Part One | Chapters One and Two | "Leading 21st Century Schools"

Part I of Leading 21^st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology Engagement and Achievement consists of the first four chapters and is focused on leading 21^st century schools. This post provides insights and reflection from chapters one and two.

Like most texts this one started out with an overview of what to expect in subsequent chapters. Basically the goal of the text is to educate the reader on tools for teaching and learning that are familiar to students and teachers but are not used as often or as well as they could be. The authors are quick to point out that just because schools may take strides to make technology ubiquitous that does not necessarily mean that that technology is used effectively. This is true. Equipping each student with an iPad is only half of the job. Teachers must make use of the technology by involving it seamlessly into their instruction. It has never been about the technology; it is about teaching and learning using technology only as one tool in the proverbial tool box.

Early on Schrum and Levin stressed the need to prepare students for jobs that do not yet exist and harnessing technology is one means to this end. I remembered reading a statistic about the different types of jobs that would one day exist and a quick search on Google helped me to find it. According to the book When the Boomers Bail: A Community Economic Survival Guide 80% of the jobs that we will hold in the future don’t even exist yet. That’s crazy! This statistic reinforces Schrum and Levin’s assertion that we need to teach skills and not content. Collaboration, critical thinking, and creating new information are skills that will make our students ready for whatever jobs await them, and technology can help us help them. One way to achieve this is to change the culture of the school by getting buy in from all of the stakeholders. Another strategy is to identify teachers who are using technology in ways that promote these 21^st century skills and empowering them to act as examples and to teach others. Professional development or continuing education opportunities for teachers are essential to this culture shift as well.

In chapter two the authors identified some characteristics of today’s digital natives, they:

·        Tune out lectures;

·        Will read webpages on a topic but won’t read a text book; and

·        Will listen to podcasts while also surfing the Internet and texting.

These are all evident behaviors demonstrated by students in higher education as well as K-12 students. Lectures are not conducive to active learning which has proven time and again to be essential for engagement and deep learning. Text books offer static content that is out of date by the time the books are printed. On the other hand webpages offer dynamic content and allow students to explore beyond what could only be dreamed of in a physical text and encourages students to be curious and creative. Multitasking is also a skill that millennials think they have mastered. Whether this is true or not, what is certain is that they are doing it, so we should attempt to teach them how to be productive. Additionally, Schrum and Levin wrote about teachers who ban cell phone use in their classes and how this prohibits a plethora of opportunities that could be harnessed and used for deliberate teaching and learning. Rather than trying to fight a losing battle with technological devices and ubiquitous access, teachers need to embrace this digital age, model how to use technology productively, responsibly, and advantageously.  

References

Lautman, M. (2011). When the Boomers bail: A community economic survival guide. Albuquerque, NM: Logan Square Press.

Schrum, L., & Levin, B. B. (2015). Leading 21^st century schools: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

10 rad jobs of the future. Manolith. Retrieved June 16 from https://visual.ly/10-rad-jobs-future/