I Have a SmartBoard, So Now What!?

For the past eight weeks my life has consisted of quite a few things, ranging from training for a marathon every morning at 4:45 to working countless hours in my unfinished (but getting closer to finished) basement at 5:00 most evenings in order to prepare for the arrival of my first child sometime around early May. In addition to this, I have also tried to maintain a somewhat social life with my wife, all while enhancing my own classroom using several new tools and gadgets that I have learned about in my most recent Walden University class, The Impact of Technology on Education.

On many of my early morning runs, I have found myself wondering, “Self…do you think you got any new feeds from Packers News in your Google Reader account today?” To which I reply, “Of course you did! You live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. There is always news to report on the Green Bay Packers.” While editing my students’ classroom blog posts, I find myself sitting back and enjoying the simple, but humorous spin they put on what I see as a “regular” day in room B223. Most recently, my students and I felt a sense of accomplishment in creating and editing our (first) wiki, Glenbrook’s Book Shelf. We saw a need to share books we read with other fifth graders, and thought a wiki was a great medium to do so.

The past several weeks have opened my eyes to more than just RSS feeds, blogging, and wikis. After creating my first podcast, which you can listen to in my previous blog post, I am confident that Audacity is a great tool for students to use in more ways than for just podcasting. While I have yet to fully embrace Audacity in my classroom, I can see my students recording an excerpt from a book they read, and then transfer it to their wiki page about the same book, so that listeners can get a glimpse of what the book is about. I also know that my students would love the idea of creating their very own radio show, about topics that are interesting to them.

The Impact of Technology on Education has began to answer one of my biggest questions, from the beginning of the school year, “I have a Smart Board, but what else can I do that might keep my students coming back to school and wanting more, and more, and more!?” The answer, in short is that I had to explore the Read/Write Web on a personal level, and then give my students the exact same opportunities. Over the past eight weeks, my students have received access to websites like: Gaggle, PB Works, Edmodo, Blogger, and much more! These opportunities are teaching them how to be responsible, how to treat others with respect, and also internet safety. It is an opportunity for me to teach them about something that perhaps their parents are not as comfortable or knowledgeable with.

Over the next several years, I have big aspirations for myself, as far as what it means to be a teacher who integrates technology into the classroom effectively. One goal I have for myself is to figure out ways to take my Smart Board to the “next level” with my students. While I personally do not believe that a Smart Board is “a different tool, used in the same way,” it is clear that others may disagree. In taking my Smart Board knowledge to the next level, I want to prove that there is WAY more to an interactive whiteboard than just writing on it and having digital media literally at your fingertips (which no whiteboard or chalk board is able to do).

Another goal I have for myself is to continue seeking out new ways that technology can be used in the classroom. Blogging and updating/editing a classroom wiki with my students will now be a regular part of my daily classroom routine, but what about all the other millions of options out there? How can I make those options accessible to my students, in ways that they will be able to leave my room with a knowledge base that will allow them to function in the real, 21st century, world?

As I find myself racing towards the end of another masters course, with the goal of achieving a technology related degree, I often find myself thinking about a lot of the new ideas that authors, speakers, and teachers have recently pumped into my brain (even at 4:45 AM). These thoughts all come back to one of my first masters courses, where a majority of the eight weeks was spent analyzing what it meant to be an effective teacher in the 21st century. I understand that I have to be a 21st Century Skills activist in my profession. I know that kids learn differently in my fifth grade classroom, than I did 17 years ago when I sat in similar desks. I know that the tools and resources are at my fingertips, but it is just a matter of whether or not I have the skills and guts to pursue and use them. In knowing these critical elements of teaching to the “Digital Natives,” I know I am ready to apply my knowledge in an effort to become a more effective educator, and a leader among my peers.

Route 21

Napoleon Dynamite knows that skills are important. "Girls only want guys who have great skills, like numb-chuck skills, bow hunting skills, and computer hacking skills." Perhaps if Napoleon were to revisited the issue of skills today, he might find out that in order to survive in the highly competitive 21st century, he he may need to rethink his priorities.

If you are like Napoleon Dynamite, then it is time for you to revisit what "skills" are important in allowing your students to succeed future jobs. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and check out The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. So many of us find ourselves wanting to become more aware of how we can more effectively teach the "digital natives" that come into our classrooms each day, but are often left wondering how to do so, and most often, where are the resources?

This website is a great place to begin, as it is an excellent resource for anyone wondering what 21st century skills are. By simply studying the framework for 21st century skills, one will quickly find out that 21st century learning is not just about blogs, wikis, and podcasts, but also about career and life skills, learning and innovation skills, and of course core subject skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website also offers a resource to its users, called Route 21. From the Route 21 page, one is able access all types of helpful information, on varying levels of subject matter. So if you are interested in figuring finding a resource in a particular standard, Route 21 may be able to help you out. Or, if you were hoping to increase your students knowledge in one of the specific skills areas, you can narrow down your search to match your skill. You can also find out what your state is doing (or not doing) to create 21st century thinkers. This page offers you all sorts of information, in hopes of giving you some of the resources that perhaps you don't already have.

My school district uses The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website as a starting point for teachers wondering how to reach the millennial students in our classrooms. We especially focus on the framework for teaching, because we strongly feel that these are the skills our students will have to have to be able to compete for jobs in the 21st century. In one of our several committees dedicated to better serving the technological needs of our students, we often refer to the 21st century framework as a starting point for what we should do next.

Because my school district follows the suggested framework, students in our district will hopefully leave high school feeling prepared for the next stage of their life. Several years ago we began using the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, which many parents had a hard time dealing with, because of the many challenges that each unit touches on. However, now that several of the students who were the pilots or pioneers of the system are in high school, the district is seeing high gains in student retention and ability in math classes. In my opinion, the same will be said of students, who are currently using 21st century skills in the classroom. These students are going to gain experiences that will allow them to compete in the competitive real world that awaits them.

Napoleon Dynamite's skills may get him the girls; however, they are not likely to prepare him for the 21st century, where the job market is constantly changing, and increasingly getting more competitive. If his teachers had access to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website, perhaps his skills list would have been different?