Wednesday, January 28, 2009
21st Century Skills
In this week’s application assignment, the partnership for 21st century skills, which may be found at (www.21stcenturyskills.org), provides advocacy and guidance to those involved in the education field to supplement their instruction with the skills and tasks deemed essential for success in the current and future economy. In my classroom, I strive to utilize these tasks on a weekly if not daily basis. It is rather surprising and helpful to know that the website references its common goals of these tasks to some of the states’ initiatives in education. What I have to disagree with is only that my own home state (Illinois) unfortunately does not buy into the Route 21 system. Thus it may be more difficult for me unfortunately to tailor my instruction to the goals of a 21st century education along with my own state’s educational standards. If I was to follow one plan more rigorously than the other in my curriculum, I might incorrectly skew the directives of my instruction. Nevertheless, the implications of this site into the educational arena allows for all those involved, to have some sort of guideline map and resource hub, to gather ideas utilizing 21st century leaning tasks and effectively present them to their students.
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I was also disappointed to not find my state, Georgia, on the list. I believe we can still adapt these skills to fit our state's core curriculum standards with some time , effort, and creativity on our part. I wonder what it would take to push our state legislature's towards these ideals? I get so frustrated with government bureaucracies that I can't even imagine where to begin to move that mountain. But if everyone just sits back and waits for the powers that be to lead us in the correct direction then it may never happen. One of the 21st century skills discussed on this web site was social responsibility. Do you think that might include becoming a political lobbyist for technology integration in our unenlightened states?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to look at the states that are not involved in the program. The state I live in (Ohio) is not in with the program either. It makes me wonder if the program is still taking off and has just not caught on everywhere, or if people disagree with portions and do not want to be a part of this particular organization.
ReplyDeleteI too am disappointed that my home state of Pennsylvania is not in the Route 21 system. Again we wonder why foreign students out perform our very own American students when we only have 9 out of 50 states buying into this program. Hopefully it is just taking a little bit for everyone to get on board with the system rather than people not agreeing with it. I am anxious to see where everyone will be at in 5 years as to whether more people hop aboard or not.
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