21st-Century Skills Are Not a New Education Trend but Could Be a Fad - US News and Worl... - 2 views
-
-
Elva Mendoza on 21 Apr 12http://diigo.com/0q35s I came upon this great article about teaching 21st century skills in our schools. I highlighted some interesting points about the implementation of 21st century schools and I added several sticky notes that you can comment on. How do you incorporate 21st century skills in your classroom?
-
-
giving all students a common framework of knowledge is a key strategy for increasing civic equality.
-
Unfortunately some 21st-century skills proponents believe these skills should replace the teaching of content. They believe that because so much new knowledge is being created, students should focus on how to know instead of knowing.
- ...1 more annotation...
-
Very interesting! I agree with the writer of the article. There needs to be a balance between teaching the 21st century skills and the content. There also needs to be a balance with how much time is spent on learning content and how much time should be spent on learning how to find the information. Back in the day, there was less history to learn, less scientific facts, etc. Since the Internet era began, we have way more facts than we can possibly remember. I think that teachers can do this, so that it's not a fad. As a librarian, I'm trying to focus on communication. I have a wiki and a library web page that helps me communicate with students the different resources that are available to them. I am always sharing with them what is available so that they can use their creativity.
-
Thank you for sharing this article Elva. It really resonated for me. The author's final statement , "If they want to genuinely transform teaching and learning, proponents of 21st-century skills must be as deliberate about how their idea is approached and implemented as they want schools to be about teaching these skills", especially resonated with my feelings regarding our rush to implement 21st Century skills. I firmly believe in backwards planning, but often what I observe is a rush to buy new "toys" and then there's no plan for their use. School districts must take the time to make the end goal and then create the steps needed to arrive at that goal. This will require time, effort, and yes some money. However, if you take the time to plan ahead for implementation you will save money in the long run by avoiding costly missteps. Additionally, these 21st Century Skills are simply skills to apply to knowledge. We must take the time to teach them but it cannot be in determent to the content areas. If students learn a concept better using scissors and paper over a Prezi, then it should be the method of instruction in my opinion. Ultimately, teachers and school districts need to embrace the new technology but view it as a tool for instruction and not the solution to all of our educational struggles.
-
I try to incorporate 21st century skills by having my kids use more technology with their projects. many of them are so use to having the pen and paper assignment that they are surprised when they get to use technology to create a project. While there may be some issues that make it hard to use technology most of the time because of lack of computers of items, having some group work for using these technology can help. I know I can be doing more so when I plan I need to make sure to keep in mind that it is our jobs as teachers to teach these students into becoming 21st century learners.