Promises-Skills_for_the_Future

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a leading advocacy organization, brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. They advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provide tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change. In order for America to compete in a globally competitive workforce, Partnership for 21st Century Skills impressive mission is to align classroom environments with real world environments by infusing 21st century skills that include:
 * Learning and Innovation Skills (Creativity and Innovation Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills, Communication and Collaboration Skills
 * Information, Media and Technology Skill (Information Literacy, Media Literacy, ICT Literacy)
 * Life and Career Skills (Flexibility & Adaptability, Initiative & Self-Direction, Social & Cross-Cultural Skills, Productivity & Accountability, Leadership & Responsibility)

The pressure to incorporate technology in higher education is both internal and external and the consequences are substantial. Employers seek graduates who demonstrate both mastery of the current knowledge base and master of technology that will enable them to stay current (Owen, P. & Demb, A. 2004).

Educational technologists emphasize the hands-on experience of learning that technology offers. "Rather than reading about physics or math, Resnick prefers children (and adults) to participate in an exploration that will feel much like play but will result in the acquisition of a broader base of knowledge—learning by doing" (Pesce, 2000). Dede speaks of a necessary shift from "problem solving" towards "problem finding" to prepare our learners for the future. According to Dede, a great deal of what we do in schools is teaching students to work with pre-digested information. The world that awaits our students will require them to "understand complex phenomena" and "problem find" prior to "problem solving.”

As young students are exposed more and more to the physical and virtual worlds of technology, vocabulary and high-level critical reading skills will be developed. Students will better comprehend the differences between personal reading and technical reading. Through computer programs and instructional tasks, students will have the ability to interact by sharing a common language of their adult counterparts. DeDe notes that students "will encounter richer, more uniform levels of discourse across the multiple adults involved in their learning outside of school...exposure to complex oral and written language... in a community setting enhances the development of reading skills and literacy. Technology is a great way to place students into ’real-world’ simulations that enable this type of thinking” (Dede, 2006).

Technology also offers students training in the skills they will need for future employment (Tapscott, 1998). Using computers, unlike passively reading a book or listening to a lecture, actively involves the student and exercises such needed skills as problem solving and information analysis.

Serim (2003) presents the notion of “Contemporary Literacy" to prepare students for the 21st Century. Contemporary literacy, which includes technology and information-based problem solving, builds a bridge to connect to current and traditional literacy. It is interwoven within the curriculum. A good example is the embedding of calculators in math class, or the use of word processors in English class. The technology becomes transparent to the user. These new approaches to literacy could then be transferred to the state and national testing arenas and also transform standardized assessments on grade level achievement and year-end course studies.

As learning moves into a format more representative of today’s work climate, control must shift to the learner. This approach [to learning] is less about communication and more about a process of immersion. Acknowledging that learning is a process beyond simply processing information requires a definition that is valuable in both formal and informal learning activities. Learning is not an isolationist activity without intent or aim. Certain learning experiences build skills; others build attitudes, beliefs, or other soft knowledge (Siemens, 2005).

One major implication will be that employees will need more than technical skills to do a job. They will also need the previously mentioned managerial, coordination and leadership skills. They will need the emotional make-up to function in a more fluid, turbulent social structure in which boundaries will shift and become more permeable. They will need to be more self-reliant, responsible, and self-monitoring, especially as work is done more at home and "in motion." And, most important, they will need the capacity to learn from their own experience and the experience of others. Organizational learning will not occur without individual learning skills and capacities at all levels (Schein, 1996).

I moved this section to the challenges as this is the positive section.... MR
 * (2.7 Potential Drawbacks for Technology in Education** **) **