21st century learning framework and comprehensive classroom technology planning

COMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

Education

Part One ~ Mission Statement

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) contends that 21st century learning, no matter where it takes place, should accomplish a few primary objectives and a series of secondary objectives. (2012, www.p21.org) P21 knows that the use of technology cannot be ignored and that the use of technology within the classroom should be interactive as well as educational. The four primary objectives 21st century learning should achieve are: Core Subject & 21st Century Themes; Learning and Innovation Skills; Information, Media & Technology Skills; and Life & Career Skills. (2012, www.p21.org)

These objectives honor that some elements of education should not change. Core subjects are still critical elements of formal education. The objectives acknowledge that the world is a different landscape, socially, culturally, economically, and technologically; therefore, the young generations should be educated in 21st century themes. The technology that has changed the world stemmed from the curious and innovative nature of humanity. Therefore it follows that to navigate through the consequences of technology as well as continue the tradition of innovation by using the technology to nurture and expand upon the innovation skills and the learning abilities of the students.

Thanks to the emergence of a new set of technological tools, we can offer students a more authentic learning experience based on experimentation and action. With the help of the Internet and a variety of communication, visualization, and simulation technologies, large numbers of undergraduates can begin to reconstruct the past, observe phenomena using remote instruments, and make valuable connections with mentors around the world. (Lombardi, 2007,-Page 2)

Educators can use technology in the classroom environment to improve learning. Information and media literacy are all the more prominent issues in 21st century learning and education. There is an abundance of information available to students and education professionals, yet there is a disproportionate ability to navigate through the deluge of information as well as effectively classify quality information. This is another area in which technology assists in learning in the 21st century. This is the mission and the vision for the use of technology in my Comprehensive Classroom Technology Plan.

Part Two ~ Communication Plan

My CCTP would include many elements. I would have a classroom website where I can post students' works, lesson plans, pictures and video of learning, and other classroom artifacts. I would provide a classroom email address so that parents, guardians, and relevant members of the community can contact the educators. This email address may also be used for the students to communicate with students from other cities, states, and countries. Everything that I would post online, I would make sure there were paper copies as I would not want inevitable technical difficulties cannot impede the learning process. Technology supports education; education's existence is not contingent on technology.

I would want to develop a mobile application that connects or relates to the classroom website. Mobile technology is a 21st theme and reality. Many students have mobile devices and many schools are moving toward teaching from mobile devices, such as the innovative programs in high schools in China where in all students and teachers have iPads. The class website would include blogs by the teacher and by the students. We could link to other classes, other educators, other schools, and members of the community that are directly relevant to the curricula and interests of the students. The use and design of educational games with another technological aspect of my CCTP. Overall, the plan for the CCTP is for technology to be a tool in education, not to be the sole content of means of education.

My plan additionally integrates the themes and 21st century objectives from P21. Perspectives regarding the classroom setting and the ways in which technology enriches the classroom have changed with the turn of the 21st century. As the second decade of the 21st century persists, leading professionals and experts such fields as education, communication, and information technology offer more insight and imagination as to how technology enriches and improves the quality of education for the youth.

My CCTP demands that technology, and technology specified for education is fundamentally interactive. Interactivity is a great facet of the 21st century and 21st century technology. When educators utilize technology in the classroom that is fundamentally interactive, the students engage with each other, the curriculum content, the teacher, the environment, and with their education on much deeper, more profound, and meaningful levels. Connection to the curriculum makes for authentic forms of experiential learning:

Connection-building will require new forms of authentic learning -- forms that cut across disciplines and bring students into meaningful contact with the future employers, customers, clients, and colleagues who will have the greatest stake in their success. Without a doubt, technology will play an essential supporting role. (Lombardi, 2007,-Page 2)

My CCTP necessitates that the technology in the classroom makes learning more social fostering independence as well as interdependency and interactivity with one's community in the physical world and the virtual world. With the integration of a Lombardian perspective in the classroom, technology will achieve the objectives set out by P21. Use of the technology as Lombardi suggests provides education in core concepts as well as 21st century themes such as virtual culture, networking, and research. Lombardi argues:

With access to online research communities, learners are able to gain a deeper sense of a discipline as a special "culture" shaped by specific ways of seeing and interpreting the world. They begin to grasp the subtle, interpersonal, and unwritten knowledge that members in a community of practice use (often unconsciously) on a daily basis. Learning becomes as much social as cognitive, as much concrete as abstract, and becomes intertwined with judgment and exploration, just as it is in an actual workplace. (2007,-Page 2)

My Comprehensive Classroom Technology Plan is to seamlessly integrate as many facets of the curriculum as possible. The CCTP is to provide multiple technological outlets for both the educator and the student to enrich, deepen, and expand learning related to content covered in the curriculum as well as ideas of personal interest or that were inspired from the curriculum. The vision of the CCTP is for students to develop media and information literacy skills in order to enrich the education they already retain as well as develop these skills as a means to learn more and in different ways than previously available. The vision of the CCTP also includes that the technological skills and the other skills developed as a result of participation in my CCTP is that these skills remain with the students throughout their education, their careers, and possibly their lives. The vision is the skills learned as a result of the CCTP change the lives of the students for the better and for the long-term.