Sunset at Point Betsie, Frankfort, Michigan
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Vision-Mission StatementAs we move into the 21st Century, learning, work, and communication needs have changed. The Framework for 21st Century Learning provides an educational structure to meet these needs. Students will need to innovate and be creative, problem solve, think critically, communicate and collaborate as they enter the changeable and uncertain world of the future.
As such, teachers and students utilize Web 2.0 technologies to create a collaborative and innovative learning environment, using inquiry-based learning, developing the 21st Century skills mentioned above. Collaboration occurs between students as well with teachers and supports the construction of a variety of communication skills, including writing, reading, speaking, listening. Further, students develop media skills, demonstrating deeper learning and creativity. The skills developed and cooperative learning environment prepare them for the 21st Century world of work. The implications of these changes profound affect the educational environment for students, teachers, and classrooms. |
Students |
Students need to prepare for a world neither they nor their teachers have ever seen. The educational experience for students in the No Child Left Behind era has been one where there were right answers that had to be memorized. Students were often bored in classes that required them to commit so much to memory, especially when their world provided different and certainly much more entertaining digital input. Why memorize when you can Google the answer? Still, the world students are entering lacks a clear path, which makes a flexible, problem solving capability much more critical. Students need to construct their own learning, while teachers provide scaffolded experiences to support their growth and independence.
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Teachers |
Teachers must make adaptations as well, because the stand and deliver, sage on the stage method of teaching is no longer applicable. For teachers comfortable and practiced in this method, letting go of control in a classroom is a significant change, both philosophically and emotionally. Allowing students to direct their own learning, and in the case of technology, sometimes knowing more than the teacher, is a significant change. Creating a student-centered learning environment is a critical first step.
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CLASSROOMS
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Classrooms physical set-up must also change to allow for students to collaborate, use a variety of devices, and work in flexible groups. Rows of students will no longer work, as the factory model of education is almost extinct. Rigid desk/chair combinations need to be released, so that students can work together, and teachers can join groups to ask questions that support student inquiry.
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CC BY Allan Donque Flickr
The support for this model comes primarily from is child learning theorist Lev Vygotsky who identified the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as the area where an adult could scaffold or support additional learning (Roblyer, 44). Students could construct their own learning in a social environment, supported by a teacher who identified what the next learning step just out of reach was and provided support to reach it, in essence by building a scaffold. As such, technology can be a tool supporting student learning by providing just-in-time resources that make learning possible, whether through a YouTube video explaining a tool or an adult guide providing support to a student. Similarly, in a social environment, students support each other’s learning by collaborating.