21st Century Learning

As part of the readings for my Masters program, I have been pointed in the direction of this website: http://www.p21.org/. The website is called The Partnership for 21st Century Skills and their mission is to "serve as a catalyst to position 21st century readiness at the center of US K12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders."

Whilst studying for my masters I have learned that a gap is developing between the skills and knowledge that students leave schools having obtained and the skills and knowledge that employers and communities now require from new graduates. It is clear that this organisations goal is to eliminate this gap so that schools end up providing students with the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed in today's climate.

The website has some great resources including exemplar videos of how they envisage a 21st Century classroom to be like. If all school's could adopt this methodology of teaching and learning then we are better preparing our students for the world and work environment when they leave school.

Blogs to Inspire Creativity

I recently read a book called ‘A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will rule the Future’ by Daniel H. Pink. This book is really thought provoking and discusses the same theory of Alvin Tofflers ‘Three Waves’. Toffler and Pink both state that over the last 150 years, humans have moved through 3 different ‘Ages’ (Agricultural age, Industrial age, and the Information age) and that we are now entering the forth age, the Conceptual Age where humans need to learn to use their creative and emphatic side so that they can be competitive and meet the demands of world in the new ‘age’ that we are moving into.

These reading have led me to think how I can use technology such as blogs to unleash my students creative juices in the subject I teach, Design & Technology.

Some of the ideas that I have come to are the follow:

• Students create their own ‘Virtual Design Notebook’ - Dan Pink suggests that a great way of developing a good understanding of design and how decisions are made is to keep a Design notebook where the owner keeps notes based on good and bad designs that they see wherever they go. Notebooks are a great idea but instead of having a paper based copy, I could have my students create personal blogs of their findings so that other students in the class can also see, learn and discuss/debate good and bad design and also how these designs could be improved – this may possibly motivate my students to develop sketched solutions that could then be posted, discussed and further developed.
• Students create a ‘Virtual Diary’ – Something that my students complete as part of the design Process is to write an evaluation at the end of each project where they reflect on their final outcome, difficulties they came across, how the overcame these, etc. This evaluation is a vital part of the design cycle as it gets students to think about alternative tools, processes and materials that they could have used to produce their product and also how the design could be improved if the project was completed again. By having my students write a virtual diary, they are effectively writing an evaluation and showcasing their work at the end of each lesson, thus forcing them to reflect on their design more carefully whilst also providing a overview for me as to how they are feeling about their project and any difficulties they are experiencing but not discussing in class. Other readers and class mates can also contribute ideas and suggestions to help each other improve their designs.
• What’s good/bad about this design? – I create a blog where students can contribute to postings that I make about products and designs. This would enrich the classroom environment and encourage my students to think carefully about current designs, what is good/bad about them and how could they be improved/developed.

I teach High School students in classes where grade levels are mixed (9th to 12th grade) and knowledge and skill level are highly diverse. Each student has a unique voice and set of experiences that are highly valuable to all in the class and we can all learn from each others experiences and culture.

Technology in the Design Tech Workshop...

Good luck to everybody starting their new school year, I started teaching my new classes on August 8th and it has been really exciting to meet such a diverse and motivated group of students.

I teach a subject called Design Technology, it entails students following a prescribed 'Design Cycle' that leads them to design and manufacture a working product that fulfills a problem that I present to them at the start of each unit.

This blog is dedicated to discussing the use of 'new' technologies in the classroom, I will be experimenting with using a variety of new technology throughout the year in my classrooms and will be using this site as a forum to discuss the successes, failures/problems and suggestions for their use.