Are We Teaching The Skills Needed in the 21st Century?

I went to the web site the Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.21stcenturyskills.org and then to tools and resources. I was directed to Route 21 which is an online interactive tool that demonstrates how 21st century skills can be supported through standards, professional development assessments, curriculum, and instruction.
There I found a model that included Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation Skills, Information Media and Technology Skills, Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes, Standards and Assessments, Curriculum and Instruction, Professional Development, and Learning Environment
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21

From there I was interested in the Media Literacy/Core Subjects & 21st Century which had a video that showed How Teachers are Incorporating Media.

http://www.edutopia.org/media-literacy-skills-video

I thought that this was a great clip by Eutopia and was explained by George Lucas. He stated how we need to rethink our communicating skills. Burns talks about how students learned the language of a film. It was fascinating to see how a filmmaker described the 21st century skills of longer sustained projects. He talked about how it was important to change how we think and write. He describes how computer classes should be more than an elective. It should be a communications class. It should contain graphics, cinema, and grammar. Grammar should be integrated as a practical tool to communicate within project. Not just pencil and paper.
I was surprised by the amount of information available on this site. I was also surprised that very few states were board with this learning. I was disapointed that my state of Maryland was not on board either.

From reading the information on this site my job as a contemporary educator is more important that ever. I agree that we need to change our way of teaching the basic skills. For my students to be successful in the 21st century, the skills they will need include the latest technology.
Today’s world communicates via email, Skype, Im, and collaborates by the use of Wikis and Blog.
Are we Teaching our Students the Skills needed in the 21st Century? I do not feel we are teaching our students the skills needed in the 21st Century.

My First Experience With A Wiki

http://techsource2.wikispaces.com/

This was my first experience with a Wiki. I was a bit nervous about having my grade dependent on others in my group. Although my experience with Walden students has been a wonderful collaboration of ideas so far, I have had non favorable experiences with other teachers to compete tasks. The book Blogs, Wiki, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson was very helpful. Chapter 4 put my mind at ease by giving good explanations and helpful online Wiki samples. I feel our group was very enthusiastic about working together. It was a pleasant assignment because our members were willing to contribute their knowledge. Very quickly we knew there had to be one person to start the ball rolling. Questions by group members were responded to in a timely fashion. Once we were all given equal access, everyone starting posting and changing the Wiki. We started out having discussions on the application section, then once the Wiki was up and running we changed to the discussions within the Wiki. The one thing that I might change would be the time frame. In one week we had enough time to get established and an additional week would give us more time to perfect the finish product.

Group one http://techgroupone.wikispaces.com had a very colorful home page that did not have a large description of teachers. I like the apples as their rating system. I thought that group 3 http://usefulwebsites.wikispaces.com did a wonderful job of teacher descriptions and had fantastic pictures and graphics. The rating system of the stars was another great visual for group 3. I have already added all three wiki groups to my google reader so that I can go to the sites listed. This is a true time saver for blogs to read and gain valuable information.

To teach the process of creating a Wiki to my students I would say that the most helpful piece would be the navigation and editing tools. I would give my students some practice before having them work on a class Wiki. There would be class parameters that would include a rubric that contained the basics for only posting your own information. The class would be able to edit other students and change the layout or add pictures to contribute to the Wiki. I feel it would also be important to show students that if they accidentally highlighted and erased someones entry, how to recover it. It would be a true collaboration via the internet.

How I Can Blog With My First Grade

This school year I will be starting a class blog. Here are some of my thoughts for my new blog.

Publish Student Work: My class blog will a great place to show case my student's work. I would like first to set up peer reviews with our two other first grades in our building. Then expand to our first grade classes in our county. Then I hope to share with other first grade classes everywhere.

Build Community: Currently I send home a class newsletter monthly. My blog could have the class newsletter along with a place for families to ask questions about upcoming class activities. We do Research Labs about animals. Parents could contribute facts, links, and photos to our class research. This would help students to learn information about physical characteristics and habitats.

I am open to new ideas from other teachers, parents, and students.
How do you use a blog with your class?