Wednesday, March 24, 2010
21st Century Learners
My first reaction to the website (http://www.p21.org/) was that it looked extremely user friendly and welcoming. I expected this because the site is promoting technology in the classroom; I figured that they would really display some of their skills up front. One of the first areas I browsed through was the state initiatives. I was extremely surprised that New York was not listed. Also, at first glance, I was not sure how this site could help me as an educator individually. If I was browsing through quickly, I may have assumed that this was for administrators and other officials only. From the opening, it is not described as helping one educator and class at a time, but working to help everyone. After looking through tools and resources, I found a few aspects that may be useful, however, I was not seeing any information that specifically jumped out at me. I did find it interesting that it connected to Pearson21 page. I actually found this pages interesting. I looked at some of the several classroom technology projects through this site. I also found it rather interesting because I work for the Pearson Education company while I search for a full time teaching position. I obviously do not work with this section of the company, but I found it fascinating that there was this section of the corporation I had no idea existed. Overall, I did not find the site as useful as the article had been. I may not be using it to its fullest capabilities, if anyone saw something that I might have missed, please let me know.
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I agree that the site was very user friendly. I did however take more from the article than the actual website because it contains important information for educators. It is important that educators view websites like these to get ideas on how to infuse technology in their own lesson plans and be informed on what their own state is doing to achieve this goal. Keeping up with state initiatives is essential in the field of education especially when each and every state are requiring the use of technology in their districts. Websites like these can show educators that teaching critical learning skills are attainable with the use of technology.
ReplyDeleteJoe Armor
ReplyDeleteThe site is without question a lot of information to process, but it does have some postive aspects and was easy to navigate. I too was surprised not to see my home state of Michigan on board. I wonder what the criteria for becoming a member is, and why have so few states actually done so?
As educators we often look for content specific material on the web to supplement our everyday teaching. The partnership for 21st century site is more concerned with the education system as a whole. It just seems a little too all encompasing to be effective right away and does not address the immediate concerns of most teachers.
I disagree that http://www.p21.org/ was easy to navigate. I do not like the way the website is laid out. I do agree that there is a large quantity of information that could be used by educators but the amount of time it would take to find the useful information is not within my available time as a teacher. Mr. Armor is correct that this website is not directed at teachers but the education systelm as a whole. I would hope that if this paradigm shift in teaching students catches on, that the Pearson Education company creates a website specifically for teachers.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that New York, Michigan, and Washington State are not invovled in this program? Those three states seem like states that would be at the forefront of a technological revolution.
I too agree that the site is not designed for the classroom instructor. It is geared toward leaders in educational systems and would be a great resource for any institution looking to rework their mission or goals for educating in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, at the next district leadership meeting I attend I plan to recommend this site as a resource for when we begin to look at our goals for learning, technology, and professional development. These goals are in the process of being rewritten, and I think we can use some of the recommendations in the MILE guide.
I first wanted to agree with your surprise about New York not being a participant with this partnership. I am from NY and was disappointed to find my state not on there! I also wanted to comment on your feelings towards this website being for administrators. I thought that at first also. Then, I checked out the publications. There were many PDF downloads available for anyone to read. As I skimmed through them, I found many of them to be very interesting. The one that I found very educational was the one about MILE. It was sort of like a guidebook for teaching 21st century skills. There was also an article that was interesting about what voters think of 21st century skills. I guess they polled American voters to get an idea of what they think about teaching these skills and how schools are doing. I found it very informative to get an outside perspective on the entire situation from people who are not educators. I also found a lot of online tools under the "Online Tools" tab. There was a toolkit for teaching strategies, an interactive online tool called route21, videos of actual classroom teachers teaching 21st century skills, and twitter updates. All in all, I think that this site can be helpful to an individual teacher. You just have to figure out how to navigate through it. Which can be a little confusing!
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