Critique of Partnership for 21st Century Skills

This website is attractive and professional looking and has some great information and materials to offer. It also provides a kind of vision for what everyone in the field of education should be working towards; and that is a vision for preparing our students to succeed in the world of work which has changed so very much in the last decade (or three).

Honestly I did not like the site at first and I think it had more to do with my own learning preferences. I did not see an obvious purpose or mission that told me "this is what you will find here" at first glance. There was a lot to read and I am a slow reader. My opinion warmed up, however, after I saw the video clips available under the tools and resources tab. Some of the wonderful results of what they are doing was great to see. I especially loved the kindergarten video, a must see, called "Data Collection." If I were asked for advice on how to format their home page I would say to make this one of the links and label it "21st Century Learning in Action." Also I would say to put the mission on the home page and boil everything else down into three to five points or areas that unfold further information if I click on it. Leave the drop down tabs at the top. Those are great.

I think the site has nicely outlined what education should look like. The site details everything that is necessary to educate our young people. I agree with the mission and am sad to say that my state is not one of the affiliates. Because of this the implications for my students are non-existent at this point.

I am finally and fully won over by the fact that teacher training and development is included in the overall plan. So many times that part is neglected (or omitted) in any new plan and teachers are left to sink or swim. More often than not they swim but can be so much more effective when given the tools beforehand.

Wiki possibilities...

Well, the experience of making a collaborative wiki was a series of extremes, everything from excitment and glee to frustration and aggravation; But apart from my spotty successefulness with it the wiki has so much potential in the classroom. I would call it the new "blackboard."



No matter what or who you teach this is definitely worthy of learning to use!

Hello Walden Colleagues! I need a hand (or rather part of a story...) I want to know what a story would look like if I just started it on a blog and you could help me see what it will be like and possibly trouble shoot. If you have a minute, stop by my blog and follow the link in the upper right hand corner.

The answer to all advisory "whoa's"...

The area where I see the most applications for myself is in advisory, also known in our school as navigation 101. I have a group of seniors right now and will get a group of freshmen next year. Attitudes towards advisory has been abismal. I think that most of the problems (maintaining a portfolio, relevance and attitude) could be solved by moving the whole process to the computer. The blog would serve both the purpose of storing and updating their portfolio for ALL to see as well as providing a much more interesting matrix within which to set goals, plan, and reflect.

Excuses, dragging feet and comments of how stupid advisory is could be eliminated or at least minimized. In many schools advisory is already online and portfolios are electronic and they span all four years but in my building it is not. I intend to change that. Not only will the whole process be more relevant but access to other sites about careers, colleges, volunteer work, online dictionaries, etc. will be available "right [there], right now" (Laureate Education, inc. 2007). Also, the idea of the "global audience" (Richardson, W. 2009 p. 30 as cited by Hetzel, Stacy 2010) adds not only interest but motivation to make any work fit for educated eyes. Best works could be scanned or photographed and downloaded onto their site. I think another benefit of doing this online would be that the "personal" aspect of the portfolio would actually get much more attention. This would also make the Senior Project presentation (recently integrated into advisory) go much more smoothly. The power point element would be a breeze to generate! I am very excited!


References

Hetzel, S. 2010 http://stacyhetzel.blogspot.com/2010/03/utilizing-blogs-in-classroom.html

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). “Technology and society” . [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore : Author

Bogging Blugs

I posted a candid paragraph or two and didn't get any responses. Well, I am not easily discouraged so I responded to myself. I gave myself a rousing pep talk and now that I am not so fuzzy about the workings of blogs I think it now has a working RSS feed. I will figure out how to delete previous posts and feel even better about my page. I think I will really like it. I have seen how it can be applied on some of my colleagues posts (especially impressed by Francesca Muracas blogs and links) and look forward to learning a whole lot more!

Ambivalent...to blog or not to blog

Even as I type this blog Microsoft Word lets me know in red that blog is still not an official word yet. I started this masters program thinking that because the students will be thrust into a world where computers are used more and more I need to model and facilitate learning and adapting to the changes in my culture and times; However when Dr. Thornburg took it a step further and made the distinction between doing things differently and doing different things I feel resistant (Laureate Education, inc. 2008). I feel pulled too fast and do not wish to kick and scream but in the book by Drs. Marzano, Pickering and Pollock there are well established research-based practices that are known to increase student learning and none of them mentioned doing different things with technology (2001). Convince me. Persuade me. Cite some evidence (formal or informal) that supports doing different things with technology. Maybe some of my colleagues have already done different things and can share their successes.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). “The Emergence of Educational
Technology” . [Motion picture]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on
Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore : Author.

November, A. C. (2008). Web Literacy for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.