21st Century Skills Slidecast

21st Century Skills Presentation

Slidecasts, which are a combination of audio (podcast) and video (Powerpoint slides), can provide a dynamic resource for learning outside the classroom.  Those with internet access can "attend" lectures, or something close to it, by just clicking the "Play" icon on a slidecast.  Additionally, a slidecast appeals to the visual and auditory senses, as opposed to the flat text which is usually associated with homework.  This is especially important in a world where young people learn from a variety of enhanced media.  Perhaps it may be necessary in the future (or even present) to engage them with more dynamic learning materials such as slidecasts to deliver meaningful content that will attract their attention?

21st Century Skills Presentation

Having a slide presentation (Powerpoint or otherwise) allows for a lecture that is more engaging and interactive than a simple verbal lecture, accompanied by chalkboard notes. A slide presentation allows educators to present information that is more visually organized and that is rich with images and other media. Please play around with my slideshow and - pretending you are a parent attending "Back to School Night," - let me know what you think!

Fostering Students' Understanding of Digital Research Methods

Standard - 8.1 Educational Technology: All students will use digital tools to access, manage, evaluate, and synthesize information in order to solve problems individually and collaboratively and to create and communicate knowledge.

Strand C.  Communication and Collaboration

By the end of grade 12

Content Statement: Digital tools and environments support the learning process and foster collaboration in solving local or global issues and problems.

CPI #: 8.1.12.C.1

CPI: Develop an innovative solution to a complex, local or global problem or issue in collaboration with peers and experts, and present ideas for feedback in an online community.

To address this CPI, students could break up into groups and choose a local problem they would like to address.  Local problems could include addressing inadequate funding for their school, low voter turnout, or local resource issues such as water, energy, or housing.  Students can use online tools to help them perform research, but could be guided toward and encouraged to use resources such as library databases, government websites, and possibly NGO websites.  Students should also be encouraged to contact and consult with experts and figures in positions of authority to offer relevant facts and opinions. After developing a hypothesis or proposed solution, they can post their ideas online to share with a broader audience and possibly develop community support.  Ways to do this could include posting a on relevant message boards, starting a listserv, starting a blog, or creating a group on a social networking site, such as Facebook.  Standard-based assessment could be done by judging how well students use digital resources for purposes of investigation, as well as for sharing and opening discussion with a broader community network. 

Implementing 21st Century Curricula Standards

The standards located in Standard 8 of NJ’s Core Curricula require a level of technological sophistication from public school educators.  Schoolteachers will need to understand and navigate the requirements offered by the NJCCCS in order to effectively implement them in classroom lesson plans.  Everything from showing students how to use social networks (for professional purposes), to having them perform research using digital resources, and to understanding the potential and limitations of technological resources in and of themselves and their broader social implications are but a few standards mentioned in Standard 8.

As a future high school educator, I will have to be willing and motivated to personally develop in line with technological trends that occur in society, and be able to offer guidance to my students on how to responsibly negotiate these trends.  One really important way to integrate technology in the classroom and show students how to best make use of their resources, is like the example demonstrated by Frank Draper at Catalina Foothills High School.  He had students use technological resources and tools to help create solutions to local ecological problems, thus making the students feel empowered, and allowing them to make connections between their classroom work and a broader social context.  Being able to keep up with technology to implement in this manner is a skill worth cultivating, as I believe it is one which will always be valuable.

A district or school that prioritizes the use and negotiation of technological resources as a standard for students to achieve is a district or school that is prepared to do the pedagogical work demanded by 21^st century needs.  Ignoring the impact that technology makes on the incoming generation of students demonstrates a negligence that is only going to weaken the school’s efforts.  For example, history teacher Steve Maher at Chatham High School, took note of the fact that students are going to look to the internet no matter what, for quick answers, and that intervening in how students do that could be a lot more productive than simply asking them to not do it.  It is educators who think creatively like this that are going to be able to keep up with the demands of 21^st century pedagogy.

Expectations of Teacher Web Pages

After navigating through the New Jersey DFGs, and then district websites, I landed on a web page created by a 6^th grade Language Arts teacher at the Hill School in Trenton, NJ.  Diane Biegley’s website is nice in that it provides an up to date place where parents and students can go to check when various assignments are due, and also to learn a bit about the scope and meaning of the assignments (this could be helpful for parents as they oversee their children’s work).  The web page also serves as an introductory or greeting place, where Ms. Biegley shares some information with students and parents about the mission of the course.  This satisfies the first of Dr. Jamie MacKenzie’s “Four Primary Goals of a Website” shared in an article on FNO.org.

However, my critique of the website is that - beyond this assignment and introductory information - the website’s function is fairly minimal.  There are no links to helpful, external educational sources, although the teacher has created a “Reference” section, which includes some “Persuasive Essay Tips” to assist the reading/writing students in her course.  My other critique is that there is no interactive component of the website.  There are no message boards, or other means, where students and/or parents can enter discussion with one another or the teacher.  According to MacKenzie, an interactive component may also include a place where students’ works can be displayed, especially when done well, to encourage quality works to be produced by students.  There are relatively simple and easy ways to achieve some of these technological goals for a website, which may foster a better sense of community among classmates beyond the classroom, and allow parents to have an even better sense of what is expected of their children.