Monday, October 8, 2007

New Territories for Learning in the 21st Century

David Warlick used a videocast to give the world an interesting pre conference address, Inventing the New Boundaries, to open the second annual K12Online 2007 Conference. In it he speaks about teachers and students wanting and needing new boundaries to define their work. David, try these ideas for new boundaries that teachers and students could use to define the border territories of learning in our classrooms and schools.
  • Grappling for solutions to problems of societal importance (local, regional, national, international)
  • Creating content to share with a global audience
  • Inventing, supporting, and contributing to learning communities (local, regional, national, international)
  • Using core knowledge as a critical resource
  • Discovering interdisciplinary connections and interrelationships
  • Etc. (See below)
Watch the Encyclopedia of Life Video and you'll experience the future within which our students will live and learn:


David, as you well know, it's not 1961 and your Grolier's Encyclopedia is no more!

To really prepare our students for the learning communities that await them, I proposed to our district the following elements for a Framework for Learning, a new policy of learning for our school district based on the assumption that what students need to learn must be the way we teach them....

From Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Global Awareness
  • Using 21st century skills to understand and address global issues
  • Learning from and working collaboratively with individuals representing diverse cultures, religions and lifestyles in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue in personal, work and community contexts
  • Understanding other nations and cultures, including the use of non-English languages
Creativity and Innovation
  • Demonstrating originality and inventiveness in work
  • Developing, implementing and communicating new ideas to others
  • Being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives
  • Acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the domain in which the innovation occurs
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Exercising sound reasoning in understanding
  • Making complex choices and decisions
  • Understanding the interconnections among systems
  • Identifying and asking significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions
  • Framing, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to solve problems and answer questions
Communication and Collaboration
  • Articulating thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through speaking and writing
  • Demonstrating ability to work effectively with diverse teams
  • Exercising flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal
  • Assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work
Information Literacy
  • Accessing information efficiently and effectively, evaluating information critically and competently and using information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand
  • Possessing a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information
Media Literacy
  • Understanding how media messages are constructed, for what purposes and using which tools, characteristics and conventions.
  • Examining how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors.
  • Possessing a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information
Life and Career Skills
  • Flexibility & Adaptability
  • Initiative & Self-Direction
  • Social & Cross-Cultural Skills
  • Productivity & Accountability
  • Leadership & Responsibility
Financial and Economic Literacy
  • Knowing how to make appropriate personal economic choices
  • Understanding the role of the economy in society
  • Using entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options
Civic Literacy
  • Participating effectively in civic life through knowing how to stay informed and understanding governmental processes
  • Exercising the rights and obligations of citizenship at local, state, national and global levels
  • Understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions
Health Literacy
  • Obtaining, interpreting and understanding basic health information and services and using such information and services in ways that are health enhancing
  • Understanding preventive physical and mental health measures, including proper diet, nutrition, exercise, risk avoidance and stress reduction
  • Using available information to make appropriate health-related decisions
  • Establishing and monitoring personal and family health goals
  • Understanding national and international public health and safety issues
Core Knowledge
  • English, reading or language arts
  • World languages
  • Arts
  • Mathematics
  • Economics
  • Science
  • Geography
  • History
  • Government and Civics

2 comments:

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach said...

Awesome video. Thanks so much for sharing. Where you in the fireside chat last night?

Dennis Richards said...

Hi Sheryl,
I had a school committee meeting school committee meeting early in the evening so I didn't get online until 11:00 p.m. By then there were 4-5 people. We chatted for about 30 minutes. It was my first session on ellumination - that was cool - and I ran into a former collegue whom you follow on Twitter, Karen Janowski. She tells me she follows with rss over 150 blogs. I need to learn more about rss.... Thank you for visiting my blog. Pass it on...
Dennis

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