21st Century Skills, More than just buzz words

With the current economic situation, there has been an increased focus on preparing students for an ever-changing job market. One organization has been at the forefront of this movement is the The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Since it's inception in 2002, The Partnership has worked to develop and define what skills students would need in the changing marketplace and economy.As an educator in Tucson, the home of the Partnership, I am well aware of their ongoing work and the evolution of their framework.

The phrase 21st Century skills is one of the key things that is talked about in school reform, but some tend to think of this as just teaching students to use technology. A review of the Partnership's Framework for 21st Century Learning reveals that technology skills is just a part of the framework and not even the focus of 21st Century learning. In fact, their new framework design places an emphasis on the core subjects.Though they note on the site that "Partnership views all the components as fully interconnected in the process of 21st century teaching and learning " the design shows how the core subjects act as a foundation to the rest of the framework.The core subjects have always been a part of the framework, but more by implication than actual emphasis
As educator that has worked with computers or technology in a school setting for over 20 years, I really like how they have emphasized information, media and technology skills as being integral across the content areas and not just a discrete skill set to be taught in a technology class. Even today with all of the talk of technology integration into content area teaching, too much of the skills in these areas are expected to be taught by a technology teacher/aide. I feel that for true integration to happen, the classroom teacher should be teaching technology and info literacy skills AS they integrate technology.The Partnership has brought old ideas like cooperative learning back into the fold, emphasizing the importance of teamwork. The ability to work with people of various backgrounds is critical to survive in just about any job.

One of the best parts of what the Partnership is trying to do is to get away from the over-emphasis on standardized, high-stakes testing.  Their paragraph on 21st Assessments says it all, I think:

Authentic 21st century assessments are the essential foundation of a 21st century education. Assessments must measure all five results that matter — core subjects; 21st century content; learning skills; ICT literacy; and life skills. To be effective, sustainable and affordable, assessments must use modern technologies to increase efficiency and timeliness. Standardized tests alone can measure only a few of the important skills and knowledge students should learn. A balance of assessments, including high-quality standardized testing along with effective classroom assessments, offers students a powerful way to master the content and skills central to success. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=195&Itemid=183

Blogging in the Classroom Idea

I've seen and heard of blogs being used in a variety of ways in the classroom. I decided one way that I would use a blog for would be for an 8th grade Current Events assignment for their Government class. As a technology teacher, I would coordinate some of my assignments/projects with the content area teachers. The Government teacher required his students to do a current events assignment where the students would have to clip two or three newspaper articles, write summaries and write definitions of a couple of key or new words from the articles. When I was teaching the students how to do PowerPoint, I would have them create a Current Events PowerPoint, with the same basic requirements, except the articles came from online sources (they had to link to the article in the PPT). The Government teacher would give extra credit to any student that would give their PowerPoint Current Events reports in class.

I feel that a blog would be a great way to take the whole current events assignment to the next level. A blog not only allows the student to post the article or links to the article, but it also gives them a great venue to express their thoughts or opinions on the news. The opportunity to get feedback from classmates and others also adds a new dimension to the assignment.
When students know that their work is going to be online, they tend to focus more on their grammar and spelling.

School use of Web 2.0 tools

Great story about students using Web 2.0 tools and 21st Century Skills in the classroom:

Students discovering online collaboration

By Kristen Alloway/The Star-Ledger

November 07, 2009, 11:07PM

First-grader Thomas Tsangaropoulos stands before a laptop during his Spanish class at Lake Parsippany School, smiles broadly into its tiny webcam and waves.

"Hola," he says to the image of a young girl appearing on the computer and on a large screen in the front of the Parsippany classroom. "Me llamo Thomas."

Across town, first-grader Mariah Colon peers into a laptop at Troy Hills School and waves.

"Hola. Buenos días," she says.

Remember when technology in schools meant computer labs and internet connections? New Jersey teachers and students are slowly but increasingly using the tools of Web 2.0 — the so-called second generation of the web that includes creative, collaborative, shared content.

Students are writing on wiki pages, blogging about their classroom activities, recording audio files for band practice, videoconferencing with people around the globe and chatting online about literature.

read the rest of the article here....

There is not enough of this going on in our schools and too many decision-makers out there that actually try and prevent access and such use of technology. (or is Arizona the only state that has anti-technology legislators)

Welcome back!

After a long absence, I've resurrected this blog, primarily for a class towards my MA in Ed Tech. Over the years, I've created several blogs for different projects and classes, only to let them collect dust after awhile due to time and other considerations. (I also have a politics-themed blog that I posted to frequently, but found others were much better at saying what I was saying, so I have let that lapse the last 12 months or so)

When it comes to sharing my thoughts or following the writings and musings of others, I pretty much have turned to Twitter:
http://twitter.com/curtis_dutiel.

BTW: I deleted a couple of old posts, but decided to leave a few older ones that contain some content/links that may be of interest to others.

Enjoy.

One-to-One

As many of you may already know, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has an initiative to set up 1-to-1 laptop programs at several pilot schools across the state( Horne's speech. News Article) There are several states that have already created 1-to-1 computer programs on much larger scales. For example, Maine was the first to do so statewide, putting a laptop into the hands of every 7th grader five years ago. link.

Many see the move to laptops as just another fad that looks cool but doesn't yield results. Recent reports about studies of some 1-to-1 programs out of Texas, however, back the effectiveness of 1-to-1 programs. In the February 2007 edition of the T.H.E. Journal an article looks at what the studies are showing. the article, 1-to-1 Computing :: A Measure of Success by Charlene O'Hanlon, notes that the programs have resulted in :better student motivation, increased teacher effectiveness, and developing student 21st Cetury Skills.

With such encouraging results. hopefully the legislature will agree to fund this program with an eye to expanding it even further next year.

Arizona Ed Tech Wiki

Educational Technology wiki supporting ed tech in Arizona is live: azedtech.wikispaces.com. The wiki is available to the public for viewing, but is currently only editable by the Technology Integration Specialists (of which I am one). My goal with this wiki is to provide information about educcational technology news, lesson ideas, discussion and support, focusing on Arizona.

Drop in and check it out.

College Professors going WEB 2.0

Today's Arizona Republic's website, AZCentral, has a great article about how professors at ASU and the University of Arizona are using Blogs, Podcasts, and Wikis to teach.

Professors braving frontiers of Web to expand class reach

....
Blogs and podcasts are making their way into traditional college classrooms, changing the way students learn and professors teach. Learning becomes more interactive and can take place in the middle of the night.

Professors say the new learning modes improve their ability to communicate with students and foster more interaction among students.

"Many a quiet student has really come to life on their blogs," said UA lecturer Bill Endres, who uses blogs in English courses. "Some students actually have become stars in the social realm in classes because students think their blogs are funny."

The trend is inspired by students, who are no strangers to blogging and podcasting in their daily lives.
...

The article goes on to detail how these tools, often referred to as Web 2.0, are being used by the professors and the impact on the students. Clearly, the image of a stodgy old professor lecturing to a room full of bored students is on its way to becoming a thing of the past.

This is clearly where education is heading, and it is important to remember that it is not the tools that are important, but HOW the tools are used. This is how education needs to be transformed. In an article on today's (2-12-07) AZSTARNET talks about how education should be reformed. I think that following the lead of these colleges and professors is the way to go.

A side note: Podcasting may be a new concept for professors, but not so new to college students, who have been recording lectures for their friends and frat brothers who were unable to attend class on that day.

Gates on Learning with technology

Bill Gates spke last month at the Microsoft Government Leaders forum and talked about how technology will transform learning. Gates stated that the teacher is still a critical piece of the puzzle and that providing teachers in IT training is important. I think that almost all educators agree with this philosophy to some point. However, there is something that he said at the conference that is even more significant, and something that I think that we all need to pay heed to:

"We need to be humble in making predictions of how technology will affect education," Gates said, because people made big predictions about how TVs, video tapes and software would influence education that haven't come true.

Bill Gates syllabus for tech and education

I think that his comment is, as the British would say, spot on. Too often developments such as TV, laser discs and the such have been labeled 'silver bullets' that would revolutionize teaching and learning, only to fizzle out. Computers, technology, the internet and the such have been previously seen as the be all and end all of educational reform. The results have been far from what was hoped/promised, and there are those that quickly point to the failures in order to justify cuts to educational technology. We know that technology can improve the quality of teaching and learning, but we must avoid labeling it as an immediate solution. the transformation that technology can and will have on the entire educational process will take hard work, time, patience and money.
We need to be in this for the long haul and not promise magical overnight success.

The Power of the Internet

At the 15th Annual Teaching and Technology Conference held in Tucson the keynote speaker Alan November talked about the power of the internet, web 2.0 in particular. This video explains it all.

Misuse of PowerPoint?

PowerPoint has become one of the most popular software applications in the classroom. Too often, however, the use of 'slideware' is used to replace writing assignments/projects.
In an article published on WIRED.COM in September 2003, Edward Tufte addresses the negative impact of PowerPoint. The Article, "PowerPoint is Evil", attacks the tendency to focus on style over substance. This is especially true in education. Too many students and teachers get caught up in the WAY the information is presented; ie the colors, charts, graphs, animation, etc; vs the actual CONTENT.
Tufte states:

Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate clie nt pitches and infomercials.

Many teachers DO use PowerPoint in this way, which is clearly a misuse of a powerful tool. That does not mean, in my opinion, that PowerPoint and other presentation software should NOT be used at all in the classroom. Teaching effective presentation skills, speaking as well as presentation design, should be a part of any curriculum involving technology. There are many websites and publications that provide excellent information on effective presentation design for those who are unsure of what constitutes effective presentation design(s).

One area that Tufte fails to address in this article as well as his writings on his website is interactive capabilities of most presentation apps. Teachers and students can create true multimedia learning tools that are non-linear, allowing the user to explore content. In the past, programs like HyperStudio were used. As software suites like Microsoft Office have become the norm on school comuters, the included presentation software (ie PowerPoint) has taken on this role. In fact, Microsoft has added features like custom animation paths to recent versions of PowerPoint. Such features were originally found only on HyperStudio.

There are many excellent uses of PowerPoint in the classroom to be found out there. I will be presenting a workshop @ the 14th annual Teaching and Technology Conference (see post below) on using the custom animation features of PowerPoint XP/2003 to create animated stories.