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Teaching Every Century Skills

A colleague of mine, Porter Palmer, and I recently created a new presentation called 22nd Century Skills: Bringing Future Tech into Today’s Classrooms.  I did it three times in the span of a week in two different states.  From an ego standpoint, I’m thrilled.  At FETC the room was packed and the feedback was fantastic.  When I did it at CPS TechTalk, it was really the wrong session for the conference and didn’t generate much of an audience, but the people who were in the room raved about it.  And then at the NICE MiniConference, based on the comments I got after it seemed to resonate rather well.

As a presenter, I’m a happy guy.  New keynote that I’ve worked my butt off on, successfully shares some new ideas, inspires people a bit, revs them up for a day of learning… mission accomplished, right?

Mostly.  I’m still struggling with one thing.  What the heck are 22nd Century Skills?  Personally, I think that 21st Century Skills are kind of a joke.  It’s a broad term that represents a shift that we’re struggling to qualify.  Sort of like Web 2.0.  And if we have that much trouble defining those skills, how the heck are we going to define what kids will need in the 22nd century?

We can’t.  Which is why one of the points we close with in the presentation is that 22nd Century Skills are just as arbitrary as 21st Century Skills and what we need to focus in on are Every Century Skills.  Has the skill set kids need to learn to be truly successful really changed all that much in the last 50 years?  I don’t actually think so.  Yes, there are more positions open for community managers and knowledge workers.  There are also more positions open at WalMart and McDonalds.  Moot point.

Project Based Activities in the Classroom of t...
Image via Wikipedia

I think what’s really changed is the level of visibility.  People are seeing exceptional teaching shared more frequently through blogs and videos and presentations.  The great stories are being broadcast and an incredible rate.  And that creates a skewed vision that any classroom that isn’t working in a BYOD environment and participating in a dozen global collaborative projects is failing their students…

I don’t believe that’s true.  I honestly believe that most classrooms are doing a pretty darn good job.  I honestly believe that  most teachers genuinely want to do the best job they can, but they may not know what the options really are.  IT departments are often run by IT people.  Instructional technologists are spread so thin that they often focus their energies on the most eager teachers, the ones who ‘see the light’.  With that in mind, I believe that the single most important thing every member of the EdTech community can do… is recruit.  To take colleagues by the hand and not just show them the magic, but how to get started learning a few basic tricks so they can create their own magic show.

In your building, on your floor, in your own hallway…  what percentage of teachers don’t want to be embracing new technologies?  And what can you do to help them take the leap?

 

  • Good post, thank you for sharing :)

  • When I went to West Virginia to check out how the state is instituting professional development on 21st-century skills, this was one tension that even teachers who were really good at doing project-based learning fully acknowledged..

  • Yeah! I agree with previous comments:)

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  • I couldn’t agree more with your post. Teaching for the “22nd Century”? Having taught in the last quarter of the 20th Century and now in the first decade+ of the 21st and I am with you; trying to do my best to give my students the skills and access to learning that I can. We have a wonderful tech department at our school/district and are on duty it seems all the time, but even they cannot correct all of the techie issues that will need to be worked out to make our classrooms truly the ideal tech classrooms. I, like you, believe that the great contribution of technology for teachers now is that it allows us to access better ideas for teaching our subjects and that sometimes teachers may not know the best options and that is what blogs, and websites, and the other tech savvy access can give us.

    Kevin Palmer

    2/20/2012

  • Interesting post. Thanks.

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  • Interesting topic. Totally agree with you in that Every century skills are the of the utmost importance!

    MU student

    2/27/2012

  • Hello,
    My name is Heather and I work for Worth Ave. Group. We’re currently holding a contest for K-12 teachers. Over $150,000 in grant money and prizes will be given away in the Technology in Education Grant. Get the teachers you know involved in this great giveaway by voting for them and you’ll give them a chance to win an iPad 2, 30 iPod touches for their classroom and a $25,000 technology grant for their school. Voting has just begun and end will end March 31st. Visit http://www.voteforteachers.com today or call 1-855-834-7660 for more information.
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    Heather

    2/28/2012

  • Let us hope that if teachers are in the field, that they want to do their best. You made a valid point when you said that teachers may not know what their options are. I work with a fantastic group of Secondary teachers in Minnesota, but the biggest complaint from them is that they are working so hard to teach the content that they don’t have time to explore new ways to teach that content. We are feeling the pinch for time even more, now that we are required to implement the Common Core standards into curriculum. There is a lot on the table right now in terms of bringing our teachers up to speed: student engagement and motivation, 21st Century skills, literacy standards in content area classrooms, high stakes testing ~ Yikes! It’s a wonder that our teachers come out of their classrooms at all! I think you have hit the nail on the head, though, when you suggest that every EdTech member should take someone under their wing and show them how to use technology in their classroom. You asked what percentage of teachers are not interested in embracing new technology and I began to think about my colleagues. Many of the teachers I work with are older and within 5-10 years of retirement. Many complain A LOT about just about everything new that comes down the pike, because they have ‘seen it all’. Now, I am beginning to wonder if some of these teachers are just jaded. There are a handful of teachers, that I work with, that are gung ho and want to try EVERYTHING new that comes down the pike. What if we could recruit those teachers to share the excitement of what they are doing, that is innovative and makes a difference in student success, with the rest of the staff? Would it be catching? Perhaps a webpage on the school website that allows teacher to share resources for innovative teaching methods and technology would be helpful. Using technology and innovation to learn in a new way has been shown to motivate students and engage them in their own learning. Why wouldn’t teachers want that? I believe the bottom line is that we need to provide our teachers with the time and resources to build knowledge and experience in using technology, and other engaging classroom activities, together and our students are sure to reap the benefits.

    Lauri Oliver

    2/29/2012

  • God knows the 22nd century skills, that’s time is so far, i can not think out it.

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  • @Lauri Oliver
    I agree with you that Steve makes a great point about the “mentorship” aspect of technology integration. The folks that are ready and willing to try anything just need to catch the vision and will run with it. Those that fall on the other side of the technology gap may just need more support in order to feel that they have the freedom to try some of these things out. To me this sounds like solid teaching and it should not come as a huge surprise that students and adults need similar structure when learning something new. The difficult part is going to be offering the opportunity for natural relationships to develop between teachers so that the collaboration is something that is sought out and not implemented.

    Ryan Collings

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  • If we have to benefit from the latest technological inventions then it is important that we bring it class. Very interesting details you have shared there indeed.
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  • 22nd Century Skills means, child don’t have to go to school. If they wish they can visit the school but if they don’t then no problem, virtual teaching will be there. Child can actually see the teachers and teachers can also see the child via this process.

    This is my imagination about 22nd century skills.

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  • Advanced technology can definitely help a lot for the learning of the new generation. However, this 22nd century skills I think this can have advantage and disadvantage. I think so.
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  • Many of the teachers I work with are older and within 5-10 years of retirement. Many complain A LOT about just about everything new that comes down the pike, because they have ‘seen it all’.

    So this is the problem

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  • Very nice and interesting post. If you are looking for an online teaching and learning tool which could be helpful in teaching 22nd century skills, then you should have a look at http://www.wiziq.com/Virtual_Classroom.aspx which would be helpful for you to expand you reach to the other parts of the world. You can allow maximum no. of attendees you want from across the world and that too without downloading anything.

    Sarpreet

    11/16/2012

  • new technologies such as playing games that can teach the child some kind of history.

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    12/18/2012

  • I honestly believe that most teachers genuinely want to do the best job they can, but they may not know what the options really are. IT departments are often run by IT people. I agree with that.

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    12/18/2012

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