21st Century Skills
Recognition of the importance of 21st Century Skills continues to grow, particularly in the area of competencies across digitally-rich domains involving communications, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Higher education and employers are seeking systematic ways to support and evaluate the acquisition of these skills.
Opportunity Statement
A set of 21st Century Skills venture opportunities exists for formal, informal and at-home education developers to design programs and resources to fulfill this market.
Prediction Source(s)
NMC – 2012 K-12 Horizon Report
Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
Dennis Pratt 2:24 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Our district is really pushing the 21st century skills and I see their vision as progressive and necessary in preparing our children for future careers.
Leonora Zefi 5:56 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Employers across all sectors are pushing for the 21 century skills and looking at educational institutions to prepare recent grads better in this area.
Claire Burgoyne 1:16 am on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In our conceptual age success in adult life is dependent on 21st century skills including: critical thinking, problems solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity with creativity being of particular importance.
vawells 1:39 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Our district is also pushing 21st century skills. I am on the district committee who is in the process of developing policy, teacher Pd. We are in the process of getting the message out to all schools in our district. Technology is a piece however the 4c’s is the foundation of the strategy. It is an interesting process.
Valerie
gregcamp 12:38 pm on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
21st century skills is also very big in school district 41. Many schools have 21st century goups who meet on a regular basis to discuss how best to implement and support this.
gillian 8:20 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Ever since being introduced to NETS for teachers and students, 21st century learning has held great interest for me. Clearly it is also a focus of the BC Ministry of Education as is evidenced by the Premier’s Technology Council Report on 21st Century Learning. However, what is lacking in the Ministry directives is strategies for implementation. I do, however, see great potential for ‘new ventures’ in this area, for when government shows interest in something, there is often funding to back it up. I would really enjoy exploring opportunities within this market as it seems to have the most potential for “consumers” – at least in regards to my own career.
Yves Mainville 8:19 am on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Along with our BYOD, Google Apps for Education and new portal, it goes without saying that the consideration of 21 century skills are core to the success of these initiatives. The “4Cs” should be integrated into current practices, not as ‘another’ thing the teacher must add to their content, but in the ‘way’ they deliver their content and collaborate with students. Personally, I have concluded (although unofficially and certainly not finalized) that the success of TIC integration relies on 3 components: hardware / infrastructure, the services and the practices/content. My thoughts on this are based on the work of Sangra & Bates (triangulation). I firmly believe that 21 century skills are essential to maximize the use technologies in learning. Putting the infrastructure, the services and the content in place are only part of the puzzle – the ‘way’ in which we use them for an effective pedagogy is the other piece of the puzzle.