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This Lady has Figured it out! 21st Century Class Rooms will look and be run differently!

REDESIGN SCHOOLS FOR 21st CENTURY LEARNING

By Bob Pearlman
Globalization is flattening the world and challenging the United States as never before. This country and our people — beginning with our students — must move up the value chain and lead a new era of global cooperation as 21st century learners. We need citizens who are smarter, more creative, and more capable of leading, managing, collaborating and networking with productive people around the world.
How do we get there?
Schools need to be totally redesigned to enable and facilitate 21st century learning. That means upgrading U.S. educational standards to world-class standards; moving curriculum to 100 percent in-depth project- and problem-based learning that involves teamwork, critical thinking and communication skills; authentically assessing for learning all these skills for immediate and active feedback to students; redesigning and reconstructing facilities and classrooms to enable a students-at-work environment for both individual and collaborative work; and using technology to bind this collaborative learning community together.
One of the most critical components of 21st century learning is project- and problem-based learning. What is it and how is it done? Here are some tips to make it happen:
• Create teams of three or more students who work on an in-depth project for three to eight weeks.
• Start the project by introducing a key entry question, and scaffold the project with activities and new information that deepen the work.
• Calendar the project through plans, drafts, timely benchmarks, and a team presentation to an outside panel of experts drawn from parents and the community.
• Provide timely assessments to students on their projects for content, oral communication, teamwork, critical thinking and other essential skills. Some examples of potential projects include presenting a plan to Congress on solving the oil crisis, addressing economic issues as a team of the president’s economic advisors, or inventing — under contract from NASA — new sports that astronauts can play on the moon to get exercise.
Technology plays a critical role in supporting 21st century learning environments. But it involves much more than one-to-one computing and providing teachers and students with the hardware and software tools to do their work. It also involves designing and providing a collaborative learning environment that houses curriculum, assessment rubrics, living gradebooks and communication tools.

Bob Pearlman (www.bobpearlman.org), who is based in Tucson, Ariz., is director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation in Napa, Calif. The organization supports the replication of the New Technology High School model in 24 sites across the United States. With project-based learning in place, 97 percent of graduates of the New Technology High School pursue postsecondary education, and 42 percent pursue or prepare for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

It's here to Stay!

Technology has arrived and here to stay! We have been using technology for years and some of us were hoping it would go away in education and others are welcoming it with open arms. Well technology is here to stay and moving rapidly into every school, business place, and many homes through out the world. We can not run nor hide from this exciting time. We must take it on full speed and take on the holes in the road as they come, keep driving the speed limit, or we will get passed in time. This is an amazing time to be in education! See Videos below!