This document discusses the transition to digital learning in the 21st century. It makes three main points: 1) The future of work and learning is digital, with exponential growth in online content and connectivity. Continued investment in print is a waste. 2) Students cannot be prepared for 21st century skills without consistent access to digital tools. One-to-one device programs are necessary. 3) Open-source software, cloud computing, and mobile devices have lowered costs, making one-to-one learning affordable for schools through reallocating print budgets and using existing hardware. A strategic transition to digital is key.

1. EDUCATION CONNECTION
21st Century Skills
Change Is In
The Air
Key Concepts
Jonathan P. Costa
May 27th, 2011
© JPC Sr. 2011

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

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

4. 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

5. Facebook as the New
Internet
o In October 2007, FB had a mere
20 million US users.
o Today (as of 1/4/11) it has over
146 million US based users.
o That accounts for 70% of all US
based internet users.
© EC/JC 2011

6. The World is One
Network
 My youngest son is going to
Brazil on a Rotary Exchange.
 Before he was notified of his
placement (Uberlandia) by
Rotary officials, he had
already spent two hours
facebook chatting with the
outbound student from that
city who knew he was coming
and the family he is being
placed with and had located
him on the network.
© EC/JC 2011

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

8. From Passive to
Empowered
 The cell phone has reached 90% of the
market faster than any other device in
the last 50 years.
 Nearly half (47%) of US teens say their
social life would end or be worsened
without their cell phone, and nearly six
in 10 (57%) credit their mobile device
with improving their life
 After having his wisdom teeth out in
August, my youngest son had to be
warned by the nurse that he may not
remember what he was texting because
of the impact of the anesthesia.
© EC/JC 2011

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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
© EC/JC
students. 2011

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

14. 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

15. A Definition of
Waste
 Waste is any action you take in an
organization that does not move
someone/something in the
direction you want to go.
 Aligned action is the key to
organizational success… the more
you invest in materials, strategies
and systems that are counter to the
creation of a 21st century learning
environment, the longer the
transition will take.
 Every printed page is a waste.
© EC/JC 2011

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

17. Prepare EVERY Student for
Plan
Learning, Life, and Work in the
21st Century.
Do
The Open Pathways Track
Results &
Data
Change the Change the
Change the
Orientation to System’s
Culture
One to One Focus
Cost and Traction and Risk and Policy
Control Barriers Focus Barriers Barriers
- Open Sources
- True North - Positive Policy
- Digital
- Valued Measures - Common Cause
Resources
- Alignment - Problem Solving
- BYOD
© EC/JC
2011 Change Leadership

18. The Resource
Equation
You already have the money
you need to start the move
to one to one locked
within these three sources:
1. Open source savings.
2. Reallocating print
resource savings.
3. Using local hardware
assets.
© EC/JC 2011

19. 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

20. 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.
Affordable
1 to 1
No or low cost
Delivery
Low cost, Low cost, cloud-based computing Models.
i-net focused apps and software and storage
Netbooks and open source options on a mass
Devices. materials. basis.
© EC/JC 2011

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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Critical Skills and Attributes
© JPC Sr. 2010

25. 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

26. Essential Planning Questions
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?
Leveraging Information Age Tools and Strategies
© JPC Sr. 2009

27. 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

28. Essential Planning Questions
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?
Feedback and Accountability in a Skill Based World
© JPC Sr. 2009

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

30. All Goals Are Not Created Equal
Worth
Worth Covering Exposure
Worth Teaching Working
Knowledge
Worth Teaching Applied
Well (21st Century) Understanding
*Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe - ASCD - Understanding by Design
© JPC Sr. 2009

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

32. The Rules of
Engagement
Engagement + Purpose = Learning
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
© JPC Sr. 2009

33. The Five Gallon Bucket
If you persist in the
teach “just in case”
you will never fit
this stuff in your
bucket. Teaching
the ability to learn
“just in time” is the
shift.
© PI 2006

34. Pyramid of Learning
Average Rate of Information Retention
Lecture 5%
Reading 10%
Audio/Visual 20%
Demonstration 30%
Group Discussion 50%
Practice by Doing 75%
Teaching and Doing 90%
© PI 2001

35. Do the math; less really is
more.
% of the Effectiveness of Net
Curriculum X Teaching Strategy = Learning
100% X 15% = 15%
66% X 33% = 21%
50% X 66% = 33%
© PI 2001

36. The Rules of Integration
Engagement + Purpose + Tool = Learning
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.
© JPC Sr. 2010

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

38. Step One: Goals
List content and skill objectives here – what do you expect them to learn?
Goals/Objectives - Describe relationships between historical subject matter and other subjects they
(What will they learn?) study, current issues and personal concerns.
- Evaluate the reliability of online resources.
 Pick something big and important – of
broad consequence to the content area –
usually found at the standards level.
 Specific content will depend on the
direction they go – it will include it and
it must be correct – but there is some
flexibility regarding what it will be.
© JPC Sr. 2010

39. Step Two: Assessment
List the assessment guidelines that you will use – the specific rubrics or checklists or frames
Assessment of reference that will be used to judge the work.
Evidence and Tasks - NMHS Research Rubric
(How will you know?) - NMHS Persuasive Argument Rubric
- Project Checklist
 How will you judge the effectiveness of
the work – what assessment
criteria/rubrics etc. They should know
up front what standard they will be held
to.
© JPC Sr. 2010

40. Step Three: Goals
List the RAFT responses/framework here….
Authentic Task
R - Open
RAFT A - Open
(Role, Audience, Format,
F – Persuasive argument
Topic)
T – Select between any two cultural debates with a Constitutional
interpretation at stake.
 Authentic is another way of saying
“plausible real-work connection.”
 The only R-A that does not work here is
Student-Teacher.
 First place for technology integration –
certain roles, audiences, formats and
topics would dictate certain technology.
© JPC Sr. 2010

41. Step Four: Info Gathering
Describe the information gathering task at hand – include source types and
Information
expectations.
Gathering Task Access at least 5 resources for each side of your historical issue – be sure to list.
(What, where, and how - Source organization, author
many?)
- Point of view
- Key ideas
- Supporting empirical evidence
 What kind of information is needed to
support the RAFT?
 What technology is available to support
it (“use digital and real-world….)?
 The multiple sources point here is
critical. The narrower your goal and
RAFT, the harder this step is to design.
© JPC Sr. 2010

42. Step Five: Criteria
Evaluation Activity Create an expectation that students will judge or rate the resources they collected based
(What’s good and what’s not?) a set of criteria.
1. Can you determine the author’s name and is there a way to reach them or a
representative of the site (such as a webmaster)?
2. Does the author provide a short biography of themselves detailing their academic
and/or professional credentials and experience?
3. Does the web site disclose who it is sponsored by and say whether it is a commercial,
informational, or personal web site?
4. Does the web site provide a way to verify that the information presented can be
corroborated through a bibliography or links to other primary sources?
5. Can you determine the intended audience for the presented information?
6. Can you determine the intended purpose for the presented information?
7. Is there a statement that either takes or evades responsibility for the content on the
site?
 What is the framework upon which you
expect them to evaluate the value of the
information they have collected?
 Polling and communications tech works
in this step.
© JPC Sr. 2010

43. Step Six: Synthesis
Information Ask the students to generate a finding – a rephrasing or synthesis of what
the research found.
Synthesis - Create a graphic organizer that maps the research findings and connects it
(What does it mean?)
to a hypothesis or supportable opinion.
 What did you find and what does it
mean? Paraphrase – in your own words.
 Graphic organizers are great here…
(Inspiration, Presi, etc.)
No evidence of synthesis Limited sources of information Thoughtfully incorporates Purposefully and thoughtfully
and/or sourcing of utilized to form stance with specific information from incorporates specific
information. evidence of synthesis in several sources into a synthesis information from a wide
Synthesize and support a point of view. that justifies a point of view. variety of sources in a synthesis
make connections that justifies a point of view.
between
information and No evidence of understanding Can identify superficial or Can identify multiple patterns Can identify and support
arguments for connections or patterns obvious patterns within the – there is evidence of insight complex and multiple patterns.
within the information. information. May attempt and complexity within the There is insight and originality
more difficult connections with connections made. in the interpretation.
some errors.
© JPC Sr. 2010

44. Step Seven: Communicate
Communication Ask the students to communicate what they have found.
of - Pick a tool that works best given the raft and the
Findings technology that is available.
(Tell us about what you
found?)
 Given the RAFT, what is the best way to
communicate the findings given the
technology at hand (“variety of tools for
a variety of purposes)?
 Many require a writing foundation for
this stage.
© JPC Sr. 2010

45. Step Eight: Respond and
Reflect
Respond/Reflection Ask the students to reflect on what they learned, how the process went, or to apply the
assessment standards themselves.
(What did you learn?)
Based on your results, fill out the, NMHS Research Rubric, NMHS Persuasive Argument
Rubric, and the Project Checklist. Be prepared to share your findings and defend your
ratings in an assessment conference.
 Involve them in a meaningful way in the
assessment of the project and process.
 What did you learn – what went well –
what do you think this is based on the
standards we started with?
© JPC Sr. 2010

46. Reference
Points/Resources
Online reference to most of the
slides you saw today…
Jonathan P. Costa, Sr.
Director, School/Program Services
EDUCATION CONNECTION
costa@educationconnection.org
860-567-0863
http://www.slideshare.net/jpcostasr
© JPC Sr. 2011