What is 21st Century Education?

A fundamental part of the 21st century education system is about believing and
achieving the impossible. Though making such a shift in the educational system is
not easy, it is important to reinvent schools for the future well being of our society.
The 21st century classroom is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. We have
been and we currently are under a technological revolution and our schools must
keep up because we currently live in an increasingly diverse, complex culture. I
point this out because students need to be able to communicate in ways older
populations didnt need, such as personally, socially, economically, and globally.
Therefore, the 21st century classroom prepares young children by participating in
real-life, real-world learning projects.
21st Century Skills
Students are taught skills throughout a project-based curriculum by utilizing seven
skills: Curiosity and Imagination Accessing information Effective oral and written
communication Initiative Adaptability Collaboration across networks Critical
thinking and Problem Solving The goal is to create students who are globalized
citizens. Teachers must use the media tools students grew up with as resources to
gain intelligence. Students completely understand how to access these tools but
most strictly use them for entertainment purposes. We can use those devices as
they function in collaborative, researches-based environment.
How do you meet the needs of students in this 21st century world?
To meet the students needs in your classroom you need to become a media literacy
expert. Our role as teachers must change from the factory-model education of the
past. No more textbook lectures, no more teacher-centered paper and pencil
schooling. A new way of designing and delivering lessons is mandatory. Schools will
go from buildings to centers where the walls are transparent and teachers are
connected as the students are with the community around them. The teachers
primary role is to show the path to success and assist in learning and helping
students turn information into knowledge.
To meet the needs of the students we must identify that there is a difference
between the past learner and the current learner. Step one is to maintain student
interest by helping them see what they are learning is preparing them for life in the
real world. Secondly, teachers must instill curiosity to make learning more
exciting. The third step is to be flexible when you teach, be creative. Lastly, we
must excite learners to become even more resourceful so they continue to learn
outside of the classroom.
21st Century Remodeling
The 21st Century classroom should not be equivilant to yesterday's factory model of
schools, it is simply not appropriate anymore. The educational system is currently
undergoing remodeling of present schools to create environmentally friendly and
energy effiecient schools. Each school should be designed around the communities
educational goals. The basic areas to consider are to avoid isolated classrooms,
create selected space, create large areas of wall space, and place for performance.
You want to avoid a design of the traditional school that has students in isolated
small classrooms. That design was towards 19th century learners which curriculum

was based on a factory model system. Also, it is very important to create space for
students and teachers where they can conduct their experiments and implement
their projects. These spaces should be thought out for individual work as well as
small to large groups. It is important to have wall space in the classroom to hang up
posters and other projects displaying student's work. Lastly, the design should
incorporate a place where parents can gather to watch student's presentations or
performances and where they can meet for discussions.

CORE SUBJECTS AND THEMES of 21st CENTURY CURRICULUM

The following subjects are essential for students:
English/Reading/Language Arts World Language Arts Math Economics Science
Geography History Government
These core subjects will construct a knowledge base for individuals for the future of
our society. Promoting such a curriculum provides a higher level of thinking, in turn,
the themes of our current society such as global awareness, economic, business,
and financial literacy, health literacy, Environmental awareness and literacy.
Under these core subjects it's the teacher's role to suggest different forms of
thinking and reasoning, inductive and deductive, in different situations. Use these
subjects to analyze complex systems and their parts. Twenty-first century
classrooms must inform students on effectively evaluating situations and making
judgements and decisions while interpreting information.
Students will learn innovative skills throughout this curriculum. These skills include
communicating clearly and collaborating with others. This means that students will
articulate thoughts and ideas through speaking, writing, and nonverbal
communication skills using different contexts. Students will learn the use of
communication for multiple purposes: motivate, persuade, instruct, and inform. All
the while, they will be intigrating tools to effectively communicate in diverse
environments. To collaborate with others, students will share responsibility with
classmates where they will demonstrate the ability to respectively work with diverse
teams. They will assume shared responsibility for the final project to be done, and
they will exercise flexibility to be helpful while accomplishing a task or specific goal.
Lastly, an important task as a teacher is to confirm failure as an opportunity to learn
and creativity, communication skills and innovation skills is a long-term process,
they may not see results right away.
Using Netbooks in the Classroom
Netbooks in Reading
To be completely honest, reading off of a screen is not nearly as good as reading
from a book itself; but that is the way our world is heading. Using netbooks for
reading would not have to be an everyday thing. It is still important to have student
be reading from actual books. But netbooks can be a way to differentiate
instruction. They can be used to do interactive reading activities and also to give

students a chance to listen to the recordings of books as a break from reading

themselves. Even if students arent reading themselves, they are still building their
vocabulary by listening to a story being read to them. At the same time, students
can follow along on the screen so they are not only hearing it, but also seeing the
words as they are being read to them. This would be a great tool for students who
may be learning disabled in reading or have a cognitive disability. That extra little
help will get them going in the right direction and give them that interest in reading
that is so important.
Netbooks in Writing
A great tool netbooks provide is the access to Google Docs. By students working in
Google Docs, the teacher can have access to the students files. Having this access
allows the teacher the capabilities of monitoring student progress and commenting
on students work right there on the page. Doing this also eliminates how much
paper is being used, and to be completely honest, how much paper is being wasted.
Once again, the netbook is portable making it possible for students to move around
the classroom if needed. This makes individual conferences with the teacher
achievable and allows for students to work more easily in groups.
Using Wikis in the Classroom
Wikis are an increasingly popular tool being used all over the world. I will be
discussing a few ways wikis can be used in any classroom for any subject.
1. Group Projects
Giving students the opportunity to work in groups is a great way to build
collaboration and teamwork. The only downfall to working in groups is finding time
that everyone can get together to work on the project at the same time. We all
know it is never easy coordinate schedules.
Using wikis allows students to work together without actually being together. Each
student can work on their part of the project and add their material from their own
computer at their own time. Yet at the same time, they can still see what everyone
else has done and can edit that material in anyway needed. If there are questions or
topics that need to be discussed, the group doesnt need to be in the same room to
do it and email can cut people out of the discussion. There is a discussion section
where all group members can see what the questions are and all can reply to each
response.
2. Take Home Folder
Most elementary and middle schools have some form of a take home folder that
sends important papers home for parents to see. Wikis can eliminate that use of
paper by giving each parent the access to the wiki as the new form of the take
home folder. Doing this eliminates students forgetting to bring the folder home and
not showing the folder to their parents. It also adds the ability of parents to ask
questions and make a discussion with the teacher/administration. This way, all
parents are able to ask questions, see others questions, and read all of the
responses.

3. Instructional Material
If teachers were to put their instructional information onto a wiki page, students
would always have access to the information outside of the classroom. It would
eliminate how many notes students have to take, therefore leaving more room for
interactive activities and active learning. Also, many students come up with
questions on material but by the time they get to ask, they have forgotten the
question. If students come up with questions while they are outside of the
classroom hours, they are able to just logon and ask their questions on the wiki
page. Teachers can then answer these questions either in the next class period or
have them answered on the wiki before the students return to the classroom. Lastly,
it would make for a great source for students as they are working on their
homework or projects when the teacher is not present to ask questions to.