New Chapters

It is amazing to me how often I feel as if a new chapter is beginning.  I have finished my last class, taken my last exam and am now ready to be fully engaged in the dissertation process.  I read, I write and I continue to learn. The world is an amazing place.

This summer I will create a few online learning resources for the classes that I am teaching, finish the international online learning project that I have been privileged to be a part of, but mostly I will work on the last phase of this degree.  I start a new job in August, but I don't know that will be my last stop as for now it seems very temporary, just a stop along the way to where it is I truly belong professionally speaking. 

I began to pull apart some of the research I have been gathering and even though I thought I had changed direction it looks as though most of it will work for my research. Life is good. 

21st Century Learning Skills

So everyone talks about 21st Century Learning Skills, but do you have a clear definition of what it is or what looks like?  I sincerely believe that education must embrace the technological world that our children live in--we must incorporate email, wiki's, blogs, journal writing of all types, and social networking if we are going to truly have an educational environment that reaches the skills needed for the 21st Century.

I read blogs about what are core subjects...just one aspect of 21st Century Learning.  Everyone has their own agenda.  If I am an art teacher or a p.e. teacher then I want my subject to be a "core" subject.  If we embrace this dialog, we miss the bigger picture.  All curriculum, all content is "core".  Let's put an end to the discussion so we can begin to build the 21st Century Learning environment that our children so desperately need.