STRAW+MAN+DOCUMENT

DRAFT

One question we need to answer is “How do we ensure that all of our students achieve technology literacy?” The **No Child Left Behind** law states that all students be technology literate by the end of the 8th grade. The US Department of Education is collecting data on the number of 8th grade students proficient in technology literacy and the number of 8th grade students NOT proficient in technology literacy. Even though the Federal law targets 8th grade, technology literacy is not an 8th grade issue, technology literacy is a K-12 issue. To be technologically literate, a student needs multiple experiences over multiple subjects over a period of time. This will entail providing opportunities for our Delaware students to use technology across subjects and over grade levels. For a student to be technologically literate by the end of the 8th grade, the process needs to start in elementary school and continue all the way through middle school. On the other side, the use of technology does not stop at the end of 8th grade. However, technology is not only about the skills, but also about the skills that technology enables.

Over the past x years, the **Partnership for 21st Century Skills** has outlined a set of six skills. This year the **State Leaders Action Guide** provides a call to action that states "The urgent challenge for state leaders today is to move education into the 21st century. Students must become proficient in new, 21st century skills that are in demand in postsecondary learning, on the job and in modern society. And students must learn critical 21st century content that is not reflected in the core curriculum today."

Specifically, those skills are these.
 * Core Subjects
 * 21st Century content (Global awareness; Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; Civic literacy; Health and wellness awareness)
 * Learning and Thinking Skills (Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills; Communication Skills; Creativity and Innovation Skills; Collaboration Skills; Information and Media Literacy Skills; Contextual Learning Skills)
 * ICT (Information and Commuications Technology) Literacy
 * Life Skills
 * 21st Century Assessments.

The current development of the Delaware Recommended Curriculum includes these skills as embodied in its central guiding principles, such as International Education, differentiated learning, …

As the DRC is rolled out, an understanding of these 21st Century Skills will help all educators plan and manage instruction in ways that enhance student achievement of content standards and develop skills for postsecondary education or jobs. That is, the embedded technology uses are important not simply to enable learning of technical skills but to scaffold higher order thinking and other important 21st Century Skills.

Educators do not need to work alone to do this. The means to achieve these goals is to collaborate with others in the school, district, state and world, which, in fact is an embodiment of the 21st century skills! INTEGRATE and other such bodies will continue to work to extend this vision and to support its implementation.

Resources

Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework -- http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

National Educational Technology Standards for Students, revised 2007 (currently in draft) – http://cnets.iste.org/students/NETS_S_standards-1.doc