712+Group+Paper

As educators, everyday is filled with "what's" and "how's" of learning. We wonder what will we teach, what how will we assess, what sequence will we follow, or how soon is the bell going to ring. A question that we should be asking more often is "who?" Who are these students we teach? Who was this curriculum designed for? Who are we in the spectrum of education today? In this paper we will explore some of these unasked questions. We will look at who are our students today, who are the educators who are teaching them, and how can these two "who's" reach the same destination. Many of the educators today are lost in this modern world of face passed information. In contrast to our digital students, many teachers come from a time when information was sequenced in a linear, singular processing style focusing on creating students who were prepared for single-task jobs (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.2). They are use to being the producers of knowledge and in turn the students the consumers (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.13). Educators are often using instructional models developed in the 1960's and based on a factory focused society without question to where the process began and for what intent (Jukes and McCain, 2007, p.6). They are usually less visual and more text focused and are using delayed rewards and structured content-and-test environments (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.2). Often times educators have misconceptions that technology is being used, but the methods are outdated not reaching there full potential (Nagel, 2007, p.1). Teacher’s are also feeling a push from legislation to have curriculum focused on the ability to pass tests and meet standards within a given amount of time (Jukes and McCain, 2007, p.10). In order to allow the meeting of the future and the past, students and educators, we need to start with a shift in the role of educators. Teachers themselves need to change their fundamental way of thinking of themselves as the source of knowledge and instead be guiders and supports for the students to discover their own knowledge and test their own theories (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.12). This is a challenge as it shakes the foundation of how lessons are currently structured (Jukes and McCain, 2007, p.9). As Greg Whitby (2009) jokes, we are attempting to change in the very “DNA” of educators (video). Educators need to "catch up" to students in becoming familiar with the tools that are part of their students’ lives and the business world (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.7). Since the world changes at a rapid rate, we need to find was to teach students not just core material, but higher-order thinking skills and problem solving strategies to produce life-long learners who can apply previous knowledge to solve complex problems when they don't knew the answer (Partnership…, n.d., p.9-12). After all, Jukes and McCain (2008) remind us that “learning is not just about the product but also the process that took place to gain the understanding.” (p. 25). We need to allow students to fail and learn to be metacogantive and self-assessing in their actions (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.12, 27). We need to allow collaboration between students and their peers and with member of the community or are of study to prepare them for the global world awaiting them (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.24). Jukes and McCain (2008) report that students retain only 20% of what they hear after two weeks and 90% of what they teach others (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p. 19. This means collaboration and peer-to-peer work is all the more important. Evaluation should no longer be strictly about checking memorization, but helping both students and teachers evaluate the process of mastering concept and transferring knowledge (Jukes and McCain, 2008, p.27).  A key ways to meet these goals are using what are called 21st century skills and tools. These are a new set of focuses that allow students to learn not only core content but social skills like collaboration and information retrieval (Partnership…, n.d., p.9). It is also important that students are able to sift through the mountains of information available to them to determine what is credible and what is not.    …this is where I lost steam, hopefully someone else feels like writing about 21st Century skills and adding a closing. I already have the reference and title page done as well. 