needs. Many times, technology can overshadow the pedagogy. Partnership for 21st century skills is a great site that shares the success of their partner schools' projects that skillfully combined technology, progressive pedagogy,and student/ teacher interaction.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you put it about being educators and technicians. Indeed I've seen teachers using technology because the school 'force' them to. And they way they use it is really just using it for the sake of using it, it has no benefit of doing so, because the task can still be done without the technology part. There are not many teachers know the integration part of technology, mostly I've seen instead of integrating, they are including technology in their teaching. PowerPoint is a very popular choice. A Math teacher in my school is forever using .ppt in his teaching, even the students are expressing how boring it is to always see those .ppt and the thing is it doesn't really assist students' learning!
Teachers in the 21st century need to be trained on the technology side in their education because this is going to be the field that our students will be mostly working in or in relation to. Still a lot of degree courses do not have any technology aspect included in it, now how realistic is that to 'prepare' the graduands for the workplaces?
Thank you for sharing!
Sarah