The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills is a comprehensive website that addresses many of the complex issues of incorporating technology in the classroom. The website is looking beyond the traditional educational setting commonly found in the classroom and encourages re-evaluation of pedagogy, curriculum and access to information via the new technologies available. Technologies can no longer be used as just a simple tool to access information as in Web1, but can be a vehicle to collaborate with others and function in a team setting to address real and authentic issues more commonly done with Web2.
The partnership was founded in 2002 with a mission “to build a collaborative partnership among education, businesses, community, and government leaders” to address the gap between what students are learning in the classroom today to what they will need to know in order to function in the 21st century work environment. There is a long list of supporting partners such as U.S. Department of Education, Apple Computers, Dell Computers Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, National Education Association and others. The skills that the partnership focuses on include genuine problem solving, critical thinking skills, collaborative discussion, project-based learning, global awareness and social responsibility.
Welcome to Route 21 is the interactive part of the website. While exploring here I came across snapshots of ICT/Global Awareness. There I found Implementing ICT literacy in a science curriculum. An edutopia video clip demonstrated the processes that an elementary school used to collaborate with students in
Another example, of collaborative project-based problem solving was a high school engineering freshman class working in teams to engineer a structurally viable wing and present there findings to actual engineers. Under Critical Thinking in Math and Science and Implementing a Science Design Project there is an explanation and an edutopia video clip of the students progressing through their project testing stresses on the wing span to determine the best design.
The students indicated that the hands-on collaborative experience was profound and more impactful. An engineer offers, “Reflection is equated with retention.” These examples confirm that a collaborative project-based learning experience conducted with the aid of technologies and information literacy’s can demonstrate actual student learning.
As a contemporary educator, I plan to modify my teaching practice to more fully incorporate project-based learning in order to facilitate more comprehensive student learning. For example, as part of our Science curriculum, we explore sinking and floating. We use different objects in the classroom to predict then observe results. We use our results to draw a conclusion about what causes some objects to float and others to sink. This is a great learning experience and we will share our information and look forward to hearing from others.
Collaboration skills are vital to the future of our students. Being able to work togehter in a safe environment with the goal to learn and experience the world around us is win win for all involved. The set up for the activiites are a lot of work but when the students have the aha lites go off during self discovery it is worth it. The site shows many new ways of teaching the basics with technology and life skills.
ReplyDeleteOne of the changes that I see occuring with the integration of technology is a movement towards project based learning. Teachers are using technology to create quality, authentic, engaging products. PBL is not a new idea. The same teachers that have difficulty "buying into" the idea of teachnology integration are also the ones I see shying away from PBL. Perhaps these theories are integrated more than originally thought.
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed looking over the posted video lessons because it gave me insight how to utilize technology in my classroom. The issue I face is time and as I looked through the site I didn't find many suggestions as to how to meet all the needs and requirements they suggest. I currently have my students until 11:15am and I am required to teach them the state standards and then find time to integrate technology as well.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest obstacle right now is that I do not have the technology available to me. I have a very limited amount of resources available to me at this time. My technology will be here in 2011 so I am preparing myself now for the difficult task ahead of me. Maybe our district will have trainers to show educators how to use it. I find that most of our classroom that have it just do the basics and do not even realize the potential available to them.
Sites like this one can help teachers and give them access to resources and information and that is a worthwhile tool in any teachers belt.
It looked like you spent a lot of time exploring the site. I too looked through some of the resources on Route 21. Its nice to know that there is a place out there to find so many terrific ideas. I went to different websites, teachers blogs, watched the videos...the site is truly a resource worth bookmarking ans sharing with your colleaques.
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