21st Century Focus
The following sessions at FETC 2007 generally had a focus on the 21st century needs with a push for educational reform to match those needs.
Opening Session - Bill Nye
Preparing Students to Succeed in a Global Economy - Alan November
- Access website at http://www.novemberlearning.com
- Basic premises:
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The real revolution is not about technology. It's about access to information and communication. It's not about the wires, it's about what flows through them.
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The Internet can provide any version of the truth to support almost any belief. We need to teach students how to read the “grammar” of the Internet and apply strategies to validate information on websites.
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Access to more timely information and communication tools can empower educators to focus on individual learning needs of their students.
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We have the opportunity to provide our students with authentic assessment relationships over the web that can help dramatically improve student motivation.
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The reality of the networked global economy is that any desk job can be moved anywhere in the world within seconds. Our students must learn global survival skills of competing and cooperating with people around the world.
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Articulating vision and mission, managing change, and aligning technology to primary goals are key skills for school leaders.
Preparing Our Students for the 21st Century Workforce - Ken Kay
- Speaker represents The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, an organization that has emerged as the leading advocacy group focused on infusing 21st century skills into education.
- Developed framework - see attached
Frameworkflyer092806.pdf
- Framework resources
- Adopted by three states to date: NC, WV, WI
- Emphasis on
- Getting consensus
- Providing professional development
- Embedding skills in core subjects
- Upgrading assessment
- If we don't assess, then it will not be valued
- For example, Geography needs to be assessed not only for content, but also for analytic thinking and GPS
- Collegiate Learning Assessments
- Focusing on reforming high school
- Collaborate with community-based groups (i.e., after school and youth development groups)
- Collaborate with business community
Technology Solutions that Work - Cheryl Lemke
- Focus on appropriate research (not marketing) to make software purchases (i.e., Reader Rabbit is top seller, but not effective in increasing reading achievement). Also important to not ignore theoretical underpinnings.
- Uses the basic construct to guide research and draws upon the online book, How People Learn by John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Codking, Editors
- Using a three dimensional graph
- on the x-axis: Instruction from didactic to coaching to constructivism
- on the y-axis: Complexity from basic skills to higher order thinking
- on the z-axis: Authenticity from drill & practice to simulations
- Learning is based on three overlapping circles - the overlap signifies optimized, innovating learning
- With understanding - making sense, connectivity
- Based on prior knowledge - relevance, misconceptions, KWL
- By reflecting on their own thinking - debate, discussion
- Findings (when software incorporates problem-based learning and critical thinking skills, there is a large increase in learning):
- WISE - visual tool from Berkeley, web-based inquiry science environment
- IMMEX - Interactive Multimedia Exercises, free problem solving and assessment shell from UCLA that tracks and records each of the actions that students make, One activity for high school students is: "Island Survival"
- Geometer's Sketchpad - exploring and modeling in geometry
- Interactive Mathematics Program - comprehensive, problem-based curriculum that integrates traditional math content (algebra & geometry) with less traditional (i.e., prob & stats) and includes long-term, open-ended investigations.
- Cognitive Tutor - Algebra and Geometry tutoring software that makes a difference
The Digital Age: Teaching and Learning for Tomorrow Today - Mark Benno
- Check iTunes for FETC podcast of this presentation and others
- Rethink changing job requirements
- 1960s: grammar + typing
- 1980s: grammar + typing + word processing + spreadsheet + database
- 2000: grammar + typing + word processing + spreadsheet + database + digital graphics + animation + web publishing + video and audio editing
- Compared Bloom's taxonomy with levels of technology and types of learning
- knowledge-comprehension-application-analysis-synthesis-evaluation (Bloom)
- automation->productivity->enrichment->integration (technology)
- New tools
Tropicalia and Technology: Planetary Forces for Social Change - David Thornburgh
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