"If I Ran Our School System"

“If I ran our school system…” I would be sure to have educated myself on 21st century learning, practiced or participated in or demonstrated, and researched what it is that I desire in my employees.    I have only barely educated myself (about 15 hours of reading research and exploring).    Thus, by my own standards, I am comfortable with stating that I need much more education and training before truly understanding and stating what “our school system should be doing”.   

The curriculum would include:    Framework for 21st Century Learning

·       The core subjects, life and career skills, information, media and technology skills, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration skills, global awareness, financial, economic, business, entrepreneurial, civic, health, and environmental literacy.

The Teachers for 21^st century learning would include a variety of people from around the world to those in front of them.    These people would vary in age and expertise.     
The teacher’s role:

·       Evaluate current student data (Where are my students now?)

o   Learner profiles, Learner tasks using Web 2.0 Tools, eXpress space

·       Plan (What and how do I want my students to learn?)

o   Design (Teachers can collaborate with colleagues and share curricular planning ideas so that they can deliver personalized curriculum.)

o   Search  Ultranet for digital learning resources to support plans

·       Teach (How do I support and monitor my students’ learning?)

o   online and offline, monitor student progress

·       Assess (What evidence of learning have my students demonstrated?)   Assessments inform the next round of teaching and learning continues.

Students would create an online learning portfolio to keep track of their progress throughout their school life.  They would collaborate with students and teachers using wikis, blogs, polls, message boards and many other Web 2.0 tools.   Students could access learning tasks, submit work and receive feedback from teachers as well as access up-to-date, personalized information about their learning.

Assessment:   Steven Pearce has a blog where educators can collaborate on assessments for 21^st century learning.     Assessing for Learning  would be based on how students learn best and be an integral part of lesson design.  The goal for assessing would be to improve student performance and would be ongoing; in the process of learning, as well as at the “end”.   A variety of assessment methods would be used and relate to the goals, standards, and purpose for learning.   Assessments would allow for reflection and continued learning goals.   

Technology:   A tech tips blog is a great way to collaborate.   There are several technologies used in the learning process.   Mobile phones, PDAs, laptops, smart phones, “hybrid” devices, media players, game consoles, and tablets are some of the technology devices used.     There are several sites that users will navigate from these devices:  (There are too many to link but a few that I found that were new to me.) MindMeister , Go2Web20.net, online tools and apps are just a few.