Becoming a 21st Century Teacher

Imagine you are designing the ultimate school for the 21st century.

Which technology tools will have the greatest impact on teaching and learning and why?


Demographics of US Education

To understand the nature of education and the roles of technology, it is important to understand the changing demographics of American society.

National Center for Education Statistics


"No longer are children and young people only or even mainly divided by those with or without access, though ‘access’ is a moving target in terms of speed, location, quality and support, and inequalities in access do persist. Increasingly, children and young people are divided into those for whom the Internet is an increasingly rich, diverse, engaging and stimulating resource of growing importance in their lives and those for whom it remains a narrow, unengaging, if occasionally useful, resource of rather less significance."

(Sonia Livingstone & Magdalena Bober, 2004, p. 12)"

Highlights:

  • 50.7 million students attend public elementary and secondary schools
  • White students will account for 24.4 million. The remaining 26.3 million are composed of
    • 8 million Black students,
    • 13.6 million Hispanic students,
    • 2.8 million Asian/Pacific Islander students,
    • 0.5 million American Indian/Alaska Native students,
    • 1.5 million students of Two or more races.
  • The percentage of students who are White is expected to continue declining as the enrollments of Hispanics, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and students of Two or more races increase through at least fall 2026, the last year for which projections are available.

In Fall 2014, Latino, African American and Asian students became a majority of students (50.3%) in the nation's public schools.

Low-Income Students Now a Majority in the Nation's Public Schools from the Southern Education Foundation, 2015

  • In 40 of the 50 states, low income students comprised no less than 40 percent of all public schoolchildren.
  • In 21 states, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches were a majority of the students in 2013.
  • Most of the states with a majority of low income students are found in the South and the West.
    • Mississippi led the nation with the most low-income students: ­71 percent, almost three out of every four public school children in Mississippi.
    • The nation’s second-most low income students was found in New Mexico, 68 percent of all public school students in 2013.

Rural Students: Technology, Coursework and Extracurricular Activities, ACT Center for Equity in Learning (2019)


The Alpha Generation

          • Generation Alpha are children born from 2010 to 2025

Meet Alpha: The Next Generation, The New York Times (September 19, 2015)

Generation Alpha: The Children of the Millennial, Interesting Engineering (December 18, 2018)


What is 21st Century Education? from 21st century schools.

21st Century Fluency Project, a website for educators developed in New Zealand

The History of Technology in Education

The Learning Machines The New York Times (September 10, 2010).

Writing and Discussion Activity: Defining 21st-Century Learning

How do you know 21st Century teaching and learning when you see it?

        • Is it a habit?
        • A skill set?
        • A mindset?
        • Or is it simply the employment of a tool set?

As you begin building your skills and competencies as a teacher, so too will you build a definition of 21 Century learning and teaching.

Do You Teach with a Paper-Based Mindset?

The National Technology Education Plan

Re-Imagining the Role of Technology in Education, the National Education Technology Plan offers a policy vision for technology in schools.

Internet Facts and Figures

The Size of the World Wide Web (the Internet)

3.8 Billion Users in 2018

More than 45 percent of the world's population are accessing the Internet

  • 1.3 billion websites in 2018
        • How large is a billion? One billion seconds = 32 years

Link here for the First Website, published August 6, 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee

Professional Learning Networks

Michael Keany, School Leadership Forum