Ken Kay Keynote (7-15-2008)

Our national preoccupation for the past 5 years has been in asking: "Where are the underperforming kids and the underperforming schools?" A valid question to ask but in doing so we forget to ask "Is every student ready for the 21st century? Are they ready to participate in a new global economy?"

Three questions to frame the keynote:
1. Why are 21st century skills so important?
2. What is the Framework for 21st Century Skills?
3. What should districts do?

What is the shelf life of our learning?
In the 1950s - we learned about the solar system and planets. Shelf life = 50 years.
In the 1990s - we learned about the solar system and planets. Shelf life = 10 years.
Last year - students learned about the solar system and planets - two weeks later, we had one less planet.

The amount of technical information in the world currently doubles every 24 months. In the year 2020 (when our current kindergarteners graduate), information will double every 72 days.

We need students to not memorize and regurgitate facts, but

with information. Ask yourself: Are we doing this for our students?

Currently, 60% of our jobs are in the service economy. By 2014, 80% of our jobs will be. What does this mean?

"We have a real crisis in self direction" - if we don't get ourselves motivated to recognize global competition, our kids will fall behind.


Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Learning and Innovation Skills:
- critical thinking and problem-solving
- creativity and innovation
- communication and collaboration
* Core of survival skills in 21st century and biggest shift we will have to make!

Life and Career Skills
- flexibility and adaptability
- initiative and self-directions
- social and cross-cultural skills
- productivity and accountability
- leadership and responsibility

Connecting 21st Century Learners (7-15-2008)

Sheryl's Blog and our sandbox

Cisco Network commercial - "More powerful together than we could ever be apart"
- "Imagine a world where people subscribe to people - not magazines"

Worst thing you can do in education today is embrace the status quo!
Can't begin with the end in mind if we don't know what the end is - need to think about shifts that are happening around us: Ten Trends : Educating Children for Tomorrow's World by Gary Marx

Focus needs to be on the passion of the students - not the tools. SmartBoards are great and incredible motivators, but how many of our students will be using them in their workplace? What is our legacy?

Slow School Movement

"If you could be replaced by a computer - then you should be."