Luis,+Barbara

Use the course materials to help you respond to these questions for each Module.

Module 1 Notes 1. What skills you think today's students will need to be able to live and work in the 21st Century?

Students will need more skills than I can list to live and work in the 21st Century! As the articles stated, they will need foundational as well as functional skills. They will need on a basic level to have comfort with the unknown. They will need to have patience to sort through data, think critically to solve problems, and collaborate with others. As stated in Bob Regan’s article, students will need to be able to use multimedia to research and solve problems. They will need to be really think critically to both vet online information that they find and to solve problems that they face. They will need to be able to see themselves as a part of a much larger world, and be able collaborate with people like them and people very much different than they are. They will need to understand copyright laws and act in accordance with them.

2. How you are preparing your students to gain these skills? If you are not currently teaching: How are educators preparing students to gain these skills?

As a teacher, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m very early in this process. One major step that I’m taking to prepare my students to gain these skills is to learn more about them myself, and to learn how to integrate them into my curriculum. My school is highly supportive of this transition to being a 21st-century school, which enables me to really shoot for the moon in this regard. I could list the various activities that students do in my classes, but many of those skills are focused on analysis of World History. I need to learn more about being a 21st century learner and teacher to implement in my classes. I’m very excited to learn all about this so that I can authentically live out these skills as a teacher and lifelong learner, myself.

3. What is the difference between ’Foundation Skills" and "Functional Skills"?

According to the North Carolina Career Resource Network article, Foundation Skills are those that people bring to a job and are transferable skills. Functional skills are the specific skills that enable a worker to perform his or her job. In a nutshell, foundational skills are the micro skills that a person has individually. They include the ability to attain basic skills and knowledge, interpersonal abilities to think critically and solve problems, and the personal qualities that make a strong team member, including responsibility and integrity. Functional skills appear to be the macro skills of strong leadership that a team leader might have. These include management skills, the ability to see the big picture, and knowledge of how to solve problems and how to lead others in doing so.

4. How well your curriculum and current instructional strategies are helping your students acquire these skill? If your are not currently teaching how well do you think our schools are using instructional strategies to help students acquire these skills?

I have some experience in helping my students to acquire some of these skills. For example, my students write a research paper in the spring semester that is the culmination of a six-step research process that begins in August. This process includes focus on each of the steps necessary to writing the paper, and include identifying a topic/problem, identifying legitimate sources, doing the research, referencing experts and giving credit to whomever published the information, the actual writing of the research paper, and finally an analysis of the entire process. It’s arduous, but focuses on important skills. Students are so used to gathering vast amounts of information, especially online, and they need guidance in vetting such information and using it to defend a thesis about their specific topic.

5. Think about today's students and the potential professions they might go into. Which of these skills might each student need? How can we make sure that all students are prepared with the skills necessary to enter the 21st Century Job Market?

Each student will need all of these skills, irrespective of their professions. All professions, from working as a plumber to a neurosurgeon require living in a 21st century world. All people need to be able to acquire and vet reliable information from a number of sources and be able to communicate effectively. All people need to be able to think critically to solve problems, and to hopefully imagine future problems and their potential solutions. All people need to be able to work independently and within groups and be aware of their role in the larger world. They need to have an understanding and respect for others and to use mutimedia effectively. The best way to make sure that they have these skills is to educate teachers to realize how different the world and job markets are now compared to what we were trained to do as teachers so many years ago. Awareness of the changes in the world as compared to when we were in school ourselves is the first step.

6. What patterns are beginning to emerge between the various resources you’ve been exploring? How do these skills compare with the list you made in question 1?

The first pattern that is emerging is how overwhelming this process appears right now. One key component is that we as educators need to be comfortable with the discomfort of being immersed in an entirely new way of doing things. As the Library of Congress video stated, “21st century learning institutions are defined by how they function, not by how they look”. So much will need to remain in terms of the necessary content of the classes we teach, but they way in which we teach, and assess learning, need to be adapted. I’ve long believed in the old adage that the teacher should not be the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side. The new ‘side’ is multimedia, and we teachers need to work hard to learn so that we can effectively be that guide. As another video stated, “schools need to use team approaches to solving problems” and that this includes “equal parts basic skills and 21st century learning skills”. It’s a really daunting task, but I’m very excited to jump right in!

Module 2 Notes 1. How can we make personalized learning a part of our schools and classrooms? USE TECHNOLOGY! Additionally, according to the site ‘Personalize Learning: Transform Learning for Every Learner’ ( [|http://www.personalizelearning.com/p/home.html] ), to really make personalized learning a part of our schools and classrooms, schools must accept some improtant concepts and ideas. They include using UDL (Universal Design for Learning, which has multiple means of representation, expression and action, and engagement) to personalize learning for all learners. Learners should have a choice and voice in how they learn and express what they’ve learned. Learning necessarily includes failure. Technology removes barriers to learning, and enables a creative flexible environment in which to learn; schools will need to support students’ and teachers’ online access in the classroom.

One major potential obstacle is that personalizing learning may involve incredible changes to the existing educational model of many schools. The graphic found on the ‘Personalized Learning @ Colorado Springs SD 11’ site ( [|http://barbarabray.net/2012/05/28/personalized-learning-colorado-springs-sd11/] ) was very interesting, in that it illustrates the components of managing complex change. These components are vision, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan. Lacking any one of those components creates problems to creating complex change to the learning environment, and would impede the changes necessary to implementing personalize learning.

2. How do we help our students become real learners? One key component in helping our students become real learners is to define what real learning is. It involves ownership, collaboration, intellectual maturity, failure, the discomfort of struggling through something, and having to answer big questions. This class is giving a great example of how to do all of this. As a student in this class, I’m very uncomfortable with the vast amount of resources available to me to answer these questions. I would much prefer to have a defined reading list from which to explain and defend my answers. That model of teaching/learning is outdated, but it is much more comfortable for me. What is really important, and valuable to me even through my discomfort, is to muddle through multiple readings and sources and do my best to answer the big questions posed to the students of this class. The Wiki assignments and Module notes have the option to refine answers. It’s clear that the instructor values risk-taking and making mistakes; therefore we students can modify our answers at any time and the best work is that which receives the evaluation and grade. I have great respect for instructors who, in their own teaching, utilize the same models that they recommend that other teachers use.

Although real learning does include student ownership and student choice, it is still very important that the teacher guide her/his students through the process. I found the blog by Bruce Biersto ( [|http://www.cea-ace.ca/blog/bruce-beairsto/2012/07/2/teaching-and-type-two-ignorance] ) very interesting in that it describes how many students don’t know what they don’t know, so giving the student free reign to guide her/his learning is problemmatic. He states that “both increased competence and increased awareness represent learning.” The teacher’s role as guide in this process is not diminished simply because the student has more choice.

3. What is/should be the role of assessment in student learning? How can we improve upon our assessment practices in order to really help all students be engaged, life-long learners? The primary role of assessment in student learning is to demonstrate knowledge of a topic or an ability to answer larger questions. A competency-based approach to assessment would be key. There is an interesting article, ‘The Case Against Grades’, but Alfie Kohn ( [|http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/tcag.htm] ) that made some interesting points. Kohn’s assertion is that gading is problematic and tends to result in a lessening of student work and motivation. He states that “grading for learning is like bombing for peace”. The best form of assessment in student learning includes qualitative summaries of student progress and a process in which students participate in the process of assessment. In any case, assessment should be a summative process, and not the end of the road. Simple grades do not invite students to reflect and advance their learning.

4. What is the role of e-learning, and how will/isl this change(ing) the educational paradigm? E-learning, and the flipped classroom, turn the didactic model of teaching on its head. E-learning enables individualized learning where the content videos or lessons support the learning. It’s true that the person doing the talking is often the one doing the learning. Therefore, the more we can inspire and require our students to take ownership of the their learning, the better and more they will learn. The quote about experiential learning from wikipedia is telling. It states that the learning from experience makes the learning more personal and includes the full range of stages of learning ( <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #004477; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning)] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline;">. This model of learning is entirely different from the old teacher-centered model of education. As the first video I watched for this class stated, the 19th century model of education is really outdated, and we need to be teaching students to handle problems and perform jobs and duties that haven’t even developed yet.

5. How do your students compare with the 21st Century learners described in the HotChalk’s article on [|21st Century Learners] ? If you are not a teacher: How do you as a student or your children compare with the 21 Century learners described in this article? One area of difference between my students and those described in the article is that my students are NEVER bored in class...(yeah, right!). My students are very similar to the students profiled here. They live and breathe technology. That doesn’t mean that they are experts at vetting content or using the technology as effectively as they should, but it does mean that simply presenting information for them to remember is archaic at best. When most students carry a handheld device as powerful as a personal computer, and they have 24-hour access to information, <range type="comment" id="908448">“teaching” by making them memorize is quite the fool’s errand. My students, too, prefer dealing with issues and questions rather than having teachers give them the answers. My students certainly are “Screenagers”. I have to wonder how much we teachers miss of our students capacity and ability simply because we aren’t as well versed and experienced as they are technologically. For example, the students who created the game without ever having met. I wouldn’t know where to begin to do something like that. Because I’ve never done that, and never considered that it was a possibility, how many students have I not really, authentically seen and known who tinker with such work or collaboration in their spare time?!?

6. To what extent do you see your students (or your children, or yourself as a student) possessing the qualities shown on the graphic on the wiki for the International School in Bangkok ? If you see any gaps, what do you consider the reason for these gaps, and how might educators help students gain these skills and qualities? I teach in an all-male high school. As a whole, my students are tenacious, inquisitive, open-minded (for the most part), and tenacious once again. They can be collaborative and flexible, but many don’t quite understand how to do this effectively. They can be efficient, but often need some guidance staying on task. They are rarely reflective, but can learn this skill. Their gaps are partly due to their age (adolescents) and the fact that very few of my students have been trained in these skills. Also, I teach Honors World History, and the students in my classes are often very good at “doing school”. This often means that they are good readers and can write well enough, but that they mainly have mastered the existing education game.<range type="comment" id="344713"> They have the capacity to be truly 21st century learners, but need guidance. Furthermore, unless a teacher searches out new techniques, theories, and paradigms, that teacher may not have the skills and experience to help students in their development of becoming 21st century learners.

7. To what extent are you, your children or your students Effective Learners, Effective Communicators , and Effective Global Collaborators .? Effective Learners: My students are learning every day. They are excited by new ideas or applications that they can utilize. They aren’t big readers, unless it’s a topic that they find interesting. They don’t demonstrate a great deal of reflection. In terms of school-based learning, my students are more concerned with what I consider good work or completed work that what they determine to be as such. They have learned how to be good at “doing school”, and the shift from that to living out the requirements of 21st century learners is fairly great. My students don’t effectively vet information, but they certainly “use it when they need it”. As adolescents, they are getting to know themselves better and are developing in maturing, both academically and emotionally/physically.

Effective Communicators: Some of my students are excellent communicators, and, as I tell the others, they have a great deal of exciting room for improvement. I think that a major impediment to their ability to communicate effectively is their teacher (me). A primary reason why I applied to the MERIT program is to learn how to utilize different media and modalities to engage students and give them the opportunity to learn, share their learning, and collaborate with others. I simply haven’t had enough assignments engaging students in this way. One quote from the ‘Effective Communicators Creators’ article about students is “they may be experts in entertaining themselves online, but they know almost nothing about educating themselves online”. I have found this to be true, both about my students and about me as their teacher.

<range type="comment" id="94395">Effective Global Collaborators: I have not given my students many opportunities to develop as collaborators, so I can’t fully assess them in that regard. In the few experiences that I have observed their work in groups, they are learning to take responsibility for their roles and to delegate as necessary. Their ability to act as a leader or participant seems to be based on their temperment and personalities, rather than any particular skills.

8. To what extent is your school (or your children's school) and classroom meeting these needs? My school is developing, but we’re not there yet. The administration has been very supportive of advances in technology school-wide, but we still need a great deal of change. There are many teachers who are excited to learn and try out new things, and there are others who are a little more wary of change. The physical learning spaces are slightly modified older versions of classrooms. We still have stationary individual desks, and students don’t usually bring an electronic device to use in class. We have a very limited number of laptops available for check out and use in the classroom. Our internet infrastructure is improving, and has become more reliable,<range type="comment" id="682684"> but it remains to be seen how effective it will connect the entire school once we adopt a 1-to-1 device policy. My school has recently begun the conversion over to a Google school, and there are definitely some kinks to work out in the system, but the current change and potential for future change is really exciting.

9. How might you rethink your classroom to make it a 21st Century classroom? What are the barriers you face to making your class a 21st Century learning environment? If you are not currently teaching how should classrooms be re-thought? My school has grown in leaps and bounds under its present leadership. We had many years of status quo, which pleased some teachers, but in the last 10 years our leadership has developed and communicated a very different vision for the school. We are in the process of adapting to being a 21st Century school, but we have a long ways to go. For example, the physical organization of the classroom is nothing like the examples I read about and saw online. How amazing it would be to teach in one of those classrooms which are fully connected, with movable tables and chairs to match the learning experience or activity! My school still has desks, <range type="comment" id="194416">often arranged facing the front of the room where the focus is the board, screen, or teache r. We have a developing technology plan, and hopefully will adopt a 1-to-1 device plan in the next year. Our infrastructure is in the process of being updated so that all devices may be supported by our WiFi. We have a slowly developing cell phone policy which requires students to turn off their devices when they get to school. One impediment to our modernization is that many teachers are very comfortable with how things have been, and are very resistant to change. I understand people avoiding change for change’s sake, but I wish more of my school’s teachers would take this class! I think that would really help in my school, and my classroom, becoming truly supportive of 21st century learning.

Module 3 Notes 1. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">List how your school and classroom environments support 21st Century learning outcomes. If you are not teaching, think about your school experience of the your children's school. Consider: **
 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">the extent to which faculty at your school collaborate, share best practices and integrate 21st century skills into classroom practice **

Collaboration is a major goal at my school, but we have a schedule that for which it is not built in. My school has been researching (and practicing) several new daily schedules (mostly modified block schedules) into which collaboration time is established and regular. It’s frustrating process, especially for the teachers who are eager to change the ways things are done now. There are a number of teachers who are comfortable with the way things are, but their voices are collectively growing smaller and less influential. This is a great testament to the work the administration has done to bring people along. That has included much time and discussion about our direction, but more than anything it has depended on the administration’s VISION for our school as a 21st century school. That vision includes research-based best practices in education, and are a welcome replacement to the old “one size fits all”, factory model system of education.


 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">students learn in relevant, real world 21st century contexts such as project-based and applied learning experiences **

For those of us who have jumped about the collaboration train, we’re doing fairly well., but are early in the process of transitioning to a project-based model based on applied learning experiences. My department (History) has common standards, major assessments, and rubrics.<range type="comment" id="841710"> We don’t have common project-based learning assignments, and I feel that we, as a school, need more guidance in implementing these. In terms of integrating 21st century skills, we have a ways to go.


 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">students experience equitable access to quality learning tools, technologies and resources **

<range type="comment" id="677949">We are in the process of developing and examining a 1:1 model, but we don’t have a chosen device yet. We recently (May 2012) became a Google school, so the next year we’ll be focusing on getting everything into the Cloud. The school is highly supportive of teachers who are eager to adopt and adapt technology to their classes, but students don’t bring devices to class. One we adopt our 1:1 plan, we can begin the implementation of web-based tools (like the really exciting and game-changing ones we’re learning about in the MERIT program). I’m excited to develop my proficiency in those tools and to begin to share them with my fellow teachers at my high school. I hope that in the next year or so we’ll reach critical mass and be able to implement some really exciting changes, like the ones we read about in the whitepaper on <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|21st Century Learning Environments].


 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">to what extent architectural design of your classroom creates space for for group, team and individual learning **

Our classrooms lack the necessary interior design (and infrastructure) to fully support 21st century learning. We still have individual desks, many of which are not very comfortable for our students, which often are set up facing the front of the room. I would love to see some of the ideas that we read about in Module 3’s reading implemented in my classroom. Having movable tables and chairs, and a building outfitted with really fast and reliable WiFi would be awesome. That would make our 1:1 implementation really exciting and spark creativity and ingenuity in the classroom.

<range type="comment" id="780611">As I wrote above, our classrooms lack the necessary interior design (and infrastructure) to fully support 21st century learning, specifically online interaction. In the next few years, I hope that this will change, and that we will set the framework for a physical and virtual space plan that supports 21st century learning. My hope is that it will embrace the idea of “learning studios”, with movable, comfortable furniture, in which space is shared among diverse groupings of learners. Ideally we will have a functional, beneficial 1:1 plan, which is supported by the necessary infrastructure and teachers’ use of best practices in leading lifelong learning. Collaboration will need to be central to all of our plans to ensure the we at the school are working and sharing with each other, and that we’re reaching out to experts in the field to collaborate as well.
 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">to what extent you provide opportunities for both face to face and online interaction with community members and experts in their field for your students **


 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">to what extent does your school and classroom reflect the 21st Century Learning environment **

In a nutshell, based on the incredible models described in Module 3’s readings, my school falls far short of reflecting 21st century learning. My school is in the process of developing, and rather than form a list of complaints, <range type="comment" id="214442">I would prefer to share my wishes for my school: My school will become a vibrant ‘nerve center’ of education. Teachers and students will work collaboratively with each other and with others around the world. We will have a culture of lifelong learning where the teachers feel comfortable with their roles not as the gatekeepers of information, but as guides who are well versed in their content area, but also comfortable with learning along with the students. Our students will be curious, self-motivated, excited, conscientious, and responsible lifelong learners. Our school model will move away from the Carnegie Unit, and measure competence rather than seat time. We will measure our day not by how much time is spent doing something, but how it is used in the school day.


 * Module 4 Notes **


 * 1) **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0024ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">In what ways are your assuring that the 21st century skills taught discretely in the context of core subjects Is your curriculum interdisciplinary? If you are a middle or high school teacher how can you or do you collaborate with teachers in other departments to create multidisciplinary projects? **

Honestly, up until this point, I haven’t. My classes had been taught the way I’d always taught them, with a few new gems thrown in each year. I’ve done a great deal of work with teachers within my department to create common standards and assessments, but that’s a far cry from assuring that 21st century skills are taught well.<range type="comment" id="56393"> This summer has been an absolute game-changer for me. I<range type="comment" id="18381">’ve learned more than I can easily describe through taking this course and completing the MERIT summer institute. I have a new, deep respect for interdisciplinary collaboration and instruction. <range type="comment" id="281591">Mary Dowden, another student in this class, and I have created a preliminary plan to teach the French Revolution collaboratively. Much of the assignment will be completed by our mixed groups online via various Google tools. The students will explain and illustrate the causes, experiences, and outcomes of the French Revolution. Their culminating project will be, using video media, to explain and illustrate what modern issue the students value and are touched by. Some possibilities are the Occupy movement, Global Warming, Social Justice issues, or the like. I’m excited about the prospect of broadening my curriculum to work with other teachers in this way. I teach World History, and many issues have cross-curricular possibilities. <range type="comment" id="134564">One example is working with the Biology teachers on a unit or project related to the Black Death. Using the skills that I’ve learned and practice in MERIT will certainly get my classes on their way to becoming 21st-century learning experiences. Those skills will help me meet the standards for 21st century curriculum and instruction.

From the reading: 21st Century Curriculum & Instruction

> Enables innovative learning methods that integrate the use of supportive technologies, inquiry- and problem-based approaches and higher order thinking skills (These are added for my future reference; I realize that as our instructor, you already know this!)
 * Teaches 21st century skills discretely in the context of core subjects and 21st century interdisciplinary themes
 * Focuses on providing opportunities for applying 21st century skills across content areas and for a competency-based approach to learning
 * Encourages the integration of community resources beyond school walls


 * 1) **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0024ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">How does your curriculum focus on providing opportunities for applying 21st century skills across content areas and for a competency-based approach to learning? **

From the reading, curriculum is the design for learning, while instruction is the means by which that learning is achieved. To do this well, and apply 21st century skills effectively, thinking and innovation skills must be blended; furthermore, innovative, proven, modern technologies and strategies that are based on real-world needs must be implemented. Given that definition, my curriculum, as it was last year, does not entirely focus on these elements. As I’ve written many times, the skills and tools that I’ve gained and learned via this class and MERIT, my teaching next year will be very different from how it’s been in the past. As I restructure my curriculum, I will take baby steps to ensure appropriate management and development of my content. An example of competency-based instruction that I’ve implemented in the past, and will in the future, is in historical writing. I teach Honors World History I, which focuses on the curricular content also focuses a great deal on how to write as an historian. There are several lessons throughout the year about thesis writing, evidence, and historical analysis. The students always have their Unit’s essay question from the first day of the unit. They also have the final exam essay questions. The purpose of this is so that my students learn how to write as historians, without the added stress of not knowing the essay question until they arrive at the test. This, however, is just one example and is not cross-curricular. As I wrote in #1 above, next year I have a plan with a fellow teacher to create and implement a lesson on the French Revolution.<range type="comment" id="996473"> I plan to begin learning more about my other fellow teachers’ curricula so that I can search for themes that might enable us to apply 21st century skills as well as competency-based lessons.


 * 1) **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0024ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">What instructional strategies do you use to enable innovative learning methods that integrate the use of supportive technologies such as inquiry-based, project-based and problem-based approaches as well as promote higher order thinking skill? **

<range type="comment" id="667323">Without knowing it, I have used some problem-based learning (PBL) in my curriculum, but I’m sure that its implementation of it via 21st century skills can improve. As we read, PBL is based on students investigating challenging real-world topics. It should have interdisciplinary content, cooperative learning, and student reflection. A key point that I read that really resonated with me was that when students work with problems, their active engagement and content mastery increases, and improves their capacity to learn in self-directed ways, collaborate, and interact socially better. The key is to use real-world issues to motivate their learning. I often include historical simulations that the students need to engage in, process, and evaluate what they experienced. For example, to understand<range type="comment" id="818345"> democracy vs. autocracy, I put them on an “Island” and give them various tasks. To understand the complex issues that developed between Holy Roman Emperors and the Pope during the Middle Ages, I have the student engage in a lesson in which they are required to pick a class captain. To understand the Encomienda system, I make the students create paper dolls while sitting on the floor in clusters around their team “captain”, who gets all of the credit for the work they’re doing with the paperdolls. These are lessons that are always fun and the kids regularly amaze me, but I can do much more. So, one plan for the beginning of my first unit will be adapted. In the past, I explained evolution and Darwin, etc. via Powerpoint. The students looked engaged, writing notes and engaging in my think-pair share questions. <range type="comment" id="665275">This year, I’m going to briefly introduce evolution and Darwin, and the homework assignment will be to watch 1 of 9 10-minute videos that I found on Youtube called ‘Homo Sapiens: Who are We?” ( <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FidPe_yPjgA] ). The students will take some notes on their assigned video using a Google Form. That way, I can see what the students have written prior to the start of class. Then, the students will get into groups based on their assigned video. They will solidify the key points of the video. Then, as a group, the students will have to answer the question “how did Homo Sapiens Sapiens come to be? This will require all of the groups’ notes to create a model/outline/illustration (the group will get to choose). Then, the homework/extension will be, when given some modern environmental facts (global warming, increased CO2 in the atmosphere, growing population with limited food/water), what might be the environmental factors that favor certain potential mutation s. This is just one example, and my mind is spinning with other potential lessons to integrate inquiry-based, project-based and problem-based approaches as well as promote higher order thinking skills.

First of all, my project plan with fellow teacher (and student here) Mary Dowden will include communicating with a school in Grenoble, France, about the French Revolution and how the values of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity are embodied by the French today. I’ve also made contacts via MERIT, and now via Twitter, to bring in the wisdom that exists to the classroom. Although my school won’t be 1:1 for another year, I plan to integrate technology as best I can through homework assignments. As my school prepares for, and grapples with the changes needed to implement a 1:1 plan,<range type="comment" id="507426"> I will use the great quote from the Mooresville, NC video: on preparing for the real world, without a 1:1 device plan, it’s like saying “we’re preparing you to drive a car, so get on this horse”. I created a class “newspaper” at Paper.li, which I’ll use with my students to discuss world events. Finally, I’m on my way to being a true lifelong learner. There is SO much that I’m learning about EdTech that I had no experience with prior to this summer. I’m sure that after this school year I’ll have a much better answer to this question due to the experience that I will soon gain.
 * 1) **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0024ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">How do you encourage the integration of community resources beyond school walls? **

First, my classes will include Inquiry, PBL (project-based work) and PB (problem-based) assignments.<range type="comment" id="289078"> I will continue to learn, and to develop comfort with failure as I encourage my students to do the same. <range type="comment" id="54461">This will include the students doing work, and having the option to revise their work. Another key factor in student work will be in making it public, and encouraging students to share ideas freely. I will open up the classroom to many experts, and enjoy my role as guide. I will encourage a number of media for students to complete assignments, and do what I can to limit the massive amount of paper in class. I will continue my EdTech training by attending conferences (like EdCamp at Hillsdale HS August 18 and the CUE conference in October). I will continue in the MERIT program, learning and implementing new ideas in my classes. I will work one-on-one with my HS family, encouraging and guiding other teachers to try some new things. If I can do it, really, anyone can! I’ve not been a Luddite, but I’m certainly very new to EdTech. That’s part of why this is so exciting to me. <range type="comment" id="304685">It really is a new world.
 * 1) **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0024ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">How can you better integrate 21st Century skills into your curriculum. **

IF you are not currently teaching answer this from the point of view of your children's school or your experience as a college student.

Module 5 Notes This question gets at the heart of this course as a whole. Technology for technology’s sake will not result in 21st century learning. There are any number of uses to promote student learning. But, to answer this question, I want to reflect on all that I’ve learned in this class. The best uses of technology to promote student learning in a 21st Century classroom are those that engage in the following:
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0200ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">1. What are the best uses of technology to promote student learning in a 21st Century Classroom **

Technology that enables... This technology goes far beyond any specific software, hardware, Apps, or device. It manages to meet the needs of the teacher, learner, and community as a whole.
 * the notion that both students and teachers are expected to be lifelong learners who have patience to sort through data, think critically to solve problems, and collaborate with others. They need to use multimedia and see themselves as a part of a much larger world. They need to understand copyright laws and act in accordance with them.
 * students and teachers to have both foundation and functional skills to effectively solve problems.
 * 21st century <range type="comment" id="954743">learning institutions to be defined by how they function, not by how they look.
 * personalized learning that enables learners to have a choice and voice in how they learn and express what they know.
 * real learning; this includes <range type="comment" id="572069">ownership, collaboration, intellectual maturity, failure, the discomfort of working through difficult problems, and answering the big questions.
 * experienced teachers who act as guides through the process of learning, not as the ultimate holder of all important knowledge.
 * competency-based assessment which include qualitative summaries of student progress.
 * flipped learning so that students can demonstrate mastery of higher-ordered thinking collaboratively in class with other students and the teacher.
 * students to be effective learners, communicators, and global collaborators.
 * the integration of community resources beyond school walls.

<range type="comment" id="361834">Teachers can use PBL (Project-based work), PB (Problem-based work), and Inquiry-based learning to support the acquisition and functionality of the 21st century skills necessary for their future. The “real world” is full of problems that need to be solved. Structuring our curricula around solving big problems is not only more interesting than listening to lecture, it prepares students to function outside the confines of a school. If we can structure school more like the real world, then students who succeed at “doing school” will have many more tools and preparation for functioning in the real world.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0200ff; font-family: Tinos; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;">2. What strategies can teachers use to assure their students are acquiring the 21st Century skills necessary for their future? **

Module 6 Notes

1. What aspects of Finland's educational model work in the United States? There are a number of aspects of Finland’s educational model that could work in the United States. These include creative and self-driven approaches to teaching and learning. As the article stated, “these are all qualities Americans have in spades. We should capitalize on those qualities, not subvert them by testing everything to death”. Something that teachers would love is to copy Finland’s model of autonomous teachers who are allowed to choose their class materials and have a great deal of freedom. From my experience, many preschools fit very well into Finland’s model of learning by playing and experimenting; having many breaks and playing outside; and focusing on music, sports, and art. Sadly, often those areas lose support as students move through the American school system. All in all, the autonomy, creativity, and innovation could be adopted and adapted by American schools. Other aspects that could work well in the United States are allowing the students who are not interested in pursuing an academic track to engage in vocational training. As we read about in the article about SF USD, project-based learning is something that can work really effectively in a variety of circumstances. The notion of knowledge and information was powerful; teachers and administrators must accept that all the necessary information is out there, and most of it is digitized. Teachers are no longer the holder of all important information. They need to be coaches and managers to their students as they learn. This is going to take different forms in different places. It may end up resembling Finland’s model, and it may end up succeeding by just getting kids to check in, as presented in the SF article.

There are a number of aspects of Finland’s model that might not fit as well in United States as well. These include the fact that FInland is very homogeneous and consensus is something that is built into the culture. Furthermore, Finland has a culture of learning that is hard to mimic. Finland also has a highly competitive field of applicants to be teachers. As was stated by Queen Rania in the Davos talk, teachers should have more respect; that’s easy to say, and much harder to reinforce in a society like the United States that values earning a huge salary and being able to purchase expensive items.

2. How can we best reshape education so that all students gain the skills they need to live and work in the 21st Century? This is a really complex question, with an even more complicated answer. Regarding the best way to reshape education so that all students gain the skills they need to live and work in the 21st Century, I found the Davos talk to be both enlightening and overwhelming. There were some amazing minds assembled to discuss the issue of global education, but there weren’t any clear and obvious solutions. Queen Rania’s point about needing patience when looking at gains made in education was key: the rewards from education take a long time to reap and don’t fit into the political cycle. It isn’t a quick fix. The Cisco guy shared that a definition of success is needed to get people to work toward a common goal. Issues of money, workforce development, technology, and collaboration are all parts of the equation as well. More entrepreneurial approaches to fixing education are needed. Parent education is needed to empower them and get them interested. More teachers need to be certified. Some government is needed, but not too much government. Taking risks and failing need to be valued. Video and collaboration skills need to be reinforced, as do digital libraries and open-source information.

What’s needed?


 * We must accept that, as teachers, we are training students for jobs and problems that don’t even exist yet.
 * Quality teachers who are respected and have ownership of what they are doing.
 * Teachers need to collaborate with and learn from each other.
 * We need to innovate based what future generations will need, not on what we have experienced in the past.
 * A reshaped classroom that embodies 21st century learning.
 * Ethics and values, tolerance, and a dialogue about our inherent diversity in this global economy.
 * Teachers need constant training. They need to accept their roles as guides, and to develop comfort with the notion that they are not the keepers of the knowledge anymore. They are lifelong learners, just as their students are.
 * Follow Jordan’s model: Outline the vision, wire the country, teach skills, and create public-private partnerships
 * Remember that education is about justice and is the great equalizer; education mutes the disparities between people and creates opportunities. This is a moral cause. Teaching is a vocation.
 * Copy from the Finnish model: The role of teachers is about activating students to learn and how to enable people to learn and create knowledge together.

Most of all, we need to accept our roles as teachers in this new world o ** f education. Our new roles call us to be lifelong learners, and guides to students who are on their own paths. **