How Do We Engage Kids? By Understanding their Digital World

Due to Globalization, driven by modern

communications and other advances, workers in

virtually every sector must now face competitors

who live just a mouse-click away in Ireland,

Finland, China, India, or dozens of other nations

whose economies are growing.

This has been aptly referred to as the Death of Distance.

Source: Executive Summary, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, NAEIM

Work Harder to Get Smarter:

We need to change our thinking and our language from an ability model

to an effort model.

SouthernRegionalEducationBoard

The New Middle Summary• Jobs in the new middle require good

collaborators, leveragers, adapters, synthesizers, model builders, localizers, and personalizes; and these approaches require you to be able to learn how to learn, to bring curiosity and passion to your work, to play well with others, and to nurture your right brain skills.

What does this mean specifically for educators’ instructional practices?

Source: Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

PD Learning in a Digital World

• Gaming – is a social activity: they are often played in groups; kids engage in teaching each other how to play; kids have developed their own learning cultures; multimedia content and interaction have led to kids building learning communities around games

SOURCE: Digital-Mediated Experiences and Kids’ Informal Learning, Peter Lynn, UC Berkeley

PD Learning in a Digital World

• Social Relationships- organized by mobile phone, the Internet, kids are creating and sustaining new private social worlds through the use of messaging and blogging

SOURCE: Digital-Mediated Experiences and Kids’ Informal Learning, Peter Lynn, UC Berkeley

PD Learning in a Digital World

• Creativity - The encouragement of innovative participation in extending design and experience, or teaching cognitive skills through software and media design activities. Digital environments are enhancing the expression of kids’ imagination in a variety of new and unexpected ways.

SOURCE: Digital-Mediated Experiences and Kids’ Informal Learning, Peter Lynn, UC Berkeley

PD Learning in a Digital World

• Digital Divides – kids use instant messaging to reach out to peers to find support in doing homework and getting advice about problems from them. Place or social context may be very important in shaping disadvantaged kids’ experience of digital media, particularly access to public learning places outside of school.

SOURCE: Digital-Mediated Experiences and Kids’ Informal Learning, Peter Lynn, UC Berkeley

Key Practice:

Program of Study

HSTW

Have students complete a challenging program of study with an upgraded academic core and a concentration.

HSTW Recommended Academic Core for All Students

• Four credits in college-prep/honors EnglishStudents read 8-10 books a yearStudents write weeklyStudents complete at least one major research paper

• Four mathematics credits – Algebra I, geometry, Algebra II and above

• Three lab-based science credits at the college-prep level; four credits with a block schedule

• Three credits of social studies; four credits with a block schedule

• Mathematics and Science in the Senior Year

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Recommended ConcentrationsHSTW

• Mathematics and science concentration – four credits in each field, with at least one at the Advanced Placement level

• Humanities concentration – four credits each in college-prep level language arts and social studies, with at least one at the college level and four additional credits from foreign language, fine arts, journalism, debate, music, etc.

• Career/technical concentration – four credits in a planned sequence of courses within a broad career field – pre-engineering, health/medical science, etc.

12 Tips for Teachers in Preparing Students for the 21st Century

• Focus on scientific, mathematical, and technological literacies

• Focus on importance of information literacies

• Encourage cultural literacy and global awareness

• Assign group activities to advance teaming, collaboration, and interpersonal skills

• Present students with multifaceted, open ended activities to teach adaptability and the ability to manage complexity

• Allow curiosity, creativity, and risk taking in the classroom

• Push lessons one step further to reach higher-order thinking and to develop sound reasoning

SOURCE: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory enGauge 21st Century Skills

12 Tips for Teachers in Preparing Students for the 21st Century

• Make personal and society responsibility non-negotiable

• Communicate interactively with students, their parents, and colleagues. Use dialogue—not monologues

• Help students construct deadlines and work plans for activities so that they increase their ability to prioritize, plan, and manage for results

• Use real-world tools -- spreadsheets, calculators, personal organizers—effectively and model that use for students

• Have students combine use of real-world tools with skill development to create relevant, high-quality products

SOURCE: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory enGauge 21st Century Skills

21st Century Content

Information and Communication Skills– Analyzing, accessing, managing,

integrating, evaluating and creating information in a variety of forms and media. Understanding the role of media in society

– Understanding, managing and creating effective oral, written and multimedia communication in a variety of forms and contexts

SOURCE: Learning for the 21st Century: Partnership for 21st Century Skills

21st Century ContentThinking and Problem-Solving Skills

– Exercising sound reasoning in understanding and making complex choices, understanding the interconnections among systems

– Ability to frame, analyze and solve problems

– Developing, implementing and communicating new ideas to others, staying open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives

SOURCE: Learning for the 21st Century: Partnership for 21st Century Skills

21st Century Content

Interpersonal and Self-Directional Skills– Teamwork and

leadership– Self-Direction– Accountability and

Adaptability– Social Responsibility

SOURCE: Learning for the 21st Century: Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The Right Brain Stuff: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age

• The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis

• The right hemisphere takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis

• Technology and other countries can and will do left brain work cheaper

• In the U.S. We must do right brain work better

Source: Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

Left to Right Brain Workforce

Occupation Left Brain Right Brain

Computer Programming

Does basic coding

Can design entire systems

Banking Transaction based

Masters of the art of the deal

Accountants Basic book keeping/taxes

Serve as life planners

Source: Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

HSTWKey Practice:Career/Technical Studies

Provide more students access to intellectually challenging career/technical studies in high-demand fields that emphasize the higher-level mathematics, science, literacy and problem-solving skills needed in the workplace and in further education.

School leaders need to: • Develop standards, conditions and agreements for

awarding postsecondary credit to high school students.• Require senior projects with academic, technical and

performance standards.• Provide students opportunities to work toward a

recognized employer certification.

Purpose of High School Career/technical Studies

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• Prepare students for work and further study

• Advance technical literacy

– Understand technical concepts

– Read and comprehend technical materials

• Advance technical numeracy

– Apply mathematics problems within chosen field

– Solve problems and think critically

Strategies to Strengthen C/T Courses

• Design Course Syllabi for every C/T course• Emphasize literacy, numeracy, science and

technology in all C/T classrooms through rigorous assignments, projects and homework.

• Create C/T assessments (interim and end-of course) that reflect industry standards and require use of literacy and numeracy skills

• Get input from local business and industry partners to strengthen applications of career/tech content.

• Require career-focused senior project

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HSTWDifferent Ways to Organize High School Career/technical Studies

• Using a career major concept• Organizing the high school into small learning

communities around career-based themes• Organizing the high school around broad career

pathways• Planning programs of academic and

career/technical studies that are linked to postsecondary studies

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Enable students and their parents to choose

from programs that integrate challenging high

schools studies and work-based learning and

are planned by educators, employers and

students.

Key Practice:Work-based Learning

What Makes a Quality WBL Program?

Each student has:

• Classroom and work-site assignments that are correlated to career field

• Work-site experiences connected to career goals

• A work-site mentor

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Work-based Learning OpportunitiesHSTW

• Job Shadowing

• Service Learning

• Co-op

• Internships

• Youth Apprenticeship

Quality WBL Programs Have High Expectations for Students

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They require students to:• Attend a regular class and/or

seminar• Plan experiences with work-site

employer and teacher• Keep a journal of experiences• Develop a career portfolio

HSTW Transition Goals

• Have all students leave high school with postsecondary credit or having met standards for postsecondary studies to avoid remedial courses.

• Work in the middle grades to increase annually the percentages of students entering high school prepared to succeed in college-preparatory courses.

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HSTW

Five Focus Teams (included in overall school improvement team):

1. Curriculum leadership team2. Professional development leadership

team3. Guidance and public information

leadership team4. Transitions leadership team5. Evaluation leadership team

Organizing Teams for Continuous Planning and Implementation

Successful 21st Century Professional Development Programs:

• Ensure teachers understand the importance of 21st Century skills and how to integrate them into daily instruction

• Enable collaboration among all participants• Allow teachers, principals, and students to

construct their own learning communities• Tap expertise within a school or district through

team teaching, mentoring and coaching• Support educators in their role of facilitators of

learning• Use 21st Century tools

SOURCE: Learning for the 21st Century: Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Contact Information

Don Washburn, Curriculum Consultant and

High Schools That Work Consultant

South Central Ohio ESC

411 Court Street Room 107

Phone (740) 354-0263

Email dwashburn@scoesc.org