John T. Spencer
a video I created to help people see it goes beyond computers
I'm nervous about the term 21st Century Learning. Then again, I cringe at the phrase "flipped classroom" (sounds a bit like watered-down Constructivism to me).
However, in our district, we have a 21st Century Classroom initiative that blends a different style of teaching, access to a variety of devices (iPods, iPads, netbooks, Macbooks), professional development and coaching.
And yet . . .
Shareholders often see 21st Century in terms of access to technology tools rather than access to knowledge, to the world, to new ways of thinking and new ways of expressing one's self. It's about changing contexts in a changing world. It's not about the latest apps but rather how students are applying those apps to the acquisition of wisdom.
Wood: tenon
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The tenons, as I said yesterday, go into the mortise like a masculine
‘plug’ into a ‘feminine’ socket — were you thinking sex? Maybe I was
thinking electri...
I think many of us immediately consider 21st century as technology. I know I was one of those people. But technology is one means for which to apply 21st century skills. Back in the 20th century so much was focused on being able to produce employess that could be a part of the production world. They needed to be able to work in factories. Very little thinking was required because there was a predetermined process of how things would be completed in the work environment. But today, as production decreases the skills necessary are really those of creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Employers now WANT employees to problem solve and create new solutions. And instead of having their employees work alone as one cog in an assembly line, they want them to ve able to develop ideas collaboratively. In reality we are teaching strategies and a way to be. They need a complex toolbox in order to function in the potential world.
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