Your reaction to the website
My initial reaction to the website was how will we as teachers find more time to teach more content to our students? As I spent more time exploring the website and better understanding the mission of the Partnership I realize that 21st century skills should and must be integrated with our current content/curriculum. I feel the strength of P21 is that business, education, community and government leaders are all part of the effort.
Information on the site that surprised you or helped you develop a new understanding of the issues surrounding 21st-century skills
I am surprised and disappointed at how few states have committed to being a P21 Leadership State. However, in a time of extreme budget cuts in the educational system I see why other states have not made the commitment. But, on the other hand, I think now is the time that we need to make the commitment to preparing students for the 21st century workplace.
In addition to spending more time exploring the “Route 21” and “Video 21” sections of the website, I would like to spend some time checking out the educational systems of those states who have incorporated 21st century readiness skills into their classrooms. By viewing states that have been incorporating these skills perhaps I will gain some ideas of how I can begin to take the necessary step of incorporating the skills.
Finally, I was surprised at how developed the P21 organization is having not heard about it before this course. The website is very expansive and I look forward to spending more time exploring the numerous links.
Information or opinions on the site that you disagree with along with an explanation of why you disagree
After spending several different days exploring the website of the P21 Organization I have not found any ideas or opinions that I disagree with. When clicking on one of the links from the homepage to visit their “Twitter” page I was surprised that the last tweet was from October 2010. Under the “Events and News “ tab I found similar results. I was surprised that an organization promoting 21st Century Skills would not have more recent tweets and news and events.
I question why more states have not become partners of the 21st Century Skills organization. My thinking is if there are other similar national (or state) organizations with a similar mission that are competing against the P21 organization. However, after doing a search I was unable to find anything similar to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
The implications for your students and for you as a contemporary educator
As a contemporary educator it is imperative that I help close the “gap” between what my students learn in school and the skills they will need to be successful in the workplace. It is a bit daunting to figure out how I will begin to infuse the three R’s and four C’s proposed by P21 when my state’s assessment do not yet test these more authentic…and perhaps worthwhile skills. I must figure out how to incorporate activities that incorporate the three R’s and the 4 C’s while still preparing students for our state assessments.
You bring up many great points about the Partnership website. I was surprised by the small number of states that are part of it as well, considering this site is considered so large. I was shocked to find my state of Wisconsin listed as being one of the states using twenty-first century skills. Wisconsin does has some standards related to technology, but has very limited funding to acquire it! When I used the site to research the resources available in Wisconsin, there were none that had been posted in the last year. I am wondering if this site has already reached its peak of activity, as many updates were made six months to one year ago. Despite all of that, this site has some wonderful information pertaining to readiness skills and steps educators can take to create a twenty-first century classroom.
ReplyDeleteI too really thought there was a lot of useful information in the Route 21 and Video 21 sections of the website. I plan on spending some more time there to see what will be useful for my classroom. I thought the explanation of the 4R's and the 3C's was thought provoking, but somewhat overwhelming. Where are we to start, there is so much for educators to learn before we even attempt to work with students on these skills. Also I wonder how wise it is to invest extended amounts of time learning their specific strategies when it looks like the site is no longer active. Have they already moved on to something else?
ReplyDeleteKristi, I too feel the pinch of fiscal restraints on my ability to implement 21st century skills into my classroom. While websites such as this are useful for collaboration on the issue, until more States and funds are committed to this area incorporation of these skils into the mainstream will remain a rhetorical exercise.
ReplyDeleteI also found a lot of useful information on the site and I agree that it is about time that we begin to expose our students to 21st century skills. However, as you also stated, I think that the current budget constraints are going to put a damper on the program. I think that is evident from seeing that only 15 out of 50 states are participating in the program. All of this aside, I plan to try to include some of the important skills in my teaching.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to start preparing students for the 21st century workplace. As educators we know the importance in closing the gap between skills learned in school and skills needed for today’s global economy. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills does provide many innovative and creative ways to incorporate ideas to teach students authentic learning skills. The Route 21 and Video 21 do give resources to benefit education toward the 21st century goals. I also question the limited membership and wonder why more states are not involved. That said, I feel this site will gain membership once schools and businesses see the overall impact this will have on future employees.
ReplyDeleteWe can't be in school our entire life. We must prepare our students for the workplace. We need to start teaching those skills as soon as students entire school. The video gave great resources on 21st Century. I hate that we are going to have to wait another three or more years before we have the whole country with us. This is why we are behind the rest of the world.
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