Tuesday, March 23, 2010
So this week I visited the Partnership for 21st Century Skills site for my master's class. I guess my initial reaction was that it seemed a bit overwhelming with an abundance of information. As I navigated my way through the site, I found there truly is a lot of interesting information. The information is very detailed and well organized. The one thing that bothered my is the reference to the three R's but no explanation to what the three R's are. I then proceeded to search for the answer. I found out that the three R's are actually not R's at all, but the core subject areas. That was a bit confusing. The four C's on the other hand were communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. That made sense. I suppose my biggest surprise is that I have never heard of P21. It has been around since 2002 and has many big name company members and the U.S. Department of Education involved with it, but I, as an educator, have never heard of it. Shouldn't educators be more informed that support like this is available. Maybe I am to blame for not researching more? Is there an easier way to keep educators educated themselves? There seemed to be some decent resources available throughout this site for educators. I would like to research them further. I like that many of them were free or of little cost.
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Shonda,
ReplyDeleteWe had similar experiences with the P21 site. I found it to be very organized with several resources. It will definitely require more research and exploring. I like the fact that so many corporations and the Department of Education are involved; however, I noticed many of our states are not. This may be one reason for us not to have heard of the partnership. It seems to me that if the Department of Education is involved, more states would be. I will definitely be telling my coworkers about this website. One way for us to stay informed about the various sources of help is to notify each other when we discover a particularly helpful resource like P21.
I was also surprised that such a strong partnership has been around for that many years, yet I had never heard of it. Like you, I had considered myself an educator who stayed current with new information and teaching techniques. However, over the course of our current class I have realized that there was a huge piece of the picture in “new education” that I was missing. I also am a bit concerned that there are not more states involved. I am curious if other states have their own similar 21st century skill groups. I would hope that all states are at least aware, at the state level anyway, of the changes that need to be made to foster 21st century skills. Your question of how to keep educators current is a good one. While I don’t think there is one good answer, I do feel like collaboration among peers throughout the country makes us all more aware of different teaching trends and practices. I like Mintzer’s idea of sharing resources that we have found particularly helpful—a great way for us to help each other stay current and filter through everything available to find the best.—So glad we started those wikis last week.
ReplyDeleteThe site was a bit overwhelming! The good thing is that there is a lot of information. You make a good point about never hearing about it. I, too, have never heard of P21. I wonder why it has been in the background all of this time?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that did catch my eye was "global awareness." I see good and bad with this and I am still thinking about which side of the fence I am on with this. I suppose my hesitation is from all of the hype in the media lately with government involvement in education, textbooks, etc. What are your thoughts?
Shanna Falgoust