Evaluating 21st Century Skills

I really enjoyed exploring this website. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/.

The founders are truly interested in developing the 21st century teaching skills and adapting them to the classroom setting. I was very impressed by the quantity and quality of the information found on this website.

The various themes are: Learning and Innovation Skills, Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes, Information media and Technology Skills, Life and Career Skills. This site also focuses global issues. It was fascinating to discover that there were videos associated to the site on the YouTube. There was one site that covers the three steps necessary for 21st Century Learning. I really enjoyed exploring this site. These people seem to be truly interested in developing the teaching skills adapting them to the 21st century. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCB4i7GJuM

3 Steps for 21st Century Learning
Step 1 - Transform the classroom into a creative learning space.
Step 2 - Teach students the skills of competition and collaboration.
Step 3 - Introduce the students to the global peers and provide the opportunity for them to collaborate.

How I might use a blog in my classroom

I have never used blogs in my classroom, but reflecting on the recent information I have received I feel that this means of communication is very efficient and interesting for students, if used wisely. I may start a blog for the class and ask students to study and post information on different topics. The students would have to interact, commenting each other’s work, all via the blog on specific days of the week. This interaction might develop their interest in reading and writing.
I might start with a discussion topic on global warming and ask the students to participate and read as well as comment on other participations' posts. The students would not only depend on their research material and opinions among themselves, they would also receive opinions from around the world. This is something that could be very motivating for the students seeing that they would be able to feel the importance given to this subject all over the world. I think that a lesson taught in this way would be greatly enhanced, giving the students more liberty to write what they feel and the ability to create a forum for collaboration with other students. I would use this with my eleventh grade students.
Maria Dolores Jardim