A VISION FOR 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION

Posted by David Wees on Dec 14, 2010

The BC government just released a report from the Premier's Technology Council (PTC) on the future of education in British Columbia which is a fantastic read. It's like someone took the conversations we have on #edchat on Twitter and bottled it up into an official report.

The report starts with discussing the needs of a knowledge-based society¹, which it describes as

• Functional Numeracy and Literacy
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Creativity and Innovation
• Technological Literacy
• Communication and Media Literacy
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Personal Organization
• Motivation, Self-regulation and Adaptability
• Ethics, Civic Responsibility, Cross-Cultural Awareness

They move onto some over-arching principles about what they feel a 21st century education should look like. Specifically, the document indicates "[t]he system must place greater emphasis on the learning of skills over the learning of content...[which] will have to evolve constantly, not only to remain relevant but so students are ready to deal with how rapidly information changes in a knowledge-based society."² Of course information in our society is changing very rapidly. Kurzweil, in his article entitled "The Law of Accelerating Returns" said "[t]he Singularity is technological change so rapid and so profound that it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history"³ referring to his prediction that the rapidly approaching time when our ability to digest and create knowledge as a species will exceed our current ability to comprehend and predict the changes.

How would such a system operate? According to the document⁴ "the transformed system would have a flexible curriculum that allows for more in depth study...The system would have a mixture of face-to-face classroom and online learning." According to the Premier's Technology council, the system would require:

• A Flexible Educational Path
• A Blended System
• Access to Learning Objects and Teaching Tools
• Open Access to Information Systems
• Constant Feedback and Assessment

Many of these requirements will need additional infrastructure supports, and certainly the opponents of such a radical transformation will point to the lack of access to the Internet in rural communities, or the disparities and inequities⁵ in the necessary technology between communities as reasons not to move toward this educational system. The Premier's Technology report does say that "a critical component of adding connectivity to the system is equity of access"⁶ so obviously they recognize this as an issue but the report does not make any recommendations on how to address this issue.

These are issues which we address daily in our discussions on #edchat. If you look through our conversation topics from the past year our wiki, you'll find that they address the current problems in our system, and acknowledge a desire to move toward this system by many educators. The transformation of our system, as the PTC acknowledges, is not going to happen from a single report, but from the combined effort of educators, parents, students and other stake-holders in our educational community.

What is refreshing is to see that the very same ideas are being discussed at the highest levels in our (BC's anyway, sorry to you US folks) educational system. Unfortunately there will be much opposition to these proposed changes. Many teachers in BC will naturally resist change, since it is easier to keep doing what one is doing than to transform one's practice. The BC teacher's union will resist these changes since many of them will require changes to how teacher contracts in BC are structured. I have hope however, that a majority of BC educators see that our system is not working and that it is not currently meeting of the learners it is intended to support. We must change, our children depend on our ability to be flexible and adapt to a rapidly changing world.

References:

1. Premier's Technology Council, (2010). A Vision for 21st Century Education, retrieved from http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/attachments/PTC_vision%20for_education.pdf on December 14^th, 2010

2. Kurzweil, R. (2001). The Law of Accelerating Returns, retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns on December 14^th, 2010

3. BBC News, (1999). Online Education Increases Inequality, retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/323272.stm on December 14^th, 2010

ICT: How long do you think you can last without social networks?

Shorecrest, Shorewood students named Persons of the Week by ABC News

Shoreline School District video production teachers Trent Mitchell from Shorecrest and Marty Ballew from Shorewood, who brought the world the famous student-produced lip dub videos a year ago, are back with a new competition. In The Social Experiment, more than 400 participating students from both schools will be expected to give up their social networks for a week: no texting, online gaming, internet chat, Facebook, etc., between Monday, December 6 and Sunday, December 12. Phone calls are OK, but preferably on a land line.

In recognition of The Social Experiment, ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer named the students and teachers of Shorecrest and Shorewood as its Persons of the Week on the Friday, December 10 national broadcast.

Watch the ABC World News Tonight story on The Social Experiment

Ballew and Mitchell's video students are creating movie trailers for promotional videos. So far they have created a video that satirizes The Social Network, Back to the Future, and Zombie films.

During the Social Experiment week, video students will be shooting footage and interviewing students, staff, and parents about the whole project. Each student will make a documentary that focuses on the weeklong project from a personal perspective (how did they do during the week, why did or didn't they make it?), a school-wide angle, or comparing the weeks at both schools. They will prepare by watching and analyzing professional documentaries in class.

Shorecrest and Shorewood video students will compete to see who makes the best documentary. Selected students will be "secret spies" to monitor the competition, but mostly it's on the honor system.

The teachers say they are hoping the experiment will encourage their students to read more books, exercise, try a new hobby or art form, or write. Each student can chronicle his or her experience in a photo essay or short video.

Original site click here

Cita Hati Alumni's Profile: Monica Lisayani Pramono

Monica Lisayani Pramono, is one of our alumni from Class of 2008, who just received A Young Changemaker Award. She is now still studying at Ciputra University. She won the award with her four other friends and her topic was about "Anti Dating Violence". It was based on her friends true stories and she decided to start a movement in her campus. Soon later, she and her friends were able to do campaigns in other schools as well. Her profile was on Jawa Pos on December 7, 2010 discussed about this topic.

We are proud of her and hoping that this movement will grow bigger and educate many teenagers to be wiser while they are in a relationship. God bless!

Broken Wings - Musical Production

Cita Hati is a school with a commitment to educate students holistically. We believe that our students are unique and each of them has great potential that needs to be developed and upheld. One of the ways to uphold their potential is having an activity that stimulates their ability and talents.

This academic year we propose to have a Musical Production since there are many Cita Hati students who are talented in various aspects of Arts, such as making music; singing, composing, arranging, and nowadays the digital composition. Through Musical Production, we integrate drama, theatre arts, choir, orchestra, dance, and visual arts into one performance. Cita Hati students will show to the world that they are able to combine classical and contemporary arts. This Musical Production will expose all the talented students in every aspect of ARTS.

In line with the school focus this year “RESPECT”, through this Musical Production we want to build students and audiences’ attitude to respect our Planet Earth by taking care of the environment surrounds us. It is our responsibility to educate our generation so that they have the awareness and ownership of respect towards their planet.

Follow us on twitter: @BrokenWings

Cita Hati Christian School: Waking up..

Cita Hati Christian School: Waking up..

Waking up..

It was 5 years ago when we posted the first blog's message. Since then, so many things have changed in our school! There were so many new activities and programmes implemented by great teachers and staff. As a growing school, we want to ensure that what we do is consistently reviewed and revised.

Now our IB Diploma Programme has been through the first 5 (five) years review successfully and just recently we were authorized as a Cambridge International Centre (East Campus) for grade 9 - 10. There is a sister's blog that discuss about the International programmes specifically called chinternational managed by our International Curriculum Coordinator, John Haeusler. It is hoped that those programmes will grow even stronger together with the National Plus curriculum.

Our official school website is still can be accessed on www.bchati.sch.id and also twitter account on @citahatihs

May God continue to bless you all! Blessings!

99 Baloons