Assessing 21st Century Skills

Summarize your learning about 21st century teaching, learning, and assessing by writing about it in your blog post to a group of teachers.  Include an explanation of 21st century skills in general and explain which ones you think are top priorities.

Tony Wagner says, “Knowledge is a commodity, it’s not what you know but what you can do with what you know”.  That statement should be the tagline about 21st century teaching, learning and assessing.  Knowledge is no longer just power instead it is how you use that knowledge.  With the on going stress with teaching towards the Common Core State Standards teachers are teaching students new ways to solve traditional math problems.  This is can be challenging for teachers because that isn’t the way they were taught but for students of the 21st century this is the way they know how to learn.  Math problem solving is now about using tools to give you answers.  All learning is about using the right tools to give you the answers you need.

The paper airline video highlights how students of the 21st century think outside of the box.  Tom picked Jeff to be his partner not because he was the smartest but because he was a fun friend.  Tom became frustrated with Jeff because he wasn’t creating the paper airplane instead of creating the traditional paper airplane he threw a ball of paper that went farther than any other paper airplane.  Jeff thought about what would work best for getting the distance not would fit the airplane model.  Jeff and Tom’s story highlights what 21st century learners are currently doing, thinking behind completing the task but instead how to BEST complete the task.

Working smarter not harder seems to be the new mantra of 21st teachers, learners, and assessors.  Working together helps lighten the load as well.  The funny cartoon showing Penguins working together to make sure that a whale doesn’t flip their piece of ice that they are standing on highlights working together.  Education is now highlighting lessons to show that collaborative problem solving can be worked out with a partner through a chat.  Instead of using the internet to get information schools need to use the internet to communicate with to get the more and more information.  Students need to use technology as a tool to help them think critically instead of a shortcut to get information.

There are an unlimited number of free tools for students to use for collaboration.  Making teams in classrooms and having students work together to research is great but giving students a chance to find things from schools all over the world is even better.  This allows students to work with various teammates not only in their classroom but also all over the world.   Also allowing students to visualize their thinking lets them continue to think outside of the box especially when working with others.

Teachers of 21st century students need to teach students how to find reliable websites, etc.  There a lot of sites out there are look like they are sharing real information but when looked at more closely it is false information.  I can remember as an undergraduate student having professors tell us to not use this new online tool “Wikipedia” as a reference.  As undergraduates we thought this tool was amazing but looking at it closer showed how not all the information was accurate and how things were exaggerated, etc.  Wikipedia is great for looking things up quickly but not as a reliable source.

The video that showed “If there were 100 people in the world” for both adults and children was a powerful message.  It helped to show adults and children to think globally instead of locally.  With tools such as the internet it helps to grow a global society for all of our teachers and learners.

Based on the work of Will Richardson there are so many important parts to learning and assessing.  As I looked at it more and more I found it difficult to analyze the importance of each skill as well as assess it.  Content Knowledge, Literacy, and Numeracy are so interwoven for 21st century learners; it shows how powerful these learners can be.  Instead of looking at these core skills are separate parts they work together to form a machine for learners of these students.

Life is the true extension of assessment.  Teachers try to teach these ideas, skills, theories, etc. to students and students then begin to use them as part of their thinking.  Then through various parts of their day and life they are participating in a real life assessment of what they have learned.  That to me the most important part; instead of recitation facts we are asking students to work collaboratively in life and by teaching them those skills early on in life it allows them to become true 21st century citizens who will then help to build 22nd century teachers, learners, and assessors.

***I was unable to post to Linoit so I'm including my findings below***

SELECT ONE TREND AND BRIEFLY EXPLAIN WHAT IS CHANGING AND/OR HOW IT IS CHANGING TEACHING AND LEARNING

Personal Meaning and Work-Life Balance: More of us will seek personal meaning in our lives in response to an intense, high tech, always on, fast-moving society. 

People are becoming more and more attached to a screen instead of human interaction in teaching and learning I think screen time is important but teachers also need to teach students how to balance.  There need to be a balance.  Time on the iPad or tablet is great but working on completing a puzzle or lego creation can also just as rewarding.

Tell your audience about technologies (At least 2 to 3) that are available to support the assessment of 21st century skills.

As a Kindergarten teacher I am assessing students constantly to see what concepts and skills they are able to understand as well as areas they might need some extra help.  I introduce my students to 21st century skills instead of just assess them.  At five years old the world can be overwhelming so I try to break it down into smaller parts to help them learn basic skills as well as 21st century skills.  

This past school year students in my class started a classroom reading blog.  There students were able to share what they read and what interested them through drawings and both oral or written summaries.  This allowed my students to explore various books recommended by their classmates, it also allowed them to share their thinking in a non-judgmental atmosphere.

My students are also able to use PebbleGo! as a tool to learn more about the world around them including, people, places, and things.  Using PebbleGo! allows my students to use a technology as an avenue about gain more information.  

I try to give as many opportunities as possible to learn more about the world around them.  Allowing students to do that also let’s me support them as 21st century learners by giving them the skills they need and also lets me assess them on the 21st century skills they need.