While exploring this site, it was interesting to find that they are advocates for making sure our students are ready for the 21st Century. The belief is that for United States students to be able to compete in our global economy, they need the three Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and four Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation).
Partnership for 21st Century (P21) Students incorporate systems with outcomes that students should master in order to succeed in work and life in the 21st century. The critical systems for students to master are 21st century standards, assessments, and curriculum. Their instruction, learning environments, and teacher professional development must be aligned to produce a support system that produces 21st century outcomes for today’s students.
Honestly, I didn't exactly think any of it was earth shattering. Basically it says that our education system has fallen behind and needs to use technology in order to bridge the gap between what students do in school and what they are expected to do in the work force. Their mission is simply to create a partnership between education and businesses in order to accomplish this goal that is important to both factions. Schools want to produce desirable workers while businesses desire workers with real world skills. It makes sense for the two to come together and partner up in order to achieve these goals.
Nothing on the site really surprised me. I was disappointed at the small amount of resources. I didn't see anything to disagree with. It's pretty much common sense. The problem I see is in how teachers are being educated. When I was getting my credential I knew that some of what we were being taught was obsolete, but I could not make my professors understand. There was a disconnect between what we were being taught and reality. Until the Universities get on board with the new way of teaching, new teachers will not be part of the catalyst for change that they could be. Some individuals will be advocates for technology, but that means 1 or 2 teachers per site. Many teachers are resistant to change, so it will be an uphill battle for technology to receive the place it deserves in our classrooms. A big part of that struggle comes down to money. If you can either have technology with 40 students or less technology with 20 students, teachers will take the lower number of students over the technology.
As far as implications for my students goes, I believe that their lives will be heavily influenced by technology but that they will receive more exposure the older they get. If their middle and high school teachers utilize the technology, then they will be prepared for their careers. However, I have heard that the elementary teachers in my district use more technology than the middle and high school teachers do. We are only this year working on having grades available online and creating a standardized report card. As a teacher I will have to make adjustments to my teaching style as I receive new bits of technology to incorporate into my lessons. I really believe that the publishers will be the ones held to bringing technology into the classroom since I have to teach whatever program we adopt. That means whatever the publisher does, I can also do in the classroom.
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After reading your post, you made me think more about the website. I think maybe this website would be more useful for those teachers that do not know how to use the technology resources; or for those that maybe do not think technology is important? I think they may find use of the overview chart or the blogging opportunity at the bottom of the page.
ReplyDeleteGreat reflection to the website!
Best of luck with your class!
You're right that teachers must teach whatever programs their school system adopts. I think that the real key to closing the gap between what students learn and what they're expected to know is finding a way to give teachers the training they need to effectively teach these programs to their students. Maybe the solution is to have the publishers provide the training as a part of the puchasing order?
ReplyDeleteI think by having the local businesses on board to help students in the area to give them an extra incentive to learn is a benefit. But like you said it will be hard to have teachers to change from their old ways. That's what frustrates me the most in our district, we have teachers who have been in the district so long they do not want to change their curriculum. There have been heated arguments between staff on certain subjects, but if these older staff members have more say than how can you change to benefit your students. It's frustrating when a fellow teacher that worked with only taught the same material she has been doing for the past twenty years. She would not try to change her material or use music, or technology. When you don't have a teaching partner on the same level it makes things difficult to teach. We need to see the importance of technology in our curriculum and adopt programs that would benefit our students.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with a lot of what you wrote about this site. "Earth shattering" was an interesting way to put it. The site was a bit confusing to get around and a lot of the information just seemed to be posted like some RSS feed. Almost like a compilation of stories and links. I also like what you said about the uphill battle with getting the money. It is hard with the economy the way it is, and technology is the next best thing to apple pie, so it is expensive. Especially when you need to buy so much of it for the school to get the most use of it. Hopefully schools do not fall too far behind in the 21st century...
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