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21st Century Skills and Technology in the Social Studies Classroom
Preliminary Source List (See Final Source Page: References and Resources ):
These videos help to give a broad overview of just what 21st century teaching is all about. It is not about eliminating content or teaching more skills. It's about creating a classroom dynamic in which our students are actively participating in our classes; where critical thinking and career skills are taught through the content; and where students are prepared for their future in a changing world. No longer should we be teaching our content in isolation or for rote memorization, but we should be engaging content areas with one another and focusing on teaching for practical applications.
This is a publication on what employers see in their current workforce. In general, students are not prepared to enter the workforce. The publication also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between community organizations, businesses, and education facilities in rethinking and redesigning our school systems.
The above source helps to demonstrate how 21st century skills can be taught within the social studies curriculum. Great resource for sample lessons, activities, etc.
Helpful Resources for Social Studies Teachers:
Helpful Resources for other teachers:
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/google_earth/index.html (extremely helpful for science teachers)
Sample Technologies to Consider:
GoogleEarth
Blogging
I've chosen (at this point in time) to work with these 2 technologies because I think they represent significantly differing uses of technologies with practical applications in a Social Studies Classroom. I also think that both technologies present opportunities to engage students in content while teaching 21st century skills.
http://www.careerkey.org/pdf/The%20Foundation%20Skills.pdf
Needs Assessment:
The Instructional Problem
My Needs Assessment is based on multiple factors. Firstly, it is based some discussions I've had with colleagues about our social studies curriculum: what content and skills we're teaching, why we're teaching that content and those skills, how we're teaching that content and why, and lastly how what we're doing in 9th grade is related to "real-life." I also arrived at my Needs Assessment via research and a conference. In October, I attended a Project Based Learning Conference and at that point, I began to rethink the way I was teaching. All of the organizations, education facilities, and business involved with 21st century skills assert that students are not prepared for the future (See Relevant Sources: http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/BED-06-workforce.pdf, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ehGLqzBVM, http://21stcenturyskills.org/documents/P21_Framework.pdf, and www.thegateway.org).
Although I am far from a project based learning curriculum, I am trying to incorporate multiple project based learning assignments in my classrooms in an effort to "teach" and have students practice 21st century skills.
Many educators recognize that our world is changing and from conversation, I do believe that educators want to change too. But the roadblock comes when educators try to pinpoint exactly how the world is changing and how to adjust their curriculum accordingly without sacrificing the content they love.
The Instructional Solution
The intent of this mini-course is to educate teachers on the principles of 21st century learning with an emphasis on 21st century skills. In learning, practicing, and applying principles of 21st century education, students will also be investigating how technology can be used to teach 21st century skills. Two specific technologies will be introduced: GoogleEarth and blogging. During the course of the mini-course students will also have the opportunity to design skeleton lessons teaching 21st century skills using technology.
The audience for this mini-course on a holistic level is relatively specific. This course is aimed at 7-12 Social Studies teachers of most subcontent areas (World History, United States History, Economics, Government, etc.), This audience may include preservice teachers. All students will be in the process of completing a Bachelor's Degree in Social Studies Education or related field and/or have already completed a degree program. Most of the students will have a Master's Degree in a Social Studies or Education related field. All age groups from young new teachers to veteran teachers nearing retirement as well as both genders will participate. Non social studies teachers or elementary teachers may be interested in Specific Lessons (i.e. Introduction to 21st Century Skills, GoogleEarth, or Blogging).
The Major Goals
Considering the Needs Assessment and Instructional Solution, I have developed several major goals for the mini-course.
By the end of this mini-course students will have:
Course Objectives
1. Asked to explain the background behind "21st century skills" and to denote their relevance to social studies, participants will generate in writing an explanation that discusses a changing workplace and in a broader sense, a changing world and social studies as a vehicle for teaching those skills.
2. Given a sample social studies lesson plans, participants will identify the 21st skills present by listing at least 3 skills found in the lesson plan.
3. Given the opportunity to freely design a lesson plan, participants will choose to integrate technology and 21st century skills as evidenced by their final written lesson skeleton.
4. Asked to create a lesson plan using a specific technology (either Google Earth or Blogging), participants will generate a lesson idea/skeleton in writing that teaches or pratices at least 2 specific 21st century skills in conjunction with social studies content within the context of the given technology.
Prerequisite Skills for attaining course objectives
Essential Prerequisites:
Supportive Prerequisites
Curriculum Map
Course Objective:
Students will understand what 21st century skills are, their relevancy to the social studies curriculum, and be able to create lesson plans that effectively teach/practice 21st century skills using technology within the context of social studies
Unit 1: A Course Introduction
Prerequisite knowledge/skills:
Objectives:
Activities:
3. Videos:
4. Document Analysis: http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/BED-06-workforce.pdf
5. Unit 5 Reflection: Overall, would you say that schools are preparing students for participation in the 21st century workplace? How do you think the social studies classroom can be used as a vehicle for teaching/practicing 21st century skills?
Unit 2: What are 21st Century Skills?
Prerequisite knowledge/skills:
Objectives:
Activities:
Unit 3: Using GoogleEarth to teach and practice 21st Century Skills
Prerequisities:
Objectives:
Activities:
Unit 4: Blogging as part of a 21st Century Classroom
Prerequisities:
Objectives:
Activities:
Unit 5: Reflecting on 21st Century Skills & Technologies - What will your 21st Century Classroom Look Like?
Prerequisites:
Objectives:
Activities:
1. Brief exploration of other technologies that could be used to teach 21st century skills.
2. Written Reflection (content/skills): What 21st century skills do you see as priorities? Explain. What specific actions are you taking/plan on taking to address 21st century skills in your classroom? How helpful will GoogleEarth and Blogs be in your instrucction?
Course Methods/Instructional Techniques
This course uses a variety of methods and instructional techniques. For my discussion here, I will be using references models and strategies acquired from Mastering Possibilities on page 152.
Unit 1 and 5 are largely based on the Personal family of instructional models. It uses both nondirective and reflection strategies to assist students in articulating their own personal experiences and prior knowledge and encourages them to use this in conjunction with their new knowledge to make changes within the context of their social studies classrooms. Unit 1 also has an element of inductive learning which is an information-processing skill. By asking students to make connections between their experiences, people they've interviewed, and the videos they've watched, students are working toward developing the implication that these connetions and conclusions result in a need for 21st century skill based instruction.
Units 2, 3, and 4 use mutliple strategies and models. Problem Based Learning, as discussed in our course's discussion, is used in a very basic manner. Students are asked to apply new knowledge within the framework of their own classroom, which allows for task authenticity for the student. According to the chart on page 152, this best fits the cognitive apprenticeship model as part of the integrative instructional family. In a few places, students are asked to read selected pieces and answer questions that are both lower-level and higher-level according to Bloom's taxonomy. In this case, students are using the models of conceptual attainment and conceptional development as part of the information-processing instructional family. In a few cases, as in the case of Unit 3, students must undergo training in technology (GoogleEarth). This is an example of a training model and is in the behavior family on instructional processes.
To begin the course, click here: 21st Century Skills and Technology in the Social Studies Classroom