Posts Tagged ‘authentic assessment’
Shifting to Authentic Projects using Web 2.0 Tools
As I have been working to better define “21st Century Skills” using my RSS feeds and YouTube videos, my journey has taken me from web 2.0 tools and to youth peace movements. “21st Century Skills” should be a college course in itself. These important skills (global literacy, problem solving, innovation, creativity, sharing, collaboration, collective problem-solving, and publishing) came to light years ago during the authentic assessment movement of the late ’80’s and 90’s, but standardized evaluative assessments and federal mandates interrupted teachers after we began to move in a positive direction. The slowdown was caused by state government demands and NCLB requirements resulting in today’s lack of focus and total lack of direction. We must get redirected and use 21st century skills as the structure/backbone/scaffolding pulling together the the skills and content that fit the needs of our students. In the meantime, we must set the table for educational change introducing invaluable Web 2.0 tools to our students making sure that they all use available resources. Students must become more involved in planning their projects creating projects which will please more than their teachers. Service learning and project-based learning must become the norm with plenty of time built in to plan, collaborate, reflect, and publish. In the State of Maine (USA), many schools have frozen budgets while superintendents still get contract extensions despite knowing that state- enforced mandatory consolidation will eliminate administrative jobs. This makes no sense. It troubles me that many schools will keep their current structure and continue to teach they way they do today for another 5-15 years. There will be plenty of blame to be passed around, but, the point is that we must change sooner than later. Thankfully I have confidence that our children will find ways to learn and be successful despite our schools. When will our schools change? Or will they simply suffer a slow death as children stop showing up?
