The 21st Century Challenge

As technology changes the face of everything that touches our lives, education struggles to keep pace.  Consider the students of today and the world in which they are growing.  Their daily experiences include checking in with their parents on one of many wireless devices they own or use, playing video games with virtual characters in virtual worlds with their friends on the other side of town, watching videos starring their friends, video chatting with their grandparents who are thousands of miles away, listening to a playlist chosen from 1,500 songs they carry on a device in their pocket, and having the answer to any pondering be just a few mouse clicks away. 

Our classrooms need to connect with the real world experiences of our students as well as reflect our understanding of how our students learn.  For example, we must consider middle school learners in terms of their peer relationships, learning style and motivation. Middle school students are extremely social beings.  Classroom collaboration satisfies this need and models their future places of learning and work. This year Mrs. Mooney-Haynes used an online learning style assessment tool with her students and found that more than 75% were most “tuned-in” to kinesthetic learning. The factory model of education would seem to be the polar opposite of this information. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we know everyone learns best when the material has personal significance.  Students are more motivated and learning is deeper when the material is perceived to be something they “need to know”. This information tells us that the most fertile learning environment for the middle school student needs to offer them the opportunity to be actively and collaboratively engaged in relevant material. In fact, this model of learning will closely resemble the 21^st century workplace as technology blurs the boundary between place of work and place of learning.

As parents and educators, we are no longer in total control of the information available to our children.  In fact, they no longer need us to dole out information to them.  Information is readily available and coming at them from all directions.  But while they may not need us to dole out information, they need us more than ever to encourage their thoughtful evaluation of that information.  They need us to poke and prod their intellect.  They need us to hold the conversations that will help them develop the skills to be productive citizens in the 21^st century.  The potential for learning using these tools is dwarfed only by the enormity of the responsibility to use them with wisdom.  Preparing our students to live in a world that we can only imagine, is the single greatest charge and challenge of the 21st century classroom.