This document discusses the need for schools to prepare students for 21st century skills in a digital world. It notes that work and learning processes are already primarily digital due to exponential growth of the internet and technology. It argues that one-to-one access to devices is necessary for students to develop skills like problem solving, communication, and independent thinking. Assessment also needs to evolve to evaluate applied skills beyond just facts. Overall, the document advocates for schools to fully embrace digital learning and resources in order to prepare students for the future.

1. 21st Century Skills
Change Is In
The Air
Key Concepts
Jonathan P. Costa
June 2nd, 2011
EDUCATION CONNECTION
© JPC Sr. 2011

2. Three Truths Preview
Multiple Choice Test (Pick One)
The future of learning and work is…

3. Truth Number One
There is no escape…
The future of
work and
learning
processes/
resources are
digital.
© EC/JC 2011

4. Yes, It’s Happened Before Our
Eyes
© JPC Sr. 2011

5. Think About Exponential
Growth
 Since 1994 the number of web sites
has grown from 5,000 to 250,000,000
(50,000 % increase)
 Distinct content pages now number
in the trillions…
 Every day, Google handles about
6,200,000,000 page views and
processes 20 petabytes of data.
 275,000 words are typed every
minute onto blogger
 And then there is the newest internet
monster Facebook...
© EC/JC 2011

6. Information Sharing
Network
1. Google
2. Facebook
3. YouTube
4. Yahoo!
5. Windows Live
(Microsoft search)
6. Baidu.com
(A Chinese language search engine)
7. Blogger.com
8. Wikipedia
9. QQ.COM
(A Chinese language IM program)
10. Twitter
© EC/JC 2011

7. From Turn the Page to Hit The
Button
 In the second quarter of 2010,
Amazon sold 180 Kindle
Edition Books for every 100
hard-covers sold.
 In the fourth quarter, Kindle
editions outsold paperbacks as
well.
 Amazon has been selling
books for 16 years and Kindle
books for 3 years.
© EC/JC 2011

8. The King Is Dead, LLTK
More content hours
were uploaded to
YouTube in 2010…
…than have been
broadcast by the
three major networks
in their entire
history.
http://www.youtube.com/create
© EC/JC 2010

9. How Would You Answer?
What would an “open
phone test” look like?
What would your
district/school iPhone
app have in it?
What happens when
everyone can get
anything from anywhere?
© EC/JC 2010

10. Still Not Sure?
It really is no longer a prediction…
- Restated Truth One –
CURRENT
work and learning
processes/
resources are
already primarily
digital.
© EC/JC 2011

11. Truth Number Two
You Can’t Learn Without Access
Adequate
preparation
for a higher order
thinking digital
environment
requires one-one
access by staff and
students.© EC/JC 2011

12. It Just Makes
Sense
One cannot prepare students
to master skills and be
information literate,
independent, higher-order
thinkers if they are not
consistently doing
meaningful work with the
tools that will help define
their success.
© EC/JC 2011

13. Truth Number Three
Further Print Investment is a Waste
Continued investment in a
print-based infrastructure
and the lack of strategic
transitional planning for
a complete move to
digital are ultimately
counterproductive both
educationally and fiscally.
© EC/JC 2011

14. The Goal
To prepare EVERY
student for learning,
life and work in the
21st century.
I believe achieving this goal is the
defining challenge of our time.
© EC/JC 2011

15. Get to One to
One
Putting a device in
every learner’s hands is
the keystone task.
With that accomplished,
all else is possible.
Without it, your future
is your print-based past.
© EC/JC 2011

16. Open Source Savings
Five Factors of Convergence
1.Open source energy.
2.Moore’s Law
unabated.
3.Apple effect.
4.Google effect.
5.Growth of the cloud
and browser.
© EC/JC 2011

17. Origins of Open
Source
 A cultural reaction to Bill Gates move to
license Windows.
 Netscape opened its browser’s source code
in the mid 1990s and the run began.
 Used to refer to the code, now it really
refers to anything that is shared openly –
free.
 Spawned a whole new concept which has
rippled across the tech and information
ecosystem – crowd sourcing – the idea
that everyone can be smarter than
anyone.
 Wikis, blogs, open exchanges of all kinds
owe their current status to this ethic and
history.
© EC/JC 2011

18. Moore’s Law
Unabated
© EC/JC 2011

19. The App Store
Effect
 Opens on July 11, 2008
 In the first 2 months,
100,000,000
applications were
downloaded.
 The average cost of an
iPhone App is $3.87
 Many are silly and junk,
but huge numbers do
specific things related
to information very
efficiently…
© EC/JC 2011

20. The Google Effect
 Do you think most people can even
conceive of a company who’s
primary business strategy is to
provide all of their primary
consumer services for free?
 How does one compete with free?
 Think of this as the Google
decade…
 Driving the cost of software down…
© EC/JC 2011

21. Revolution
Open Source, Multiple Platform
 The recent explosive growth of
open source, multiple platform
and multiple device applications
have brought 21st century
learning and utility to the
masses.
 Information and access for
everyone.
 Schools that miss the
opportunity to leverage FREE
resources to support learning are
making a mistake.
© EC/JC 2011

22. The Cloud & Browser
 The emergence of the “cloud”
(off-site server storage of data
and applications) have
refocused development on the
browser.
 More and more software and
data applications are being
made to run through the
browser – making this format
the default platform for the
vast majority of value based
applications.
© EC/JC 2011

23. Putting It All Together
These are the factors that have
come together over the last two
years to make the new math of
one-to-one for everyone possible.
© EC/JC 2011
Affordable
1 to 1
Delivery
Models.Low cost,
apps and
open source
materials.
Low cost,
i-net focused
Netbooks and
Devices.
No or low cost
cloud-based computing
software and storage
options on a mass
basis.

24. © JPC Sr. 2008
They ARE DifferentAdapted from Marc Prensky – “Digital Game Based Learning”
Digital Immigrants
Digital Interpreters
Mostly text
Paper based
Information stream
One task at a time
Fonts
Logical order
One conversation
Reward in the end
Serious work
Deliberation
Legacy content
Digital Natives
Digital Fluency
Mostly media
Screen based
Information flood
Multi-tasking
Graphics
Random access
Networked
Instant gratification
Games and engagement
Twitch speed
Future content

25. So, A Quick Review…
…of what is coming down the pike
 Print is dead, long live print.
 One to one is in everyone’s
future.
 Digital learning environment
with all of the trimmings (policy,
practice, and challenge)
 21st century demands,
goals/skills.
 Digital native audience
…all at the same time.
© JPC Sr. 2011

26. Essential Planning Questions
How do our goals for learning need to be
adjusted to reflect the skills and
attributes required for academic,
vocational, and personal success in a flat,
digital, integrated, and highly
collaborative/competitive world?
Aligning Goals for Learning With The Real World
© JPC Sr. 2009

27. Rethinking Key - What You Teach
Time spent preparing to
fight the last war is
wasted. In your
discussions around goals
for learning, make the
focus on what learners
will need to be successful
in a 2020 digital age, not
the skills we needed in
an Industrial Age, print-
based model.
© JPC Sr. 2009

28. The Five Gallon Bucket
If we persist in
teaching “just in
case” we will never
fit this stuff in our
buckets. Teaching
the ability to learn
“just in time” is the
shift.
© JPC Sr. 2011

29. Preparing Students For a Knowledge
Economy
Align Your Systems With Your Goals for Learning
Type of
Assessment
Required
Subject Area
Responsibilities
Everyone’s
Responsibility
© JPC Sr. 2009
Content
(Declarative)
Facts
Content Skills
(Procedural)
Discrete Skills
21st Cent. Skills
(Contextual)
Applied Understandings
Type of
Knowledge
Desired
Type of
Instruction
Required
Lecture, video,
films, assigned
readings and
memory activities.
Classroom or textbook
problems, experiments,
discussions, practice and
repetition.
Complex projects,
real time explorations,
authentic and technology
supported applications.
Amount of
Time
Required
Discrete units,
spiraled and
predictable.
Ongoing, systemic and
without a finite
or predictable end.
Discrete units,
spiraled and
predictable.
Recall & recognition
based quizzes, tests,
and activities. Multiple
choice, matching, etc.
(SAT/AP/Exams)
Checklists,
analytic rubrics,
or other agreed upon
skill standards
(AP/CMT/CAPT/Exams)
Holistic and,
analytic rubrics,
or other agreed upon
skill standards
(Portfolios, Exhibitions, Etc)

30. Critical Skills and Attributes
© JPC Sr. 2010

31. 21st Century Skills
1. Use real-world digital and other research tools to access,
evaluate and effectively apply information appropriate for
authentic tasks.
2. Work independently and collaboratively to solve problems
and accomplish goals.
3. Communicate information clearly and effectively using a
variety of tools/media in varied contexts for a variety of
purposes.
4. Demonstrate innovation, flexibility and adaptability in
thinking patterns, work habits, and working/learning
conditions.
5. Effectively apply the analysis, synthesis, and evaluative
processes that enable productive problem solving.
6. Value and demonstrate personal responsibility, character,
cultural understanding, and ethical behavior.
© JPC Sr. 2010

32. How should we adjust our
teaching and delivery
methods to both
leverage the power of
Information Age
technologies and to
meet a new generation
of learners in their own
learning environment?
Essential Planning Questions
Leveraging Information Age Tools and Strategies
© JPC Sr. 2009

33. Rethinking Key - How You Teach
You cannot prepare
students to master
skills and be literate,
independent, higher-
order thinkers if they
are not doing
meaningful work with
the tools that will help
define their success.
© JPC Sr. 2009

34. © JPC Sr. 2009
The Rules of
Engagement
1.Each student has learning experiences at
intermediate difficulty for that student.
2.Expectations for the student are high but
achievable for that student.
3.Students make decisions about their own
learning that lead them to be autonomous
learners.
4.Students’ perspectives are valued.
5.There is both a sense of community and
individuality.
6.Instruction is tied to student interests (and
is culturally relevant).
From Powerful Learning by Ron Brandt, ASCD, Alexandria, VA: ASCD
Engagement + Purpose = Learning

35. © JPC Sr. 2007
Vary the R.A.F.T.
R: role – what role is the student playing?
A: audience – who are they producing the work for?
F: format – what format will the work be in?
T: topic – what topic will the work be on?
Newspaper reporter, scientist, editorial writer…
Students, your parents, an employer…
Obituary, cartoon, poem, editorial…

36. © JPC Sr. 2010
The Rules of Integration
1.Each student has significant choices within the
RAFT so they can make decisions about their
own learning that lead them to be
autonomous/self-directed learners.
2.Each student must deal with a significant
variety of source information, make/defend
choices about what they use, and evaluate the
importance of what they have found.
3.Each student has an opportunity to synthesize
and construct a new product, service, or
message based on the results of their work
(authentic tasks).
Plug any technology into any of these steps.
Engagement + Purpose + Tool = Learning

37. How must our
methods of
assessing student
learning evolve so
that we can meet
the twin demands
of feedback and
accountability in a
skill based world?
Essential Planning Questions
Feedback and Accountability in a Skill Based World
© JPC Sr. 2009

38. Rethinking Key - How You Know
Traditional, print literacy
assessment practices
can be very concrete
and narrowly focused.
Assessing for analysis,
patterns, synthesis and
evaluation skills is
more difficult – and
important.
© JPC Sr. 2009

39. Assessing These Skills
The difference
between “accurate
measurement” and
“valid assessment.”
© JPC Sr. 2007

40. © JPC Sr. 2007
A Process for Building Performance
Assessments
1. Identify what you are assessing for.
2. Determine critical attributes.
3. Select an appropriate assessment instrument/scale
to judge the work.
4. Describe each attribute across the selected scale.
5. Provide models of work across the scale.
6. Assess, and/or have the student assess, the work
by applying the ratings and providing
explanations.

41. Align Assessments With Goals for
Learning
Appropriate
Assessment
Instruments
Recall & recognition
based quizzes, tests,
and activities. Multiple
choice, matching, fill
In the blanks, etc.
(SAT/AP/Exams)
Checklists,
analytic rubrics,
or other agreed upon
skill standards
(AP/CMT/CAPT/Exams)
Holistic and,
analytic rubrics,
or other agreed upon
skill standards
(Portfolios, Demonstrations,
Exhibitions, Etc)
© JPC Sr. 2007
Content
(Declarative)
Facts
“Define this term”
Content Skills
(Procedural)
Discrete Skills
“Factor this equation”
Meta Skills
(Contextual)
Applied Understandings
“Skilled Information Consumer”
Type of
Knowledge
Desired
Appropriate
Assessment
Standards/Scales
Take this quiz, test,
or other appropriate
content focused
assessment instrument.
Answering/responding to
classroom or text based
problems, experiments, and
writing assignments.
Complex projects,
real time explorations,
authentic problem based
skill applications.
Appropriate
Assessment
Tasks
Percentages of
right and wrong
answers on an agreed
upon numeric or letter
grade scale.
1-100/A-B-C-D
Specific criteria tied
to an agreed upon
numeric or
descriptive scale.
1-100/Pass-Fail
Insufficient-Excellent
Specific criteria tied
to an agreed upon
descriptive scale.
Insufficient-Sufficient
Proficient-Excellent
Overlap between columns can and does occur.

42. © JPC Sr. 2007
Keep this shift in
mind…
- From -
View Judge Explain
- To -
Establish a reliable standard; then…
View Describe Analyze

43. © JPC Sr. 2007
Pay close attention to the language.
Judgment - Descriptive
“reliable” vs. “corroborated by
at least one
other source”
“effective” “1st person
narrative”
To help this shift…

44. Virtual Summit

45. Moodle, One-to-One, & Blended Learning
• Our Academy courses are delivered using Moodle.
• Each course involves team work, problem solving, and
deep student ownership of learning.
Virtual Summit
Science & Math
Strands
Technology
Strands
 Earth and Energy
Essentials
 Biology21
 Chemistry21
 Physics21
 Algebra21
 Foundations of
Health Science and
Technology
 Public Health
 Skills21
 Research, Design,
and Development
 Digital Media and
Movie Making
 E-Commerce
Entrepreneurship
 Digital Media and
Animation
 Virtual Worlds and
Simulation