[DD] - "21st Century Workforce Readiness" by 21st Century Leading and Learning Conference

"21st Century Workforce Readiness" by 21st Century Leading and Learning Conference

In 2009, leaders in education, business, and other organization held the 21st Century Leading and Learning Conference.

They found that "students need to have the tie in - that what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose."  We have seen, in the previous articles, that this is not the case since we are not integrating the technological tools and skills that these students use on a day-to-day basis into our curriculum and classrooms.

They believe that our schools need to inventory technological skills and identify gaps.  We should also have the students teach the teachers ho to use technology and how they envision these tolls being used in the classroom.  THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING POINT.  In the previous articles, we found that there is now a digital divide between students and their teachers.  Many teachers do not know how to use these tools and do not want to relinquish the control of their classroom, so they do not integrate them.  This point of having the students become the teachers for a moment is a very interesting, and not often tested out, point.

Some issues mentioned in the notes from the conference are that many schools have money issues and cannot afford to purchase technology.  They also believe we are not teaching our students to develop critical thinking skills and we are also not tapping into the knowledge base of students regarding technology.  Another issue that was mentioned was student home-life.  Many students do not have the support or tools at home in order to develop the skills necessary for workforce readiness.

This conference hit on many of the digital divide topics mentioned before, such as how not having access at home can affect student success in school and after graduation, and the new digital divide between student and teacher and how this is a barrier that is affecting our students' ability to ready for the technological workforce after graduation.

Click here for access to the notes from the conference.