Happy Halloween, everyone!
I ran across a good article in eSchool News that can bring some thought-provoking discussion to Certiblog. The article cites a recent survey of parents in "Learning in the 21st Century: Parents' Perspectives, Parents' Priorities" that concludes a disconnect exists between parents and educators as to how well U.S. education is bringing 21st Century Skills into the classroom.
Said one parent in the story:
"I think it is essential that our schools provide opportunities for students to
use a wide range of new technologies in the classroom, and that the teachers are
well trained in how to use technology to increase student achievement."
While I agree in principle that technology integration in education needs to be better, I think focusing on the latest "whiz-bang" gadget is the wrong approach.
There are really two levels of learning that needs to happen for students to build stronger real-world technology skills:
- You have to know how to use relevant digital tools.
- You have to know how to use them to achieve a certain outcome.
For example, most students could open and save a Word document, but how well can they use it to create a report with tables, charts, graphics, and footnotes? And what if the situation requires that they don't use Word at all but another application altogether?
Certiport has been been doing digital literacy with Certiport IC³ for years. IC³ constitutes the foundation that's required for a knowledge of how to apply those skills. You can't have the critical application of skills without the base.
Many of you already use IC³ to develop those foundational digital literacy skills. "What about the next piece," you ask? Ah, now that's a discussion for next week.
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