WCCS Update

Sometimes when we hear the term “21st Century Learning” we think of some futuristic learning environment or workplace that is unfamiliar to us.  Guess again!  The “21st Century Learning Environment” is here, in our businesses and more and more in our classrooms as we embrace change.  It is not an anomaly.  It the norm! 

This past school year I have had the opportunity to visit businesses, many of these manufacturing facilities.  What I have seen has amazed me.  The notion of a factory and what a factory worker does in 2009 is quite different than I might have imagined and I have to admit I was surprised at the sophistication.  Too often I feel we drive by a business, a workplace, and we make a judgment of what goes on there based upon a mindset of the past.  Let me tell you about the now!

Steel factories are filled with technology and workers engaged in tasks that require higher level thinking skills, analysis and application of knowledge.   Tool and metal shops also are infused with technology and precision is embedded within the task of each and every worker.  Bio-technical companies make items of great intricate detail that require research and testing, often done on site by teams.  The business environment of factories today are filled with carefully orchestrated activity and the employees work in tangent and with pride.  I have sincerely enjoyed these visits and talking to workers about what they do and the impact each team member has on the entire organization.  And, as I watched and as I listened, I became more and more convinced that education and business need to work more closely together so that our students can have the skills they will need for their futures.  Higher education, or education via training beyond grade 12 is no longer a nicety-it is a necessity!  Workers in our factories today are engaged in continuous learning and training and are eager to participate in it so that they continue to grow, as does their organization.  Schools are no different!

When we think of the concept of 21st Century Learning we think of analytical thinking, researching and evaluating information, collaboration, identifying and solving problems, producing real world work, creating lasting products, communicating to appropriate audiences, and authentic learning.  I would challenge that we could find all of the above in the businesses/factories that I have had the privilege to visit.  I would challenge that we need to find all of these skills in our classrooms as well. 

Often we hear the notion of the importance of the acquisition of the basics as a foundation in education.  I would not disagree.  But I do feel we can help our students acquire the basics and then move on to more critical thinking and the infusion of 21st Century Learning skills so that they are better prepared for the next steps of their lives, even as they progress from one grade level to the next.  Within the basics is the need to apply this knowledge, to use it for meaning.  When we take the time to recognize that to truly engage the learner in the classroom for long term sustainable learning, then we step up to the challenge of realizing that the 21st Century Learning skills are not for business alone, but should be part of the curriculum of our school environments. 

Business and education can and should work together.  As we work in education to prepare our students for the future, we must acknowledge that the future for them eventually will be the world of work.  And the world of work is a place of great interest!  Working with our students to provide a quality educational program that includes the basics but also the 21st Century Learning Skills must be our strategy if we ourselves are ready to step forward on behalf of our youth for a better tomorrow.  Let’s do it together!