Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website has always been a bit difficult to use with educators as a learning tool. The mission statement is located in the “about us” section or in the Press Kit under “Events and News” while I think it should be front and center on the home page. I think the framework for 21st century learning page is the most useful part of the website and it is what I regularly share with educators. The framework provides a visual representation of the interrelated nature of the student outcomes and support systems. The links to the 21st Century Student Outcomes provide additional links to resources in each skill area. The links to the 21st Century Support Systems are less useful in that they give a very broad overview of each element. As with most standards, specific actions and methods are often difficult to locate. To use a map analogy, while I think the 21st century skill framework provide a large scale map of where we need to go, it does not provide the specific street by street directions on how to get there. I am also surprised about the relatively few statewide initiatives in relation to 21st Century skills.
I know many educators, including myself, have focused on learning and innovation skills much longer than just the first 9 years of the 21st century. Certainly the information literacy and technology skills have evolved and changed but the focus on thinking, innovation and creativity have been stressed by many teachers over the decades. It is good that a renewed focus is being placed on these critical skills and it sounds like they may also be part of the national report card: http://www.eschoolnews.com/emails/eSN/0122ResourceCenter.htm
Despite some minor website shortcomings, it is helpful having the 21st century skills framework (created by businesses, educational & community organizations, and government) that specifically outlines the skills our students need to develop in order to become successful and productive citizens.

Blog Idea

I work with a variety of educators at multiple grade levels so I was thinking of ways that blogs could conceivably be utilized with all of them. I would like to see teachers establish class blogs and a suggestion as a way to start would be to use them for weekly student reflections on what they have learned during the week. I think regular student reflection on what they are doing and learning in school is often lacking in classrooms. Teachers could provide writing prompts such as “describe something you did this week that you enjoyed,” or “describe something you found difficult this week.” While giving the opportunity for students to reflect, this blog would also provide valuable information to the teacher about student perceptions. Often what educators think they are teaching is not actually what the students are learning. As part of the blog, students would be required to provide feedback to a certain number of their classmates.

Video Production - A Powerful Learning Tool

Video production is a powerful learning tool that is inherently motivating to students. It can be utilized with all grade levels and in all subject areas. The challenge I am facing is how to motivate more teachers to use it regularly in their classrooms. When I first started using video in the classroom more than 10 years ago, it required excessive time editing with analog equipment and final products were often not very polished. Despite the technology shortcomings of that time, the process of creating videos was always interesting to my students and engaged them in exploring issues in order to effectively communicate information. Because video production also requires collaboration, planning, communication skills and problem solving, it supports curriculum standards in multiple subject areas. Over the past several years, advances in technology have made video production tools powerful, inexpensive and much less time consuming. Certainly the explosion of home video sharing on the web bears witness to the continued interest that youth have in video and it makes sense that we spend time teaching students how to communicate effectively using this medium. Tools like Visual Communicator 3 (formerly sold by Serious Magic and now owned by Adobe) have made it possible to create videos using only a computer and webcam. Despite the ease with which video production can now be accomplished, I still can only get a handful of teachers to use it as a regular learning tool in their classrooms. One of the problems is professional development time and competing with administrator’s requirement to use PD time on issues related to system wide testing and issues such as NCLB. Regrettably, at the end of the day, PD time for enhancing education through the use of technology is simply not a priority. This week my students and I are doing our first live video webcast of an important district event. I am hoping the increased exposure of the value of video with both district leadership and parents will help increase the time and resources provided for supporting video production as a valuable tool that can enhance student learning.