21st Century Skills

As educators, we continually have to be aware of shifts in the overall approach to classroom education. Day by day, technology becomes a greater impact on both our lives, and the lives of our students. With ever growing urgency, today's schools need to be cognizant of the impact that technology brings our students, or we run the risk of losing them in our classrooms. In this ever-growing time of need for schools, we appear to be failing our students in this regard. Our students spend on average over 35 hours in the classroom a week. Studies have shown that only 15 MINUTES of that time is spent on the Internet. The same students, on average, spend more than 27 HOURS on the Internet at home (Miners & Pascopella, 2007). I find this mind-boggling statistic to be terrifying. Our students are craving to learn through online models, and through either lack of funding, or lack of training for the teachers, that craving is going unsatisfied.

How can we quench the thirst for knowledge? For one thing, it is becoming clearer by the day that the method of book learning is frankly not going to work with today's student. They get information at their fingertips through their cellphones and the Internet, or the Internet on their cellphone. A new skill set is needed, and that is why the 21st century skill set was established. 21st century skills focus on what we have been teaching, however they teach it in a new way. Learning and innovation skills are central to 21st century learning, focusing on what Partnership for 21st Century Skills calls the "4 Cs". (Partnership for 21st century skills, 2011). Critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration all make up these "4 Cs", which are an essential piece to create positive student outcomes. Life and career skills, along with information and technology skills are also desired outcomes for students. Our tried and true 3 Rs also are essential to the core of 21st century skills, and it takes support systems to get us to that point. Standards and assessments along with curriculum and instruction make up two of the support systems in place. Professional development and learning environments make up the final two layers of this framework (Partnership, 2011).

What does this all mean? I believe it is saying that through technology, students will be exposed to different opportunities to collaborate and learn new ways to work. Teachers will need to provide students with meaningful learning opportunities, and relate much of what is being taught to the lives of their students. Any learner is much more eager and willing to learn when the topic is fun and relevant to them. Our students are getting their information at home in different ways, and in order for them to truly grasp our classroom activities, we need to present them that knowledge in a variety of ways. This means quite a bit of change is necessary in the classroom. New lesson plans need to be implemented. New resources need to be purchased. Maybe most importantly, a willingness to teach the new technology needs to be established in the teacher. This is no small task, but for our students to truly grasp what is being taught, isn't it worth it?

However, I think there are a few flaws in the 21st century skill set. To me, the elephant in the room is standardized testing. To be fair, most school districts will tell you that they 'don't teach to the test'. To be even fairer, I don't believe most of those school districts. With changes to the common core and standards that need to be implemented into a lesson plan, how on Earth are teachers going to be able to incorporate all of these ideas into their classroom, when the majority of what is being taught is geared towards standardized tests? There needs to be an abundance of training in place for these 21st century goals to be fully incorporated, and frankly, where does this time come from? While lessons can certainly incorporate newer technologies and critical thinking skills into the classroom, being able to do all of that while achieving all goals required for standardized testing, state and national standards, and core curriculum information seems to be nearly impossible given the time constraints of our jobs.

So how do we get there? I don't know yet. However, I think that these 21st century skills are vital for where are students are going. We just need to continually search for ways to integrate newer technologies into the classroom. After all, this blog continually reminds us to take baby steps to get there.

References:

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34. Used by permission.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2011). Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from:

http://www.p21.org/index.php