Transcript

of the 21st Century Educator presentation

Slide 1: Welcome to the Transforming the 20th Century Teacher into a 21st Century
Educator presentation. My name is Chris Terranova. I will be your narrator and
guide through this presentation.

Much has been made of the need to transform our classrooms and teachers from the
20th century model to the 21st century model. But what does that really mean
and how do we get there?

Slide 2: When you have completed this presentation, you should be able to:

1. Define a 20th century teacher
2. Define a 21st century educator
3. Better understand the needs of the 21st Century Learner
4. And, learn some skills that will help you to transition from 20th century
teaching to 21st century educating

Slide 3: So what do we mean by a 20th century teacher? In a traditional or 20th
century classroom, the teacher is informally known as the Sage on the Stage or
the head of the instructional pyramid. The teacher is the keeper of the knowledge
and determines what the students will learn, how they will learn it, and at what
speed they should consume it. It typically relies heavily on memorization and rote
instruction.

Slide 4: In his book, Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge: Concept Map as
Facilitative tools in Schools and Corporations, Joseph Novak1 describes traditional
teaching as being concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning
environment. Power and responsibility are held by the teacher, and they play the
role of instructor (in the form of lectures) and decision maker (in regards to
curriculum content and specific outcomes). They regard students as having
knowledge holes that need to be filled with information. In short, the traditional
teacher views that it is the teacher that causes the learning to occur.

Slide 5: This type of teaching is not limited to just the classroom. Many companies,
including my own, which is in the business of education, still rely heavily on
having one person stand in the front of the room and recite information from a slide
deck for hours at a time. Essentially talking AT the people they are attempting to
teach how to, well teach.

Slide 6: Now that we have talked a bit about what traditional, or 20th century
teaching is, lets turn our attention to defining what we call 21st century educating.

1. 1 Novak, J. (1998) Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and


According to an article by Elizabeth Rich2 in Education Week Magazine, the term
21st century learning is used to refer to certain core competencies such as
collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates
believe schools need to help students thrive in todays world.

Slide 7: In other words, the teacher can no longer just stand in the front of the room
and lecture, recite and dictate. They must be able to adapt the lesson to each
student at their level, empower their students to teach themselves and others,
advocate for being creative, and begin to teach students how to think critically and
look beyond just memorizing the answers. They must also engage in, and better
understand, the digital tools students are using today.

Slide 8: Ive spoken quite a lot about the educator, but what about the student?
How have the needs of the student changed and how has this change impacted their
learning preferences? What do they need to learn today? And how in turn, is this
changing the definition of the classroom and teacher (be it in education or
business)?

Over the next few slides, we will review some of the requirements of a 21st century
student.

Slide 9: So what are some of the characteristics of a 21st Century learner?
Well, according to Dr. Sarah Eaton3, these are some of the key factors that define
todays learner;

1. They learn by doing not just being shown
2. They know where to go for information-these students dont know a world
without Google
3. They are collaborators and enjoy working in groups
4. They are more aware of the world around them
5. They are equal parts consumer and creator
6. They expect topics to be interconnected;
7. They Want to be connected in real time with others
8. They want a say in their education.

2 Rich, Elizabeth. "How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?" Education Week. N.p., 17 Jan. 2017. Web. 05
Feb. 2017. http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01panel.h04.html.

3 Eaton, Sarah Elaine. "21 Characteristics of 21st Century Learners." Literacy, Languages and Leadership.
N.p., 08 Jan. 2017. Web. 05 Feb. 2017. https://drsaraheaton.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/21st-century-
learners




 Slide 10: So far, we have discussed what a 20th century teacher is, as well as
what a 21st century educator is and why its important to todays learners.
But, what do you need to succeed in todays agile and transformative
classroom?

Over the next few slides, we will explore some of the tools and skills a 20th
century teacher will need to transform into a 21st century educator.


Slide 11: Skill 1Foundational understanding of technology. Today, most
teachers, even 20th century ones, can turn on a computer and use basic digital
tools. But simply converting your traditional model from a piece of paper to
a digital format does not mean you are now teaching to the new student. You
must understand the foundational use of technology, from smart phones, to
tablets, to apps like twitter and Facebook, or you cannot move yourself into
the world of todays learner.

Slide 12: Skill 1 Cont But should it be expected todays teacher must learn
these tactical skills on their own? The answer is No. We have spent a great
deal of money investing in fancy gadgets and tools for the classroom and
office, but as leaders, have we truly confirmed the teacher is equipped to use
them? And by using them, I dont mean simply turning them on. I mean truly
using them as a tool to help drive learning. We spend a great deal of time
training the teacher on the pedagogy and how to shift from basal learning to
critical thinking. While this is incredibly important, we are only teaching
them one side of the process. As we are shifting them to a new curriculum,
we are also shifting them to a new delivery method. The problem is we
spend very little time on the operational and foundational tools required to
deliver this new curriculum. As business and school leaders we must invest
time, money and effort to ensure the teacher understands all aspects of the
shift and not just one aspect of it. Otherwise, they fall back to what they
know and fall further behind their students on the curve.

Slide 13: Skill 2: Understanding Data and how to use it. Understanding data
is increasingly becoming the norm for teachers, schools and districts. Its
also becoming the norm for businesses.

Arne Duncan, former Secretary of Education4, stated the following: Our best
teachers today are using real time data in ways that would have been unimaginable
just five years ago. They need to know how well their students are performing. They
want to know exactly what they need to do to teach and how to teach it.

4 Duncan A. (2009b, June). Robust data gives us the roadmap to reform. Speech made at the fourth annual
IES Research Conference, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/06/06-
82009.html


But, unless we provide not just the data, but an understanding of the data and how
to use it effectively, it is just more information being shoved at todays teacher. It is
like drinking from a fire hose when you are thirsty. You may get a few sips, but you
might just drown in the process.
To eliminate this gap, we must make the data accessible, digestible and
understandable. Use of easy to access and decipher dashboards, self-service
training sites and I do, we do, you do models, can help ensure that teachers of all
skill levels can access the tools they need to learn how to understand the data.

We must also stop and look at the data itself and make sure we can answer the so
what question. Here is an example of the so what question. From her dashboard,
3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Jones can see that Billy has logged in 3 times and Jemele has
logged in 12 times in the last week into their new digital curriculum. So what?
Those metrics by themselves dont give Mrs. Jones a clear picture. There has to be
context and measurable outcomes or it is just noise. In this case, if Mrs. Jones can
also overlay their performance on formative assessments, and see if there is a clear
correlation to a higher performance score by Jemele, it may be more useful
information.

We must train our teachers the look fors in this data, so they can pull the so what
out of it.

Slide 14: Skill 3-Understanding the learners needs: Earlier, we discussed some of
the requirements of todays learner including personalized content and allowing
them to be empowered to make decisions on what to consume and create (within
reason of course!). In both the classroom and the boardroom, we must also be able
to accept and integrate feedback, as todays learners want to let you know where
you can improve and where you are hitting on exactly what they want. But how do
we make that shift?

As leaders, we must empower our teachers and staff to have empathy, a willingness
to evolve and most importantly, no fear! Our staff must feel supported and know
that if we are going to truly make this shift, we have their backs when they make a
decision (again, within reason). We have to help them understand that letting go of
some of the control, can actually provide more positive gains and insight into
improving the classroom. We dont really want to teach the same class for one year
and then repeat it for 25 more years, but teachers arent always given the tools and
skills necessary to evolve the process. We have to empower them to be fearless. To
try different things, to allow their students to have a say in what they learn and to
use the tools we have provided effectively to help drive the direction of these
outcomes.


Slide 15: Skill 4 Always be learning: As simple as it sounds, this final skill can often
be the hardest one to master. You must Always. Be. Learning. We have to ensure
our teachers and staff have time in their schedules to learn a new skill and be able to
apply it. Giving them the tools is simply no longer enough. There are too many tools
and they are too sophisticated to just back up the digital dump truck at their desk
and consider the job done. We must encourage learning, growing and evolving. One
example of this to introduce the idea of collecting digital badges as a way to drive
and recognize learning both large and small. By recognizing proficiency in a new
task, skill or technique, users are more likely to continue to do so. We must find
unique and creative ways to not just encourage, but expect that learning never
stops. It is not enough to just be teaching. We must always be learning.

Slide 16: By continuing to focus on our teachers and staff, we will make them
stronger, more capable and more able to adapt to the ever-changing world of
education. You can find a copy of the transcript for this presentation attached to the
rocket. Thank you for your willingness to take this journey with me today.