21st Century Skills - Beyond the Buzzwords

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Annie_Condron]Annie Condron

Education is a field filled with buzzwords, from RTI to collaborative development to differentiated instruction to student-centered learning and beyond. The latest trend in this time of "change" is 21st century skills.

21st century skills encapsulate all that teachers have been begging for in the post-NCLB era: creativity, problem-solving and learning beyond fact recitation. Like most ed buzz words, this one emanates from a genuine, intelligent approach to preparing kids for their future. This approach would free teachers from the stifling bonds of NCLB and it just makes sense.

After pleas from teachers, Obama has picked up the 21st century skills torch and is blazing it through policy, tackling the easiest aspect first. Technology in the classroom is a commonsense factor to 21st century learning since ours is the internet age. Obama plans to fund computer and broadband access in schools nationwide. But tackling tech is the easy part. Implementing it on a nationwide policy level will be harder than installing computers. How do you give a standardized test on creativity? This murkiness led one Washington Post writer calls 21st century skills "a pipe dream whose literature should be tossed in the trash."

Personally, I'm reminded of an episode from The Office. The inept boss, Michael, asks the receptionist, Pam, to write down "everyone's indefinable qualities. Just write down what people are doing all day in a way that is helpful."

Later on, he asks about their scores from the day.

Pam: "I think they're even. At various times, you gave Jim 10 points, Dwight a gold star and Stanley a thumbs up. I'm don't really know how to compare those units."

Michael: "Check if there's a conversion chart in the notebook."

Turns out, there isn't a conversion chart.

And so goes the problem with generically testing for "the kinds of research, scientific investigation, and problem solving that our children will need to compete in a 21st-century knowledge economy." (Obama)

Regardless of how difficult and complex it will be to make this shift, I agree with policy analyst Elena Silva:

Whether or not the trendy label of "21st-century skills" lasts, says Elena Silva, a senior policy analyst at the Education Sector in Washington, what's important is the evolving research on how people learn. Teachers were long taught to cover content first and wait for children to get older before having them apply it, she says, but now research shows that "people learn best by learning content at the same time they are acquiring [and applying] new skills."

Annie Condron is the Editor in Chief at TeachHUB.com. TeachHUB.com is a new, online resource center designed by teachers, for teachers and is tailored to address the everyday needs of teachers both inside and outside of the classroom. To read more articles from Annie Condron as well as access other teacher recommended education tools, visit [http://www.TeachHUB.com]http://www.TeachHUB.com.

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Who Am I This Time? Role-Taking For 21st Century Learning and Growth By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Nicholas_Wolff]Nicholas Wolff

Merlin the Magician, according to legend, trained the boy who would become King Arthur by transforming him into various animals through which he experienced different ways of thinking about power and groups. As a snow goose, he participates in a peaceful culture in which leaders are chosen based on their ability to navigate. Things are quite the opposite when he is turned into a falcon and nearly killed when a competitor picks a fight with him, or a fish when he is nearly devoured by a much bigger one. As an ant he can only adapt by becoming robotic, hearing "a noise in his head, like a song on the radio that repeats over and over, and he hears a voice, constantly giving him directions," because the ant culture has eliminated independent thought.

Merlin's method would be called "role-taking" in our world, a learning method that is powerfully effective for internalizing an unfamiliar skill or new information, e.g In a recent training seminar, employees of a large non-profit institution that serves the general public were reeling from the consequences of severe cutbacks directly due to donor money that disappeared down the Bernie Madoff rabbit hole. The employees felt understandably defensive and victimized, sandwiched between what felt like an indifferent and distant administration and unforgiving public. We used role-taking to help them view their daily stresses from a number of perspectives: long-term patrons with expectations that could no longer be met; newer patrons who were demanding and unappreciative; empathetic patrons; immediate supervisors; unavailable admnistrators; donors to the institution; investors who lost millions of dollars and shut down entire foundations. This role-taking exercise allowed emotional expression without too much personal exposure and united the group as they explored and practiced a variety of strategies for dealing with the daily frustrations.

Studies show that new learning acquired through direct participation is internalized more rapidly, something critically important in today's atmosphere of accelerated change. Here are some examples from the literature:

Educational Perspectives published an article describing the work of a Winnipeg, Manitoba science teacher who teaches about particle theory by having students "become," and tell stories as, actual particles. They integrate such complex concepts as conductivity and kinetic energy, interacting in skits, plays, puppet shows."[1] She also uses role-play to teach about the heart and circulation system by transforming the entire classroom into the heart system, using tarps and other props, the kids making the pumping and gushing sounds, and people in from outside the room treated as antigens.

The Astronomical Society of Australia studied the use of experiential methods in astronomy and physics classes. "Conventionally taught students tend to rote-learn," the researchers report, "they fail to integrate their new knowledge into their prior assumptions, and rarely think through the implications of what they learn,"[2] The study involved an interactive class assignment designed to teach about the formation of planets and stars through an imaginative, collaborative process. The students were told that each of them were to imagine themselves to be "world experts in some branch of astrophysics. Just as in the real world, however, no single group can hope to know enough to solve this difficult problem alone. You will have to exchange information with many other groups to devise a complete picture, and win the undying glory of being first to figure out how stars and planets form....Take a few minutes to read your briefing sheets, and discuss what you have learned amongst yourselves. Once you've figured out your own areas of expertise, you will have to exchange information with the other groups. Anything goes; you are allowed to form consortia, lie, cheat, steal, bribe: anything to figure out a complete picture. But bear in mind that unless you share information with other people, they will not share information with you...Your goal is to put all the information you will learn from the other groups together, to make a coherent theory of star and planet formation."[iv]
Results showed that students internalized the necessary knowledge at the same rate as in a lecture format, and that active fostered an observably more friendly and interactive classroom.

The integration of creativity, intellectual challenge, emotional connection, and personal interaction allows trainees/students to practice skills that actualize new information and real-time use of social networks, making these methods fantastic innovations for 21st century training and education.

[1] Margo Hrennikoff, "Implementing An Imaginative Unit," Educational Perspectives 39.2 (2006): 25.

[2]Paul J. Francis and Aidan P. Byrne, "The Use of Role-Playing Exercises in Teaching Undergraduate Astronomy and Physics," Astronomical Society of Australia 16 (1999): 206.

Nicholas Wolff is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Board Certified Diplomate and Trainer, Educator and Practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy who designs experiential seminars and training groups for professionals in health care, education, forensics and corporate settings. His website is [http://www.lifestage.org]http://www.lifestage.org.

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Beware of Leaving Other Humans in the Dust - No One Will Know What to Make of You

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow]Lance Winslow

Many futurists thinkers are so intelligent and so far off in the future in their thoughts that they tend to leave all of their followers, readers, and listeners in the dust. Predicting the future 5 to 10 years out is not all that hard to do. Accurate prediction of five years out is fairly easy, and predicting 10 years out can be done if you watch the macro or micro trends surrounding various industries, watching how they all come together and interact.

Predicting 20 years in the future is rather difficult as the author of the "Black Swan" has so eloquently stated. But this does not mean it's impossible, and if such futurist prediction is done correctly, and carefully explained to the reader then everything seems to work out right and the futurist can make a compelling argument. Even if that "potential future" will never come to be and most everyone knows it.

The Real Challenge is;

Invariably what ends up happening is a futurist will talking about things that are 30 to 50 years in the future. They might even start talking about Star Trek transporters, wormholes space travel, and even time travel. It's not that all this won't someday be figured out; it's that the viewer of such predictions cannot wrap their minds around it.

If you get that far out into the future people just won't know what to make of you. So, all futurists need to beware of leaving other human minds in the dust when making these types of predictions, otherwise they won't know what to think of you. Interestingly enough, most things do not change that fast, after all besides the Internet, and mobile technology life is pretty much the same as it was 20 years ago.

Do you see that point? However, in the last five years the changes in the Internet have been astounding, and most of the predictions were incorrect. Think about that for a second, and you will soon come to the realization of why this topic is so important.

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Note: All of Lance Winslow's articles are written by him, not by Automated Software, any Computer Program, or Artificially Intelligent Software. None of his articles are outsourced, PLR Content or written by ghost writers. Lance Winslow believes those who use these strategies lack integrity and mislead the reader. Indeed, those who use such cheating tools, crutches, and tricks of the trade may even be breaking the law by misleading the consumer and misrepresenting themselves in online marketing, which he finds completely unacceptable.

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Online Education - Revolutionizing Learning

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jaspal_Kittu]Jaspal Kittu

Our world is changing perceptibly everyday. The technological boom has revolutionized the way humans function. Innovative methods are emerging to substitute the traditional ways of working. We can discern perceptible change in the education sectors, wherein both students and educators are turning to information and technology to improve the quality and speed of learning.

Education has entered a new phase where Internet is fast becoming an important supplement to the traditional means of education like textbooks and classrooms. In the past decade, the shortcomings of classroom learning have become more evident. As a result, the youth is turning towards online guidance to help them cope with the excessive workload, which has eventually made elearning, live virtual class, online tutor and discussion forums as popular study choices of today's generation.

Education is an investment for future. And online education is the most rapidly growing dimension of the education sector. Higher educational institutes have increasingly embraced online education and the number of students enrolled in distance programs is rapidly rising in colleges and universities throughout the world.

The many advantages of online education have made it an indispensible tool in today's age. It help provides an unmatched autonomy to the learners. With increasing competition, additional professional qualifications have become mandatory and online courses provide an easy option to pursue the desired additional course with ease. Even the online study materials are easily accessible from anywhere, anytime.

The best part about online education is that the classes are quite flexible which even give students the power to control their learning environment, as in moving through their syllabus at their own pace. This nullifies the need for private tutoring as students can easily access the educational sites to get immediate assistance from online tutors. Round the clock availability of online help makes for a thorough understanding of complex subjects, thus, helping the student in securing that crucial extra mark.

The convergence of Internet and education has made learning possible anytime, anywhere. Due to Internet technology, the learning process has become decentralized. Students can live in a remote village but even then can have easy access to the pioneers and experts in whatever field of knowledge they want. This gives them both cost effective and flexible learning support right from the comfort of their homes.

Not only this, online education also incorporates innovative learning tools which make studying out an out a fun process. The elements incorporated in virtual teaching help in transforming any moron subject material, subject and topic into an intriguing one.

It's true that online education offers good quality multimedia tools to make studying a better experience. Infact, the additional usage of colors, images, figures, videos and audio help make difficult concepts all the more interesting and easy to memorize. This approach to study definitely increases the attention span, thus, improving the recall speed and better retention. Afterall, making learning more fun -- or interesting -- is what makes it more effective.

Online education facilitates a more interactive learning environment as students can easily avail the Class on Demand service to interact with the online tutor and as well discuss their doubts and queries without hesitation. These online tutors provide both academic support and counseling to motivate the students who later on try giving their best shot by excelling in their academic pursuits.

Extramarks brings students, teachers and parents together on a single platform to ensure that a child excels academically. To know more about online education, [http://www.extramarks.com/products/?tab=mindmap]online education, e-tutorial, school education support, CBSE, ICSE, and Rajasthan Board, log on to http://www.extramarks.com

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