We are 20 years into this 21’st century, only 80 years to go and we are innovating and learning that we will need to add at least 3 more C’s (cross-cultural understanding; computing technology; and career learning) according to Bernie Trilling, director of the Oracle Education Foundation. Yet there are many more skills that we need to teach our students if they are going to navigate this new era.
Education is constantly evolving. We do not even know where we will be in 5 years let alone 80. It is apparent that the pace of learning is being outstripped by the pace of technology (Eddie Obeng). I think it may be time to retire the term 21st century learning as it is not useful as a label. It encompasses too much to be useful. Clarity is of paramount importance. Teacher’s need to know exactly what they are teaching and why it is important to teach it. The steps to learning anything requires a clear step by step progression.
I have heard Bill Gates say that education should focus on job training. I think that industry does not want to foot the bill for job training anymore. So they want the government to provide job training via the education system. This is one more argument to increase funding for education.
So career development and job training are skills needed once a student leaves the school setting. But so are many other skills such as being able to complete one's taxes, being able to understand and apply knowledge regarding financial instruments that can range from mortgages, retirement accounts and health care, and the ability to teach oneself to learn, as well as knowing how to know when to take your (car, phone, computing device, wifi) in for service, how to practice responsible citizenship and vote and the most important how to parent and raise well-adjusted children. These are skills many students graduating from college have not yet learned.
I enjoyed reading the NEA’s How the 4Cs came to be identified from the NEA; I thought it was helpful to have such well thought-out resources for lessons. Although each lesson would need to be adapted and re-invented to teach it within the distance learning model, I could see that many of the lessons would be beneficial to my students. I am looking forward to exploring the websites linked in the article.
Reading “What is Effective Integration of Technology, and Does it Make a Difference?” by Debra Rein highlights the stages that teachers go through as they learn to use technology tools. Presently I am at level 4: Appropriation. I use 1:1 chromebooks in my classroom (even before COVID) so that my students are kept productive practicing interacting with the content in many different ways. So I didn’t think the distance learning model would be the challenge it turned out to be. When we were in the classroom together I relied on my students that co-taught with me. They were the students that were the most comfortable with technology and helped their classmates when they needed help. Once we were all at home, many of my students had no support. This has been the most difficult piece of the transition. There were always students that could not remember their username or their password, but now I can’t look over their shoulder to help them and the students that could help them get back on track are not available either. Sharing screens takes time and practice, and even then it is hard when you see the large green rectangle on their screen that says “Play” and the student says they can’t see it. Patience is required.
This week I am sharing my adaption of the 4th grade Benchmark Unit 2 Week 1 assignment through Nearpod. I have tried assigning the assignments to my students to work on in class as separate assignments. Trying to get my students to read the text either online or in the booklet they picked up from school. I have tried putting them in breakout rooms to have them work together. “Crickets” I had a little success when I set up a slide deck so I could see the work they were doing in the breakout rooms. My students have responded the best, when we do the assignments -whole class. I think it is because I make it more ELD friendly. Nearpod will combine the whole class experience reading the text together and then the students will collaborate on the Nearpod slide either orally or in text and I will be able to see the responses no matter which breakout room I am in. Then they will work independently answering open-ended questions. I like this because I can formatively assess student work live in real time and I Nearpod will generate a report that I can keep as a sample of their work. I am trying to weave the 4 C’s throughout the lesson. I would say this lesson is in the Modification stage of the SAMR model. The reason I am not trying to push this to the Redefining stage is purely down to pacing. I am expected to use the curriculum and to maintain the progression set forth. I want my students to be productive and to get them to show me that they are doing the assignments. I have to let them know that I am tracking their work. Using the T-PACK model reveals that there are 3 different aspects that can make the lesson fail.
Lastly, after reading “The Flat World…” I am still trying to figure out how the U.S. administers more hours of instruction than other countries and yet our students are not doing better on tests. I think it may be because our education is responsible for all aspects of a child’s life. So it is not hours of instruction, it is time spent counseling, administering health screenings etc. Other countries are doing these things too, but they are not putting them under the umbrella of education. So it is an issue of clarity. Teachers targeting instruction seems to be the most effective for students and allows teachers to achieve a better work life balance. This seems like a win-win for all. Now let’s get the funding to make this happen.