Fantastic News! I've been selected at my school to be part of a team of teachers who will teach students in the AVID Program (Advancement Via Individual Determination). I am so excited about it. We will be engaging with the new education technology such as wikis, pod casts, and RSS feeds in our classes. The goal of this program is to bring the middle performing student to the top of the class, so that each can see his or her fullest potential. While I am just becoming familiar with these new forms of technology, I am excited about learning more with my students as they explore collaborative team work and academic rigor.
I've noticed that some of my colleagues are a little apprehensive about all this technology and collaboration. They have argued that the core skills of reading, writing and math need to be reinforced, as opposed to pushing the production end of ideas and concepts. I understand their fear, and I agree that proficiency in core concepts must be restored, but if we are to glean for the best minds, we have to understand that as we teach core values we must also teach students how digital technology can be used for the useful construction of ideas, which are marketable, and in the long run beneficial for the world.
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2 comments:
Congratualtions!!!This will be the opportune time for you to share your new knowledge with your colleagues and make your impact in another capacity. I sincerely hope that you will have individuals who will support your input. All the best and when your challenges arise you can depend on us for additional support.
K. Kerr
The 21st Century Website is quite amazing in my opinion. I’m not certain if any such other organizations have initiated this undertaking in the US. To develop such a comprehensive educational technology website is no small feat and must have taken quite some time to have it organized to such a substantive level.
I was particularly surprised to see the scope of the site. It provides a clear and precise outline of the skills required for students and educators if they are to be full and successful participants in this 21st Century learning. I was most impressed with the emphasis of core knowledge as the base of the framework for 21st Century learning supported by a technology-rich curriculum and social development. It is a holistic approach that embraces depth and breadth in its determinations.
The website offers educators and administrators resources and support with professional development and also provides guidelines for what needs to happen on a national level in terms of education policy, if this venture of 21st Century pedagogy is to be successful. The hard question have been asked and guidelines given for change.
In addition to precise guidelines and strategies for success, the site also follows through with directions regarding learning environments, adherence to standards, and assessments, indicating that previous educational policy is not to be entirely disregarded as not being useful, but that can be augmented and implemented to accommodate the reality and necessity for a 21st Century learning environment.
The site offers a support system that encourages collaborative efforts of educators worldwide. Here, it is not a case of just leading by words, but also by example.
Was also surprised to see the participant-states listed on the site. This is an effective tool for creating dialogue and serious feedback (a kind of positive peer pressure). Such feedback will hopefully echo back to the ears of policy-makers and legislators and hopefully result change.
I feel very positive about this site and I feel positive about the fact that higher education is honing in on 21st technology and as a concrete, validated, and imperative method of instruction for our time. Here I am essentially developing my scholarship on a public forum! It is open for feedback not only from my professors and colleagues, but also from a much wider community. This will definitely challenge all participants to truly invest themselves to quality, high-performing educators in this groundbreaking stage of 21st Century learning.
Just as the move from the one-room schoolhouse that fit the agricultural model, to the timed, compartmentalized, industrial model of education was not easy, likewise, this advancement into digital age learning will not. But if we in the US are to have a hope of joining the global community in its advancement of a technologically driven age of human productivity, then we as educators must lead. Remembering that education ideally does not merely exist for those already educated, but that it remains truly a perennial endeavor of human development, students have to be offered the best practices of the broader global community. They in turn, will have the responsibility to carry on into an ever unimaginable new age.
D. Isaac
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