Blog Assignment: Evaluating 21^st Century Skills

“The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.”
—Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

Spend some time exploring the Web site of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. Familiarize yourself with their mission, the members of the partnership, and the various resources available on their site.

By Wednesday

Post the following to your blog:

• Your reaction to the Web site
  
  
• What information on the site surprised you?
  
  
• Did you disagree with anything on the site? Explain.
  
  
• What are the implications for your students, and for you as a contemporary educator?

My initial reaction to the web site http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/index.php
is that of awe. I am inspired what a group of minds are able to produce. I was fortunate enough to attend a 3 day workshop in October, on 21st century learning. This document was one of their primary resources. They had us use google documents to rank what we thought was the most important part to the least. They were able to take the data they had collected from schools around the world and compile it into a spreadsheet on google documents. The most interesting thing i saw in the data was the Theme, Global Awareness, was ranked at the bottom for importance for the North American schools, while the international school I work at in Korea ranked it closer to the top. This showed me we all have our own personal agenda’s and will continue to teach what we feel is most important to our children’s needs regardless of what reality is. To change the curriculum, we must first change peoples perceptions of what is relevant in their lives. This is accomplished through educating people on the bigger picture.

One other important thing I found out about this “Curriculum” is that it is constantly changing. Unlike other curriculum's which are set in stone and take committees years to change, this one is constantly being added to, revamped, and changed when needed to meet the needs of the changing world it is trying to serve.

The implications this curriculum will have on the world will be to make it a flatter place to be. It provides a framework to develop a greater understanding of ourselves and our neighbors.