This document discusses the need to update education for the 21st century. It makes three key points: 1) Education needs to match the rapidly changing world where paper is obsolete and information becomes outdated quickly. Curriculums must be rethought and practices that weigh things down need to be cut or changed. 2) Assessments are where changes need to begin, with teachers committing to integrating technology, reviewing resources, and revising at least one unit with 21st century skills. 3) Technology overuse can disconnect people from real relationships. While connections are preferred over conversation, this leaves people emotionally vulnerable. Face-to-face conversations are still important. Schools must teach solitude and being alone

3. THE SEDUCTION and the
S E P A R A T I O N
Teaching for a Future of
Connectedness WITHOUT
Disconnectedness
Notes from Heidi Jacobs and
Sherry Turkle

4. Heidi Jacobs’ Curriculum 21
“Do our students feel like they are time traveling
through the door each morning? As they
cross the threshold, do they feel as if they are
entering a simulation of life in the 1980’s?
Then, at the end of the day, do they feel they
are returning to the 21st century?”

5. • As educators, our challenge is to match the needs of our learners to
a world that is changing with great rapidity.
• Paper is obsolete. The news we read today is outdated before it is
delivered.
• TEN PERCENT of the 21st century is OVER!! So – there’s no time to
waste!
• As we look forward, we restrict ourselves by “what we know” and
“what we are able to do.” We need to think broadly!
• We MUST become active researchers and developers of
innovations and new directions.
• We must rethink the curriculum – and decide what we need to Cut,
Keep, and Create. We cannot keep our feet firmly in the 1980s
while we soar into the 21st century. Leaving some practices and
methods behind has to become our forward-thinking strategy.
Trying to hold onto ALL past practices is weighing down educators
and students – and sinking the boat!

6. Growth model vs. Change
• Upgrading curriculum and developing new versions
of school is critical, but it should be worked into the
school culture gradually. Change can often feel
trendy and superficial, but growth is positive and
deep.
• Four key structures affect curriculum:
– The schedule ( short and long term)
– The way learners are grouped
– Personnel configurations
– The use of space
 Shifts in these four areas should coincide with curriculum
changes.

7. Myths That Become Obstacles in Creating Change
 The good old days are still good enough!
“The real insecurity comes from NOT growing or
changing.” Schools often are mirrors of what a culture
values and aspires to. There are real dangers in glorifying
the good old days and clinging to our schools’ myths and
stories.”
 We’re better off if we all think alike – and not too much.
 Too much creativity is dangerous – and the arts are
frills.

8. A 21st Century Pledge
Assessments is where the change needs to begin –
“Starting with assessments has proven to be the most successful portal to moving school faculty and
administrators into 21st century teaching and learning.”
The 21st Century Pledge is a curricular commitment from each teacher to :
Integrate the use of technology to enhance content
Review all current available technological resources
(online resources: video streaming; internet web sites & subscriptions; Web Quest creation;
Webcasting through laptop.)
(Hardware resources: videoconferencing, laptop labs, digital cameras; digital recording studio.)
(Creative software: Movie maker; Media Player; video clips via digital camera)
Identify at least one specific unit to revise
Plan to replace a specific content, skill, and assessment practice with a 21st century upgrade within
the unit – then DO IT!
Share proposed change with colleagues
Administrators also commit to review, monitor, and provide feedback, as well as revise at least one
staff development or administrative task.
Teachers and administrators implement together, tolerate certain degrees of frustration, celebrate the
victories, document and share with colleagues and on Web site.
Upgrade model begins with consideration of assessment types, moves to
content reviews and replacements, and then links both of these to upgraded
skills and proficiencies.

9. Read Curriculum 21 by Heidi H. Jacobs for a more in-
depth strategy for reinventing and reuniting
school program structures.
WEBSITES:
www.ecoliteracy.org www.ODTMAPS.COM
www.tc.columbia.edu/LIFE/ www.facingthefuture.com
www.readwritethink.org/lessons www.medialit.org
www.cloudinstitute.org www.ccsso.org
www.sustainableschoolsproject.org
www.teachingmedialiteracy.com www.clexchange.org
www.designshare.com
www.media-awareness.ca/
www.novemberlearning.com

10. Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together
• We expect more from technology and less from each
other – people prefer texting and emailing to personal
contact.
• We are insecure in our relationships and anxious about
intimacy; we look to technology for ways to be in
relationships – and protect ourselves from them at the
same time.
• We seem determined to give human qualities to
objects and are content to treat each other as things.
• We are lonely but fearful of intimacy, so digital
connections offer the illusion of companionship
without the demands of friendship.

11. • It appears we have substituted connection for
conversation - it is even preferred - and these lives of
connection have left us emotionally and intellectually
vulnerable.
• Many young people use technology to avoid
conversations – “performing a self; not living a self”
• In any crowded room, you will see hands constantly in
motion, connected to a technological device,
disconnected from the face-to-face complexity of
conversation.
• However, the ability to be alone is essential. “If you
don’t teach your children how to be alone, they will only
know how to be lonely. Loneliness is failed solitude.”
• Sherry asks us to “Read Alone Together – and then talk
about it with colleagues, students, and friends – face to
face.”

22. http://www.21stcenturyskillsbook.com/swf/MetroOverviewAudio.swf