It's NOT the TECHNOLOGY...
It’s the Learning!! - said over and over again… but the fact that technology purchases are emphasized rather than changing the classroom learning culture in many major projects around the world means that this message is not getting out (or big business has a much larger voice than ours).
Do we really believe it’s the learning and not the technology? Can there be strides into 21st Century skills without the technology?
In the end, whether it’s called 21st Century Learning, Education for the Knowledge Economy, Learning 2.0, etc, …Do the results come down to the learning and not the technology?
Take away the technology from such technology-advanced teachers as xx, xx, xx, xx, xx, etc., will the good learning stop? No! These people are good teachers first.

You’ve also heard – the technology should just fade into the background. Well in Limited Technology & Connectivity (LT/C) classrooms – IT has!! The technology is barely there at all!! So how can we have dynamic learning without the technology? And more importantly, how do we maintain the balance of driving towards a technology/connectivity rich classroom environment while emphasizing the educational gains which come from a pedagogically-strong teacher, who is aware of a student’s 21st Century Learning Needs?

What’s “in-between” the Digital Divide?

If the digital divide has good connectivity and ubiquitous technology on the one side and the opposite on the other… I prefer to think that the middle is made up of:
· An understanding of process
· Good policies to affect change
· Independent learners
· Habits of the Mind
· 21st Century Skills
All the above is needed to reach the otherside… oh ya, and some technology!


A Project about "Conversations as an Agent of Change"

Possible Solutions?

What powerful approaches can we suggest for technology limited and connection-poor school boards to leverage what is known about teacher training, 21st Century Skill Development, and Effective Technology Integration?
Teacher training ideas to support 21st Century learning in tech-limited/connection poor classrooms.
Work with the policy makers to change the national assessment strategies from focussing on lower level thinking skills such as fact memorization and ???? to focussing on assessments of abilities to apply higher order thinking. This means that process will be important and reviewed as part of ‘assessment for learning’.

The “UnWorkshop” for 21st Century Pedagogies
An Embedded Professional Learning Approach
Technology strategies:
One Laptop Per Teacher
Effective 21st Century Teaching Methodologies in the One-Computer Classroom.

One Place to Start?

Project Based Learning (PBL)
a strong contender for the best teaching methodology that has the power to provide the strongest leverage for 21st Century Learning in the classroom. Can you think of others?
Try doing PBL in a classroom that has limited connectivity and technology – E A S Y !!! But what pre-requisites are required of the teachers/administrators/school districts?
In classrooms and school boards/districts that focus assessment on lower-order thinking, PBL will forever be relegated to the ‘extra-curricular’ realm and never an integral part of the curriculum.

Not an In-Classroom Problem, only…

Do the assessments and education policies reflect 21st Century Skills?
Are teacher promotions and assessments tied to their ability to produce 21st Century learners?

Why Focus on ‘Soft-Skills’?
Why not more technology, more effectively?

I hope I am wrong but I fear it may take another 5-10 years to get technology more integrated deep into some of the school systems of the developing world.
In the mean time, there is much that can be done as preparatory steps!
Consider the following scenarios:

8 Essential Learning Functions

Engage – 6 Essential Conditions

High Performance Learning

Employability Skills

Some of the Discussion Topics for Virtual Meetings and Discussion Boards

How will acquiring 21st Century Skills affect the students attending LT/C schools? Are there more important things to focus on?
If assessments in much of the developing world are typically based on lower-order thinking such as knowledge and facts, how do teachers justify spending valuable classroom time on higher order and 21st Century skills.
If teachers in many parts of the developing world are assessed by their ability to complete the content in their supplied textbook, what incentive is there to be innovative in the classroom?
Employers ask for hard skills “Cisco Certification” – Are HR practices to blame for the focus on hard skills ……
“It’s not the technology, it’s the learning” Discuss the validity of this statement in your classroom
What types of professional learning would be best suited to preparing teachers for the inclusion of technologies and greater connectivity
What classroom activities would help students prepare for a future computer lab in their school?
What classroom situations or teacher skills are good prerequisites for successful adoption of future classroom technologies and internet access for educational purposes?s
Please add any additional topics that we should discuss in this project