Mrs Mamenko

Okay.  After thinking more on the topic, I don’t think there are any new skills – other than actual hands-on how to use the technology skills.  For example, students need to know how to use a computer, a mac, and a majority of the software.  However, these new ideas that are being toted as “skills” are areas of knowledge.  For example, on the p21.org website, they cite global awareness, economics, and civics as new skills that are students need to have.  What skills make global awareness new today as opposed to the past?  Yes, there is more information out there – but it comes down to you can be just as aware of Russia by reading a newspaper as you can a website.  It comes down to reading.  What we need to teach our students is the importance of being globally aware, taking an interest in international politics, and being knowledgeable about current events.  The same is true of economics.  The mechanics of economics are the same.  The basic principles haven’t changed; but, our students’ knowledge of the subject overtime has waned.  It is our duty as teachers to give our students the knowledge needed to function in a 21st century world by utilizing the skills of the 20th.

When one thinks of 21st Century Skills, computers come to mind. However, computers are not the end-all be-all of such skills. In light of today’s economic meltdown, economics, both national and international, is something that students NEED to know! In addition, global awareness is important to keep our students to becoming xenophobic (much like Stalin’s Russia). However, Sean raises a great point in his post 19 before 21 – students need to be able to read and write so they can utilize those skills.  Not only that but students need math skills to be able to understand the various equations involved in financial awareness.  Of course, students also need the computer skills needed for life beyond high school.  In Chelsea’s 21st Century Skills Debate, she innumerates on the new computer technology forced upon her at university.  We do not want our students to start out behind in college or when they enter the workforce, where computer research and presentation skills are a necessity.  Computers and global awareness are not going away!

I decided to go through a couple of online courses and tutorials:

Self-Scoring Google Quiz:

• I had previously played around with this a couple of classes ago.  I had hoped after watching the tutorial, I would find out how to make it automatically score (I think I misuderstood the word “self-scoring”).  Sadly, it still has to be graded by the teacher – unless you only want it to be one question long. 
• However, I do think it is a useful tool for homework.

MIT OpenCourseWare: Remixing Shakespeare

• I’m not saying that I know everything there is to know about Biology, but I wanted to learn about something new.  Remixing Shakespeare seemed like a fun class – and it was.  Basically, they went through how Shakespeare has been transformed on the stage and on the silver screen and how its always being rewritten for the audience.
• There were the occasional technological difficulties. 
•  The best was the clip from the silent Movie version of Othello – complete with the a horror music soundtrack, lower-than-B level acting, and boards with script.  If anyone needs a good laugh, check out minutes 15 – 18! 
• If I was a biology teacher, I would most likely assign a biology video for my students to view and write about.  I might have them include what they learn, the teaching style of the teacher, and whether it worked for them or not.  However, if we were doing a unit on the brain, I may let them choose any of the videos on there.  I would have them wrote what drew them to that video, what part of the brain leads to having a passion about something, and whether they were choosing with their frontal lobe or nucleus accumbens  
• However, one of the things that I would be cautious of is that before I could let them watch a video, I would need to preview it, which would take a lot of time. 

The above is a clip (0:46 – 2:30 min) from the movie Twilight, where Edward and Bella are studying mitosis.  I think this clip could be a great way to introduce the lesson and engage the students by reaching out to them on their level (specifically females, who are often underrepresented in the science classroom).  In addition, by having such an important biology topic in a hit movie, it might help the students find importance in it as well.