My reaction to the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Review and Reaction of the website "The Partnership for 21st Century Skills" 

My reaction

I had no idea what to expect when I clicked on the link for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I had not heard of the organization or the website.My first reaction was "this must be a commercial site". It was slick, professionally designed, and well linked. I could not find any signs that this was in anyway linked to the state or the federal government or even K-12 public schools. In fact, the design it's self told me that this site was not run by anyone in public education.

My thoughts were confirmed when I clicked on the "Member Organization" link. What I found was a list of what appears to be large financial contributors to the "Partnership for 21st Century Skills". My first impression of the sight being "slick" and commercial was confirmed. The graphic design and layout of this sight is very professional. My thought was "wow! who paid for this web design." Not even considering the content, I knew there had to be major financial backing behind this web page. The fact that Apple Inc. is listed first did not surprise me.

Information on the site that surprised me and helped me develop a new understanding of the issues surrounding 21st-century skills

The partnership seems to focus on what they call the 4Cs: Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking. I whole heartedly agree with these ideals. However, I could not shake the feeling of commercialism throughout the site. The blog posts specifically related to special education caught my eye. I was distracted by the fact that there seem to be a bias toward the apple platform. For example in the blog post "What's so Special about 21st Century Learning"  The article refers to the teachers macbook being loaded with learning tools. I found this to be too platform specific.

This site was not as helpful as the "report" by the same group. The overall understanding from this site and from reading the "report" is not that we need to teach a specific application such as Word or Excel but, that technology as a whole needs to be introduced as a tool. The task is for educator to expose students to technology and build their technological schema.

Information or opinions on the site that I disagree with along with an explanation of why I disagree

I disagree with the philosophy of "focusing on the Core subjects". One of the four main concepts is creativity. I find it ironic that Art is not a valued class. Today when I revisited this site I clicked on the article "5 things you need to know about 21st Century Learning". This article summarizes my point. "There is no end of the unit test on creativity". The article goes on to say :

"98% of children test as creative geniuses at age 5, but that number decreases to only 2% of adults by age 25. Yet, creativity is the engine that drives our world and economy today, not end of course test-taking ability. In fact, these type of multiple-choice, one-right-answer tests undermine the most important reality: There are multiple right answers to most problems. We need to make sure our learners don’t lose that creative spark as they go through school. Otherwise, we risk losing our creative geniuses as well as their innovative ideas and solutions to the biggest problems our world faces."

What class has ALWAYS valued multiple right answers? ART! What class has always valued creativity? ART! What class has always valued innovative ideas and varied solutions? ART! What class does the Partnership for 21st Century Skills want schools to cut? ART! Ironic, right?! 

The implications for my students and for me as a contemporary educator

I guess the implication is that I will not have a job. The idea that we need to focus on the "Core" subjects is asinine. What we really have to do is look at classes that have always valued creativity and multiple right answers. We need to introduce our students to different tools that involve technology. We need to build their schema in the area of technology as it relates to all subject areas. We need to teach them that obstacles are not the end of the road but ,simply a problem to be solved. So often if student my students encounter something that they do not expect they shut down and blame the teacher. We need to move our students past the idea that the teacher is responsible for everything. We need to give the the idea that they can solve problems and that they may even have a better idea than the teacher! As Turnipseed states "The answers are not always found in the back of the book". 

Note: Stephen Turnipseed wrote the article that I agree with most. I found it very interesting that he was once President of LEGO Education. 

Refrences

Bates, R., & Phelan, K. (2002). Characteristics of a globally competitive workforce. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(2), 121. 

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Report.pdf

Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015). Our Vision and Mission. Washington DC: Author.  Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/about-us/our-mission 

Turnipseed, Stephen (2015). 5 Things You Need to Know About 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://edtechtimes.com/2015/11/03/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-21st-century-learning/

How I Might Use a Blog in My AP Ceramics Classroom

This year my classroom technology resources are focused around my google classroom. The google classroom has a been an answer to many of the problems that I faced with trying to develop a working blog or website for my classroom. Going "paperless" and having students post work online for peer and teacher review was one of my goals. Having a cloud based storage so students would never lose their work was another motivation (Richardson, 2010). Blogs, I found were NOT the answer to these issues. However, I do see an application where student blogs
would be helpful.

Figure 1. Mountain Man, DeKalb, IL. by Bret Thomas, 2013 . Published with permission

In AP 3D (This is a college level class taught in a high school.)  students must develop a portfolio to submit for college credit at the end of the year. The class sizes are extremely small because few students are willing to take on the arduous course work. Therefore, class critiques are extremely limited. My students could post their own work in progress to their own blogs for critique by other AP students outside of our classroom. I have found that feedback for peers to be even more influential on students than feedback from their teachers.

AP classes require students to partially direct their own learning. Students are asked to think critically about their work, analyze the work of other, and apply new skill in creative and innovative ways. Mountain Man (see Figure 1) is an example of a student responding to a prompt and then inccoperating creativity and analytical thinking. According to Richardson blogs can "promote critical and analytical thinking. In addition, blogs can "combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005). These are the same skills and experiences I would want to focus on with a critique blog.

A template or posting guide would be beneficial for student posts. Much like the AAA format we use for classroom critique. AAA stands for Applause (positive comments), Ask (ask the why, what, how questions), and Assist (Assist the student in making improvements). I would develop a posting template using these same guidelines to provide structure for student feedback.

An pivotal factor would be the input from other schools. I would need to find a like minded teacher who was willing to set up a classroom blog system similar to mine. "Most AP teacher's I (Chad Gregory) have encountered are motivated to try new ideas and are looking for innovative ways to help students" (Gregory, 2015). However, the nature of AP classes lend themselves to critique, collaboration, and innovation; so I do not believe it would be too difficult to find a like minded teacher.

Another application of the student AP blog would be summer homework input and collaboration. One of the biggest struggles for an AP art student is the lack of direction in the summer homework. Having a place where the students could regularly post their work in progress and other students and myself could give suggestions or make comments would alleviate much of the anxiety my students feel over their summer homework as well as provide more accountability.

As the district rolls out the one on one initiative the largest stumbling block (student access a device) will be eliminated. Student privacy would have to be addressed, as well as basic internet safety.  A basic tutorial of blog set up would be helpful. I have found that although web tutorials and youtube videos are ubiquitous the best way to overcome student anxiety about a new tool is to walk them through it in person.

In previous experience I have found that blogs do not meet the needs of a paperless classroom, cloud storage, or a "online file cabinet" well (Richardson,2005). There are too many logistical issues that prevent large scale blogging from being a time and effort effective tool. Overall, blogging could be an answer to the problem of little or no class critique caused by small class sizes for advanced classes. Although there are some safety issues to be addressed, a little planning would open up this resource for my students.

References

Eide Neurolearning Blog. (2005, March 2). Brain of the blogger. Retrieved September   from                        http://eidennurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/brain-of-blogger.htm

Gregory, C. (2015, November 2). AP Teachers [Personal interview].
Richardson, W. (2010). Weblogs:Pedagogy and Practice. In Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts, and Other                    Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed., p. 171). Thousand Oaks,CA: Corwin.
Thomas, B. (Sculptor). (2013). Mountain Man. [Image of sculpture]. Retrieved from Digital Archives           of Tricia  Schumacher.