As I started reading the article "Learning for the 21st Century," I found some good insight of how the educational system wants to start directing students of the future. Mainly what this article was about, was how students have gathered the core information, like your Math, Science, English Literacy, and History and then need to ask how can we use those skills to think at problems critically with self-direction and be able to communicate their ideas and answers to other groups. This article does a great job structuring what 21st Century Skills really are.
In the information world that we live in today it is hard not to even walk down the street and see a half a dozen people with cell phones in their ears. People want their information now and they want the fastest applications, the newest gizmo's and a way to be connected to them 24/7. It has already come and the new generation of students need to be able to adapt to the new digital world. There is no bout in my mind that these skills need to be implemented into our school systems, but this could take a very long time to implement into schools that are in poor communities that cannot afford new technologies for everyone. It seems that this article is very realistic and actually 21st Century Skills are installed in my District, but students will not learn these skills without teachers that have prior knowledge to the technologies used today.
I believe that we need to implement these skills not only for grades K-12, but at the collegiate level of learners also. It should be required for college students that are majoring in education to take a class on 21st Century Skills and how to implement them into the classroom. If students were to integrate these skills they would have a better chance of adapting to the real world when that time comes. "Today's education system faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how student's live and how they learn."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI agree that teaching 21st century skills should also be taught at the collegiate level. I graduated college in 2006 (not that long ago) and not one of my teaching courses incorporated technology. I took courses in art, science, social studies, reading, and special education at the elementary level, but I never once had a course explaining to future teachers the importance of technology and all the various programs that can be used with students. I feel that I am finally hopping on the technology bandwagon but still don't feel that my current school district is doing all that they can do to train teachers. I guess I'm lucky I am taking this graduate course!
Hi Chris-
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point about college level students, teachers in particular, needing to be well versed in these skills as well. Many undergraduate teachers take a survey course in how to use the various technologies, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, but they do not take any courses in how to integrate them effectively. Would you advocate for classes like this to be implemented into the undergraduate program?