The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website has a wealth of resources. My first impression upon reading the MILE guide was disappointment, they had been in operation since 2001 and I have never heard of them! They have a very altruistic mission: to help incorporate the skills our students will need to be successful in the 21st century. They have brought together an impressive list of major stakeholders in technology and education. The technology organizations includes Intel, Cisco, Dell, Apple, HP, Intel and Microsoft. Education members include all levels from Sesame Street and Scholastic to McGraw Hall and the National Education Association.
The web site has resources to help you pave the way down “Route 21”. They have developed a Framework for 21st Century Learning and encourage educators to blend the Core subjects with Life and Career skills, Learning, Thinking and Innovation Skills and Information Communication Technology (ICT) Skills. The site also has an impressive source of publications; my favorite was the content specific Literacy Maps.
The information is organized into Skills, Support Systems, Resources and Partnerships with states. It surprised me that they had links to all media references, even those who were not supportive, such as “Backers of ‘21st Century Skills’ Take Flak”. They also had videos to address the people who say their skills undermine the currently taught skills and attempt to explain how they actually support them when the skills are integrated.
This is a wonderful resource for both students and educators.
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Hi Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI like your posting about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills site. Same as you, I am also amazed at the stakeholders included in this site. For some reason, I find it really 'realistic' for once that education is linked to the outside world. How many times I feel my students are studying in school and yet they are not taking what they learn when they go out. As if being in school has only one purpose that is to past exams and tests. But we all know it shouldn't be like this at all!
This site adds the human dimension and the reality to education, look at all those business and technology companies, they are not just small companies, they are big and well-known. I think no matter whether it's students or teachers who browse this site will have this feeling of what kind of skills we are looking for when students graduates. It's not just teacher-talk, it's what all these big stakeholders are asking as well. I don't know if you've experienced that before with your students, some of my students really think that we are joking with them when I told them 'you need to learn collaboration skills' when you go out because that's what big companies are looking for!" They thought as long as they have good academic results, they can do anything they like. They completely ignore group works or take them seriously.
Anyhow, thanks for the sharing!
Sarah
I also liked the website very much. One thing that I realized now that I have revisited the site is that not all states are listed under the State Initiatives. It would be nice to have every state on board so that all teachers could use this resource. Otherwise, I thought all the other resources were great.
ReplyDeleteI was also very amazed at the list of major stakeholders who are involved in this Route 21. They have put together quite an impressive bunch of companies who obviously believe in these ideas and will stake their name and reputation to this. One thing that I was disappointed in was that not all states are on board with this. For example New York is not on this list and is where I am from and I wonder why they and so many others are not involved in this. Any thoughts on this?
ReplyDeleteThere is a large number of us that still believe that we do not need more skills, more technology, or new friends around the world. The Partnership for the 21st century organization task, is not an easy job, especially if you have to fight against self sufficient mentalities of some educators.
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