Today in class my interest was really peaked by this the term paradynamic schism that Jenny threw out at us.  I definitely see that we are currently teaching during time of shift in education. The new skill set that the availability of technology is requiring of us, and our students, is unique and rapidly changing.  Students need literacy in the traditional sense but they also need a new set of skills to navigate these technologies, 21^st century skills. The must learn to function within the realms of new literacies: media literacy, visual literacy, science literacy, critical literacy, information literacy… they must also have the social skills required to collaborate and communicate effectively.

21^st century teaching and learning has only been on my conceptual radar since beginning this program in Teacher-Librarianship.  I am still learning about the ideas contained within this concept and I know that many teachers in my school perceive it to be a new “educational buzzword” that they don’t have time to explore.  This however is a profound shift that we need to be paying attention to.  As Jenny keeps saying, “teachers need to be part of the discourse about education and the direction it is heading.”  My ears perked up when Tess mentioned the 4 Cs of 21^st Centurey learning today. Upon looking up the four Cs (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) I found a website called “Partnership for 21^st Century Skills” outlining this simple approach to 21^st century learning.  It was interesting to me to see that this partnership is composed primarily of large companies with an interest in the adoption of 21^st century skills as a buy-in for their products. (Apple, Microsoft, Lego, Crayola, Disney, Pearson, Intel, EF…)  Soooo… it looks as though even the concept of 21^st century skills are being sold to us as educators.  But I’m not sure I should despair quite as much as I had originally thought, as Jenny mentioned this morning we can use some of the momentum that these big educational policy drivers have created to reinvent and purposefully appropriate these new ideas in education.  Is adopting the concept of the “super skills” of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity not a good idea because some big companies are strongly suggesting we do it?  No, they are great skills for my students to have. Instead, I think we need to be really aware of who is driving these big ideas and what their purpose is behind doing it; we need to be critical consumers of educational ideas and policy.  In response to understanding the intent of these policy makers we need try hard to avoid being drawn into the consumerism of education; we need to work to develop a resistance against it.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could form our own not-for-profit company that builds inexpensive tablets that run open-source apps designed based on teacher input?

So where am I going with this and how does it connect to my project?  Well I think that if we are going to resist and ultimately transform these “policy pushes” from non-educational entities, we need to first be aware of them and understand them.  If we are simply being told what the skills are and what technology we should be using to implement them we won’t have much power to shape these ideas in a way that works best for our students and us as a professional group.  My goal therefore in my pro-d group is to begin with exploring some of the ideas of what 21^st century learning is, and how we, as educators, stand in relationship to them?  We could also explore the specific skills being proposed, how they are being worked into our curriculum, what we think of them, which ones are really essential, and whether or not any of them are being “sold” to us without good reason?  With better knowledge of the concept of 21^st century skills we should also better be able to make recommendations about technology integration, support, and purchases at our school and in our District.

Check it out:  http://www.p21.org/index.php