Summary of ideas from the 21st century skills document:

I could really relate to the statement "Children are native to cyberspace and we, as adults, are immigrants." I feel more like a foreigner most of the time! I don't learn or gain information in the same way my students do, so to teach them a method I am not familiar with is a challenge. Worth the effort, definately, but a challenge.

I also think it is the adults who will need to help the students use this media in a responsible way and understand some of the consequences of improper use. They are capable of using the technology, however, their brains are still underdeveloped when it comes to judgment.

I notice going through the report that most of the data is from 2002 or before. Because our technology is growing expontenially, this seems a bit dated! Weird, isn't it! I am quite sure that by the time our school system catches up to creating curriculum and assessments to meet the 21st century learner, that the methods will be outdated once again. It reminds me of the ships they build in the Navy. By the time the ship is finished (about 10 years) the instrumentation needs to be pulled out and replaced with current technology and the old instruments were not ever used!

We have no choice - we must do what we can to prepare the students to become "global" citizens to the best of our ability. It is what we were hired to do.

In comparing this document with the audio from Ken Kay, this doc. has a lot more specific objectives in each of the major disciplines. Ken Kay's data seemed to reflect a need to cover some basic skills of technology that are used through out all subject matters. It takes such a long time to develop national standards that are so specific that as I said earlier, they are obsolete before we can even implement them.

I paid closer attention to the Science literacies. They are similar to the National Standards for Science that really don't cover a great deal of technology issues.

I agreed with the statement "As technology becomes more prevalent in our every day lives, cognitive skills become increasingly critical. In effect, because technology makes the simple tasks easier, it places a greater burden on higher-level skills." I do think we need to encourage our students to thinks at the highest level possible that their physiological and psychological development can allow. We need to keep in mind that not all students develop these skills at the same rate and thus aren't capable of the same cognitive abilities.

Some of the skills that were listed in the document are similar to those listed in the audio, they were more defined and specific in the document.

I think our school is at the "activate" stage which is really pretty cool. I am anxious to get to the impact stage!