21st Century Skills and Today's Students

After spending time on the website The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org) my eyes were opened to many facts I hadn't considered before. The group's mission statement is to "Serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders." It seems like such a simple goal, but the more I thought about it, the more amazing that mission would be if it came to fruition. The simple fact is that many times these entities are at odds with each other, not working cooperatively toward a single goal. It's true that no one would ever say they were against education, but the reality is that education is often fighting with the government or accusing businesses as seeing things as too black and white. The fact that these industries have all banded together for a common cause, our future leaders, is very encouraging, to say the least.

I was pleasantly surprised at the span of the companies. You had Microsoft and Apple, but also Sesame Street, Lego and the NEA all supporting the mission. The vision is to have students succeed in learning the core curriculum, but also learning life and career skills, information and media skills and innovation at the same time. It seems overwhelming at first, but when you look at the rainbow system they've created for student outcomes it not only seems feasible, but incredibly necessary.

Our students are growing up in a time very different than our own. They automatically pull up wikihow when they need to know how to do something. They have their own blogs, their own social networks and they can type with their thumbs faster than they can speak. The world is very literally at their fingertips. As a contemporary educator it is my job to embrace this new world of theirs and try to guide them into using their skills for good. I feel that is my biggest challenge. Not only will I have to keep up with technology in order to lead them, but I also need to harness their newfound skills and teach them to use them in a positive way. In many ways the new world of technolgy is scary as there is so much room for negative consequences; therefore, teaching students collaboration and social responsiblity will become just as important as the actual technology skills themselves.

This website encourages discussion, even has Cyber Summits linking business leaders with educators and the community. Discussion leads to understanding. It also leads to answers and new ideas. This can only be a good thing.
Tonya