21st Century Teaching & Learning

21st Century Teaching/Learning is bold! It breaks the mold. It is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities. Yes, but what is it?

Stevan Kalmon, perhaps better than anyone else in Colorado, knows what 21st Century teaching and learning are all about. He is founder and director of the “Council for 21st Century Teaching and Learning” in Denver (www.c21l.org). He is contracted to present this topic to 15 selected teachers from the junior and senior high schools in the five eligible districts (Centennial, Monte Vista, South Conejos, Center, and Moffat) participating in the BOCES Power Results grant. The SLV-BOCES is holding five 1-day sessions on the topic. One was held January 9 and the others are later in January and upcoming months. At least 15 teachers and several administrators are involved in this multifaceted discovery of what is and how to apply 21st Century teaching to the students of the San Luis Valley using imbedded use of technology. The instruction is under the direction of Stevan Kalmon.

Assisting in the initial training is Andy Bennetts (Dean of Students, Cortez Junior High School) with eInstruction (www.einstruction.com), the vendor of $54,000 in new equipment made possible with the grant. Each participating teacher will also receive a HP laptop and VGA projector. In addition, their expenses to attend the annual convention of the “International Society for Technology in Education” (http://www.ITSE.org) will be covered to attend this year’s meeting in Denver in June. The participating teachers receive a $100 per day stipend for training.

Colorado Governors Bill Owens and Bill Ritter used several P-20 committees to discuss the topic of P-20 education. CDE Commissioner Dwight Jones and CDHE ran task forces that culminated in the “Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness” document (http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdegen/downloads/PWRdescription.pdf). All of this was to identify what 21st Century learners need to know and be able to do.

Julie O'Brian, director of the “Center for Transforming Learning and Teaching” (www.ctlt.org) is another great source of expertise on this challenging concept. CTLT was established in 2003 at the University of Colorado-Denver as an initiative within the School of Education and Human Development to support educators across the state of Colorado. An offshoot of CTLT is Colorado Learns (www.coloradolearns.wetpaint.com) a website that allows interaction among readers. One can be part of an interesting conversation by viewing and responding to items posted on its website Stevan is integrally involved with the blogs at that site. Take a look.

Good teaching hasn’t changed because the calendar changed, but new technologies, brain research, and other factors make it ever more possible to provide it to every student.