The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website discusses the need to revitalize education to meet the changes technology is bringing to society. Schools have been much slower to embrace the new technological advances than businesses, and have less advanced technology than most people have access to in their personal lives.
The overview to the website states that they advocate focusing on “critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation” (http://www.p21.org/). Which is what good education is all about regardless of how, or even whether, we incorporate technology. That said, they are right that we need to do a better job of incorporating technology into our teaching. Not only are these skills going to be necessary for our students’ success in college, careers and life in general, but using technology engages their interest. As the website points out students need to see that their learning applies to the real world, and that they “retain more when their learning is relevant, engaging and meaningful” (http://www.p21.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf p. 6). While, again, you can make learning meaningful and engaging without technology, in today’s world students see and use technology all the time, and they see the lack of technology, or the antiquated technology, in classrooms as yet another sign that education is not relevant.
Employers are going to be looking for students who understand how to use technology to find information and to collaborate, and they are going to be looking for people who can problem solve and use the technology creatively. Thus as educators we need to engage them in lessons that utilize technology so that we can teach them how to navigate the internet, how to collaborate and problem solve with technology.
I did find the following claim on the website to be completely absurd: “Children know more about the world today than their teachers, often because of the media environment they grow up in” (http://www.p21.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf , p. 8). Actually, I think “completely absurd” is an understatement. I find it laughably ignorant. Students are often, if not generally, more “tech savvy” than their teachers, but they certainly do not know more about the world. Of course there are exceptions, but I have found them to be rare.
Ultimately however, I found this website to make a lot of sense. Incorporating technology into the classroom makes it more relevant to the students lives, provides powerful learning tools, and better prepares them for their future.
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I also disagree with the statement about the children knowing more than the teachers. It is like you said completely absurd. Some students may be more technologically savvy than some teachers but that is about the extent of it. In some cases they may know how to download YouTube videos and burn music, but they lack important skills like using Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which are very important to the workplace. As educators we must teach students to interact with technology in a professional manner. Another major I find with my students is that they do not use well respected websites and retrieve erroneous information. As educators, we must teacher our students that not everything in the internet is true and must analyze its validity. In summary, the educators still hold the knowledge that the students need to be successful in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteRoxanne said:
ReplyDeleteTim, you have a way with words! I like your remark about how "Children know more about the world today than their teachers, often because of the media environment they grow up in" not sounding absurd, but as you put it,"laughably ignorant." I love it! You are too funny. You are so right; students cannot possibly know more about the world than we do. Yes, they may be a bit more tech savvy than some of us educators, but please, they haven't been in the world long enough to ever possibly know more than us.
I also agree with what you said about "incorporating technology into the classroom making it more relevant to the students' lives" (Mount, 2010). I reside in and work in New Jersey, one of the 14 states in which P21 is active and I sure hope they partner up with my school district and bring our school and our students into the 21st century.