21st Century Education--"...and I turned out okay!"

In my online reading, I often run across blog articles that really hit a nerve. One in particular, "... and I turned out okay",  spoke volumes to me. I'm a Gen-Xer by definition, and to hear the statement: "Well, I didn't have any of that technology stuff, and I turned out okay" just doesn't make much sense to me. Educator and Director of Media and Technology for the Mankato (MN) Public Schools, Doug Johnson, does a briliant job of bringing to the forefront some thoughts about what has truly changed in the last two decades:

"I suspect quite a few of the folks who say they turned out OK without [x] actually did turn out OK. They raised families, made a comfortable living, and contributed to their communities. And they did do so without the benefit of computers, the Internet, cell phones or even Facebook.

But I would also remind these folks who turned out OK despite not having today's technologies that there were a few other things they didn't have as well, including:

• International competition for both blue and white collar jobs.

• Automated factories and farms that require less human labor.

• Increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence on customer support lines and elsewhere that eliminate the need for "routine cognitive tasks."

• A lack of support from organized labor.

• Competition for small business from big box stores and online merchants.

• A labor market that requires post-secondary training as the entry point to a decent paying job.

• The need to establish professional networks and develop an online portfolio of work.

• Openly partisan cable news channels and thousand of online pundits.

• The requirement that one must be creative, solve problems, and evaluate sources of information in order to be a valued member of an organization.

I don't doubt the sincerity of people who believed that they "turned out OK." But I do wonder if they could make an accurate assessment of their chances for success in today's technology-infused economy (with a national 9%+ unemployment rate)." 

While I wouldn't necessarily support all of his assertions, it is hard to deny that digital technology has altered the playing field for our kids. The world they live in is not that same as the one we enjoyed as kids. It seems as if everything is getting a digital upgrade these days!

While it may be relatively easy to accept global change, it is not so easy to think about your local school needing an upgrade. In times of constant change we rely on familiar structures to ground us and I think that "school" has been that structure for may families. Schools have been the one area where both parents and children have a shared experience. Parents usually have fond memories of their elementary school years (or not so fond). Whether the memories of your childhood were good or bad, there is comfort in knowing that you'd be able to shepherd your child through their experience because of what you went through.


Problems arise when those "shared" experiences start to change. Some parents look at classroom instruction today and are unable to see themselves sitting in the seat beside their child. The classrooms of today are beginning to distance themselves from the schools of yesterday, and I think it's that realization that brings out feelings of... 


"I didn't do that when I was in school!" 


"I never did it that way, and look at me! I turned out OK!"


When the school experience of a parent doesn't match the experience of their child, it's easy to feel disconnected and anxious. While many of the social issues with peers might seem to be the same, although that dynamic is changing as well, technology has begun to change and grow the learning environment for all of our kids. Our children have been born into a world of information abundance and not information scarcity. A world where your connection to information is more important than the information itself.

Take a moment and consider one teacher's story that I think embodies a common teaching theme as we think about student learning in the 21st century:

Education reform is a hot topic these days and it's important for parents to be actively engaged in rethinking how schools are preparing kids for a new learning reality. Have you taken time to think about your place in the learning landscape of the digital age? Have you taken time to wrap your head around all the possibilities that digital learning has to offer? 


As an educator my job is simple: "prepare students for their future, not my past!" If we continue to "do school" the way we've always done it, we certainly won't be preparing them for their future.


If this post does nothing else, I'd like it to get the conversation started in your home about what your child's learning should look like. As your school, we think we have a lot of answers to these 21st century questions, but we encourage you to be engaged and open to all that the future holds. As you school, we want to provide a quality digital aged learning environment for all STJLS kids and we look forward to having you partner with us in this endeavor!

Where is our emphasis?

During our 2011 Grandparents Day activities back in October, Mr. Luehmann asked the grandparents in his classroom, "What kinds of changes in your lifetime have you seen that have made a real impact on the world?" The results are not surprising. Above is a picture of a Wordle™ based on the number of times a certain words or ideas came up in the class conversation (For those unfamiliar with Wordle, it makes a tag cloud out of key words. The more times a word is used on a website or in a selection of text, the bigger the word appears in the cloud).

As you can see, grandparents over-overwhelmingly identify computers and other technology tools as significant agents of change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. So how is St. John dealing with this significant shift?

First, we've made a conscious effort to adopt the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). They address issues such as Creativity & Innovation; Communication & Collaboration; Research and Information Fluency; Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making; Digital Citizenship; and Technology Operations and Concepts. Technology has come to impact not only what students are learning, but how they are learning as well.

Second, we've intentionally set aside professional development for our teachers to learn about those standards and to identify ways they can address those six standards in their regular classroom curriculum.

One of the things you'll notice by looking at the NETS-S is that they are not dependent on a certain type of software or type of computer. It doesn't matter whether we are a Mac campus or Dell campus. Teachers are free to address these in the context of their curriculum. Context for us is huge!

We want to make sure that our students leave St. John with more than just the skill of how to insert a picture onto a PowerPoint slide. Instead, we want them to know what an effective presentation look like. We want students to be able to  create effective visuals that can represent their ideas or share opinions. We want students to be able to make the best use of their time and resources while using the Internet, as well as use technology tools in ethical and God pleasing ways.

It's important for you as parents to know that when you support the technology program at St. John, you are not just buying fun toys for your students to play with and use. Our staff is always looking for ways to intentionally use digital technology tools to prepare your kids for a life of service both now and in the future.

Below is a video created by one of our Kindergarten teachers Ms. Wilcox. She produced this as part of a graduate program assignment. Ms. Wilcox does a fantastic job of describing how our Kindergarten and 1st Grade teachers are utilizing the gift of classroom iPads with their students.