21st century dangers r

Dilemmas of 21st Century LearningScott Meadows

Introduction

Educator since 1987, 26 years

Founder of Aletheia Christian Academy

Former Teacher with Alpha Omega Online

Principal of 7-12 grades at Christian Unified Schools of San Diego for the past 8 years.

Adjunct professor and Online Instructor at San Diego Christian College

Married with 4 children

Back When I Was Cool

US Open 2008

My Kids

CHS Botball Team 1st Place

The Dilemma of 21st Century Learning

Today there is so much buzz, and rightfully so, about 21st Century Learning.   Technological advances have grown rapidly in the past decade and continue to explode exponentially, compelling educators to adapt to the students’ ever changing world.  Herein lies the problem:  do we constantly try to catch up to the culture, or do we focus on the things which never change?  Is this quandary an all or nothing principle, or can we adroitly merge technology with the components of education that should not change?  This workshop will focus on the dilemma we face as 21st Century educators, and provide guidance to successfully navigate the challenging road of technology.

Dramatic Growth in Virtual Schools

2011-12 saw 275,000 fulltime K-12 students

Educational Leadership March 2013

38% increase from previous yearWatson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, and Rapp, 2012

40 States have significant online learning policies

30 states plus D.C. operate their own virtual schools

5 states require high school students to take at least one online course to graduate.

Dilemma #1

Defining 21st Century Learning

What is 21st Century Learning

Online classesBYODIndependent Student Centered LearningPodcastsWikis

How Do You Define 21st Century Learning?

The term "21st-century skills" is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today's world. In a broader sense, however, the idea of what learning in the 21st century should look like is open to interpretation—and controversy. Education Week Teacher Development Professional Development, October 2010

Twenty-first-century learning means that students master content while producing, synthesizing, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and sources with an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures. Students demonstrate the three Rs, but also the three Cs: creativity, communication, and collaboration. They demonstrate digital literacy as well as civic responsibility. Virtual tools and open-source software create borderless learning territories for students of all ages, anytime and anywhere.

Barnett BerryFounder and CEO, Center for Teaching Quality

Success in the 21st century requires knowing how to learn. Students today will likely have several careers in their lifetime. They must develop strong critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills in order to be successful in an increasingly fluid, interconnected, and complex world. Technology allows for 24/7 access to information, constant social interaction, and easily created and shared digital content…. No longer does learning have to be one-size-fits-all or confined to the classroom. The opportunities afforded by technology should be used to re-imagine 21st-century education, focusing on preparing students to be learners for life.

Karen CatorDirector, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Twenty-first-century learning shouldn’t be controversial. It is simply an effort to define modern learning using modern tools. (The problem is that what’s modern in 2010 has accelerated far beyond 2000, a year which now seems “so last century.”)Twenty-first-century learning builds upon such past conceptions of learning as “core knowledge in subject areas” and recasts them for today’s world, where a global perspective and collaboration skills are critical. It’s no longer enough to “know things.” It’s even more important to stay curious about finding out things.

Milton ChenSenior Fellow & Executive Director, Emeritus, The George Lucas Educational Foundation; author of Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools

Twenty-first-century learning will ultimately be “learner-driven.” Our old stories of education (factory-model, top-down, compliance-driven) are breaking down or broken, and this is because the Internet is releasing intellectual energy that comes from our latent desires as human beings to have a voice, to create, and to participate. The knowledge-based results look a lot like free-market economies or democratic governments (think: Wikipedia). Loosely governed and highly self-directed, these teaching and learning activities exist beyond the sanction or control of formal educational institutions.

Steve HargadonFounder, Classroom 2.0; Social Learning Consultant, Elluminate

I define 21st-century learning as 20th- (or even 19th!-) century learning but with better tools. Today’s students are fortunate to have powerful learning tools at their disposal that allow them to locate, acquire, and even create knowledge much more quickly than their predecessors. But being able to Google is no substitute for true understanding. Students still need to know and deeply understand the history that brought them and our nation to where we are today. They need to be able to enjoy man’s greatest artistic and scientific achievements and to speak a language besides their mother tongue. According to most 21st-century skills’ advocates, students needn’t actually walk around with such knowledge in their heads, they need only to have the skills to find it. I disagree. Twenty-first-century technology should be seen as an opportunity to acquire more knowledge, not an excuse to know less.

Lynne MunsonPresident and Executive Director, Common Core

Twenty-first-century learning embodies an approach to teaching that marries content to skill. Without skills, students are left to memorize facts, recall details for worksheets, and relegate their educational experience to passivity. Without content, students may engage in problem-solving or team-working experiences that fall into triviality, into relevance without rigor. Instead, the 21st-century learning paradigm offers an opportunity to synergize the margins of the content vs. skills debate and bring it into a framework that dispels these dichotomies. Twenty-first-century learning means hearkening to cornerstones of the past to help us navigate our future.

Sarah Brown Wessling2010 National Teacher of the Year

How Does 21st Century Learning Differ from Traditional

Learning

Both require the transfer of knowledge

Both have teachers

Both have curriculum

Both have content requirements

Dilemma #2Who Owns The Learning

Teacher Centered

Teacher Directs the Activities

Same Assignments for all students

Limit to learning is what the teacher knows

Students rely on their teacher for help

Textbook driven

Passive learning

Student Centered

Student decides what is best to learn

Student design their own assignments and rubrics

Students research content beyond the teacher’s knowledge

Students rely on the whole class for help

Research driven

Active learning

Maria Montessori

Montessori ApproachMontesori believed that children at liberty to choose and act freely within an environment prepared according to her model would act spontaneously for optimal development.

Constructivist or Discovery model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction

Self-construction, liberty, and spontaneous activity

Fundamentally a model of human developmentChildren engage in psychological self-construction by means of interaction with their environments.

Children, especially under the age of six, have an innate path to psychological development.

Who Owns The Learning

Written by Alan November, presents a case for the Digital Learning Farm where students are essential to framing their own learning.

Mathtrain.com

Biblical Implications

The history of the founders of public education have always identified themselves as shaping the culture of the world through education.

Student centered is humanistic

Man does not know what is best nor does he always strive for what is good, pure, and right

Jesus was the Master Teacher, He drove the curriculum with the disciples. He was the Master at asking questions

Dilemma #3Content is not Important

Dilemma #3 Content is not Important

We have Google

Teach students to research

Only teach students to create

Creativity is equal with literacySir Ken Robinson

Foundational Knowledge

You need a base of knowledge to be creative

You need a base of knowledge just to knowHow do you know if you are wrong

How do you know if something is valid in this day and age where scammers abound

Why Johnny Can’t Add Without a Calculator

Essentials to Understanding Who We Are

Foundational KnowledgeEssential to the understanding of our past

Essential to understanding our present

Essential to understanding our future

Core knowledge to build upon New ideas make connections with old material, memories

Creates better and deeper understanding

Dilemma #4Digital Distractions

Nicholas Carr

Crave information

Distracted and unable to focus

Multi-tasking

Lost the ability for deep thought

Brains are being rewired

We stop reading novels, and before we know it, "the linear, literary mind" becomes "yesterday's mind".

Distracted Students

Kids are distracted, lack of focus Is not in dispute.

Is the answer technology?

Does the fact that students are distracted change how we need to deliver the message?

Sir Ken Robinson

Dilemma #5Ever Changing Technology

Examples of Obsolete Technology

My Space

Floppy Discs

CD (Downloads)

Garmin, GPS

Television

TiVo

Dilemma #5 Technology is always changing

What is popular today is outdated tomorrow.

Costly to invest in technology that will be obsolete

Being creative is not limited to technology

Students are adroit at adaptation to new technologies

Dilemma #6Avoid Technology Because of Fear

Dilemma #6

Do nothing because of fear:Fear of change

Fear of unknown

Fear of costs

Technology is here to stay.Analyze what you can incorporate

Adapt and include essential technologies

Assimilate your thinking

Closing Thoughts

Internet dangersStudent aliases have allowed the inner man to come out more easily

Sexting

Cyber-bullying

Student teacher inappropriate relationships are fostered more easily with social media

Contact Information

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: RScottMeadows

www.principalspen.com