Today I viewed the Web site of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The first thing that I noticed was the members of this website. There were a lot of big name companies that joined this such as Apple and Dell, along with the many other education companies. It surprised me that computer companies were joined in the partnership for 21st century skills! It makes sense because computers are a big part of new technology that students use, but it seems like they are more of a company to sell computers, not improve students education. It confuses me a little.
The next thing I noticed was that there is a part of the website that mentions where I live! I live in Rochester, New York and it says that students in a district close by reworked the history curriculum to include more technology and 91 percent of the students passed. That makes a big impact on my impression of the website. It makes me think that what I am doing in my classroom can be directly changed and influenced by this website and the information it has to offer.
I like how the website includes other school districts and how they have improved because of this new technology and information about skills students need. It makes more of an impact because it sort of proves that this could really help and change American schools for the better!
I agree with most of the informatin the website displays, but I would have liked it more if the website displayed more visual information like graphs or charts. I am more of a visual learner and there was A LOT of information just sort of stated like in an essay type of format, with some of it broken apart.
I think this website has a lot to offer teachers and it is a good resource that I should use for my classroom. I would defiantly look to it for ideas on how to improve my classroom!
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Alicia,
ReplyDeleteI too found this web site very resourceful. I was impressed by how the government, businesses, and education leaders were working together to improve the curriculum for our students. The web site did a good job explaining how changing the curriculum improves test scores. Hopefully more state will join in and revamp the curriculum to include the 21st century work skills. These skills are necessary for our students to learn in order for them to be successful in the work place. Like you I will continue to visit the site to look for ways to improve my teaching skills and new ways to incorporate technology into my classroom.
Victoria Osborn
The idea that Apple and Dell join this partnership makes perfect sense. They are promoting the idea that every student should have a computer or other technology and guess what? When you join in they want you to buy the computers from them. This promotes their business and puts dollars in their pocket. We right now get all of our computers from Dell. We have some kind of agreement with them to replace computers labs each year. They give us a deal and we buy 60 to 90 new computers with them each year. As the students use the computers they see the Dell symbol and when they graduate and purchase their own computer they will be more likely to purchase a Dell because that is what they used in school. Dell gets the promotion and increases sales. Great marketing!!!
ReplyDeleteAlicia,
ReplyDeleteI liked the local references also. I was hoping to find some New York City news about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). I noticed you mentioned that you found an article there about a school in Rochester. That's great to hear!
Will you help me find it? Please send me or post the link here, because I'm having trouble finding that particular article.
Thanks.
-John P.