enGuage+20th+century..

Should be ready to go! -Lisa (Don't forget to sign in to edit and then, SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!

(from Roger) Okay. Since I was at the tail end of the earlier entries, I'll try to start this one off. I had a number of reactions to this article. One of them is the ongoing thought that this is all well and good for the kids who have an environment that supports education at home, their own computers (or close to it), and parents who coach them along the way. I'm not sure exactly how the more "self-directed" approaches impact on those who have other priorities pressing in on them that are higher on Maslow's hierarchy, such as food, home responsibilities, survival, and the like. It seems to me that while this "more modern" approach can work for some of these kids, that many of them need a lot of energy & love & exposure to new ideas that comes from a more directive approach. At some point in the education process both need to be incorporated, but I view these changes as a needed SHIFT, not a flying leap, which seems to be how they are presented at times. On the other hand, I know that some things change better through revolution than evolution, so I guess I need to consider that. Anyway, that's enough for my rant. It's not really on the topic we're supposed to be addressing (or perhaps only on the last question), which is more about how our school/team's strengths and weaknesses vis-a-vis this set of skills.

So ... the "Inventive Thinking" category contains many things in which I, and I believe a lot of us, put a great deal of stock. While I don't know that I (we) always attain excellence in this area, we certainly subscribe to it, and hold it up as something which we cherish. I know, however, that I need to keep pushing myself in this regard so as to not become complacent.

I also think we work well with the "Effective Communication" skills, offering more discussion of and exposure to the internet, for instance, than many schools where the solution is a "filter", not the development of good judgment. This is a luxury we have, and I appreciate it. Within the write-up about interpersonal skills, it occurs to me that the idea of being able to read and manage others' emotions ... should probably include doing so on-line, as we've been told that you can develop that sense and skill, just as was done with the telephone.

As I look at "Digital-age Literacy", I'm not as certain. It's such a huge category, and it's really hard to keep up. I think at some point we would be well-served to figure out how to use (think judo) some of the technologies/lifestyle issues to help with education, as opposed to resist them (think 1960's-70's, and what the "adults" resisted that might have been better encouraged and developed.). That is not to minimize important ethical and developmental discussions as to when & how things are used. It's just that I've never really been one for censorship, preferring to sit with a younger person as they seek to process complex issues and elements of our culture, as opposed to preventing exposure. (I do know that one does not preclude the other.)

And then there's the "High Productivity" category. I think that there are many things we do that support the specific skills in this category, but the category name gives me no small concern. Yes, we need to be "productive", but this to me has a potential strong pull for only looking at productivity in measurable outcomes (profit, scores, speed, and other quantifiable things). While these are important, there are a lot of less measurable qualitative things which I believe are quite valuable, including process issues, things which come forth only after longer consideration, and the impact on one's system/self/environment of meta-experience. Phew! I'm done. (And my hand hurts, so I'm quitting.) But hopefully this will give something for us to bounce off of and get this flippin' project done. Now if only I remember to save...

﻿ ﻿Many thoughts and questions arose while reading over the Literacy skills that students will need to acquire to be a successful learner in the 21st century. We introduce concepts to children in Early Childhood programs in order to spark their curiosity and start a foundation for new skills to be built upon. I think that the each literacy could be introduced in isolation and used to bridge to another literacy skill. Could these new skills actually help students with learning differences? My first though was not to have another item to 'fill' a students brain. However, by tapping into this new language, we might be opening up a child for success in a different learning environment. Again, teachers need to educate themselves on these new literacy skills in order to fully pass on the correct and important knowledge onto their students. More to come.... Erica

﻿Here comes the pink lady. In reference to Erica's comment above about learning differences, one of the past school projects I looked through was that of The Hill School. One of their goals was to introduce their faculty to the way different technologies can help students with different learning styles develop. In putting lesson plans and excellent articles on their school Ning, they were reaching out to faculty to try new ways of presenting material for the benefit of some who were not being reached in the former teaching style.

On the opening page of the enGauge article, it says students need to acquire different, evolving skill sets to cope and thrive in this changing society. All skill sets evolve over time. This 21st century skill stuff, although going at a faster pace, is like former centuries or time periods in that coping skills will evolve over time to adjust to new ways of life. It would seem a misfortune to give students a smattering of skills in all the digital technologies 'to manage information' when what people have always needed and will continue to need is a deeper connectedness to the meaning of life, and to each other. So there is a toss up between engaging with a real live person and engaging online (in an infinite variety of ways) with others to share. Yes, the possibilities are vast online, but there needs to be an awareness of connecting with another human outside of technology too.

In the Effective Communication area, I found it interesting that Responsibility is listed twice--once for Personal and once for Social and Civic. Greater emphasis will be on the students to care and learn about ethical and legal issues, to use technology for the good of people and places (environment) and democracy. I'm not sure that students of the past have given so much thought to these matters. It brings up the whole idea of Rights & Responsibilities. Yes, you have the right to express yourself online...and yes, you have the responsibility to be sure that it is done in a way that does harm to no one, no living thing. Yes, you have the right to flirt with somone else, and you also have the responsibility to know when to draw the line and NOT say something that could be seen as harassment, or unsafe. All this requires a lot of taking on another person's perspective.

Learning more and more...Laura

Hi! Well, Laura & I have discovered a blip with Wiki...she and I were both editing this page at the exact same time last night...she got a message about waiting for me or something. I saw something quick that said "Ltaylor is typing" but didn't pay much attention. However, now I see that what I typed in has not been added...will try to find in cyberspace though, honestly, it was pretty late & I don't think mine was very well thought out or particularly well-written so I'm glad that Laura's got on instead of mine! --Lisa

FOUND IT... just but don't ask me how :)

Hi...I probably put this off too long as another weekend is quickly winding down...despite the extra hour. Anyway, Roger started off with one of my main reactions to the "purple boxes;" that we are kind of expected to assume that all kids have/use this technology. His comment about shift vs. flying leap also resonated. I'm still struggling with my resistance to zooming ahead...how much is a true desire to really investigate how all of this fits in with MPFS philosophy/Quaker testimonies and how much is fear of new things and a concern of getting personally overwhelmed? That said, it is certainly true that the train has definitely left the station in terms of technology usage at school and we've all acknowledged that we will need to help kids to negotiate & make smart choices. I think Erica is very correct that there are at least some children (learning differences or not) who will end up benefitting from a whole new approach. The trick, I guess, is to make sure that all of the kids do not miss out on (or skip too fast over?) some of the basics. Now I am very curious as to what some schools' projects have been and if there are any addressing these issues. I will go look and maybe respond more later. --Lisa = = =H ere's what I found in the help section of Wikispaces. I don't fully grasp it, but... = =I was editing page at the same time as someone else and some changes were lost. Do you have any advice?= If two people edit the same page at the same time, we will keep track of both sets of changes. You will be notified if someone else is editing the page at the same time as you are. If there are no conflicts in the changes, both sets of edits will be seamlessly merged into the page. If the changes do conflict, the following will happen:
 * 1) When the first user saves his changes, the second user will receive a notification of this and will be able to view the changes.
 * 2) The second user can view the changes to remove the conflict if she chooses.
 * 3) If there is still a conflict when the second user saves the page, she will be notified that she is about to overwrite the first user's changes. She will have the option to continue or cancel.

If either set of edits is incorrectly overwritten, you can find your work or revert to an earlier version of the page on the **History** tab. If you still have problems, email us at help@wikispaces.com. Include your username and the address of the page that's giving you trouble in your email.

Thanks, Roger...I think I was in the "history" tab when I found my comments to copy over.

Everyone, how did the afternoon webinar go?? --Lisa