C21 Blog - C21 Canada

February 6, 2013 by admin

The Right Honourable Paul Martin to Speak at the 2nd Annual C21 Canada Summit

TORONTO, Feb. 6, 2013 /CNW/ – C21 Canada – Canadians for 21st Century Learning & Innovation, a not-for-profit organization comprised of education organizations and knowledge sector companies, will host its second annual Summit on 21st century learning, Tuesday, February 12 to Wednesday, February 13 at the Kingbridge Centre in King City.

The Summit, entitled Convening Engaged Minds: Leader to Leader, will feature a Fireside Chat with former Prime Minister Paul Martin on the evening of February 12^th. The event will bring together 100 of Canada’s education and business leaders to gather perspectives on Canada’s skill requirements in the knowledge and digital age and on what the related education policy and investment priorities should be for the country.

“Today’s innovation-driven economy and society demands people with 21st century inspired competencies and skills. A key challenge for Canada is to modernize our learning systems and ensure that all Canadians, without exception, are positioned for success on an equitable basis,” states Mr. Martin.

The product of C21 Canada’s inaugural Summit last year was the organization’s Shifting Minds document, a national vision and framework for 21st century models of learning in Canada. The goal of C21 Canada is to support the accelerated and effective integration of 21st century skills and competencies, teaching practices and learning technologies into Canada’s education systems.

“The ‘Arab Spring’ is coming to more than the Middle East. It is coming to education, healthcare, government and every place where the radical democratization of knowledge and power and the culture that comes along with it reaches the public. And that is about everywhere. It is not only necessary to adapt curricula for 21st century needs. It’s necessary to adapt learning technologies and methodologies as well,” states John Abele, co-founder and director of Boston Scientific. Mr. Abele, a well respected and successful innovator, will share the Fireside Chat with Mr. Martin.

C21 Canada is also launching its inaugural National 21^st Century Leadership and Innovation Awards. Five people from across Canada will be recognized and honoured for their excellence in 21st Century Leadership and Innovation.

Go to www.c21canada.org for a complete Summit agenda.

About C21 Canada
C21 Canada is a unique blend of national education associations and knowledge sector businesses united in their belief that 21st century models of learning must be adopted in public education on an urgent basis to position Canadians for economic, social and personal success in the high skills, knowledge and innovation based economy.www.c21canada.org

C21 Canada’s Founding Members: Canadian Education Association, Canadian School Board Association, Dell, EF Educational Tours, IBM, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Microsoft, Nelson Education, Oxford University Press, Pearson, Scholastic Education, SMART Technologies.

Secretariat: 21st Century Learning Associates, MindShare Learning

Summit Twitter hashtag: #C21Summit13

For media inquiries, please contact:

Robert Martellacci
C21 Canada, Vice-president
robert.martellacci@c21canada.org
416.569.2106

January 23, 2013 by admin

Changing Perspectives

This guest post was written by William Kierstead. His career has spanned 27 years in public education in the province of New Brunswick. He has been a classroom teacher, a high school administrator, a District Supervisor and Learning Specialist, and the Director of the 21^st Century Research Office for the New Brunswick Department of Education. Most recently he has rekindled an old flame as he assumed the role of Principal at James M. Hill Memorial High School in Miramichi, New Brunswick. Go Tommies! William is married with two daughters and lives in Rexton, New Brunswick.

In the past few years I have undergone several shifts in my career, each one moving me further from the classroom. Viewing education from a long lens gives a very different perspective on education and learning. From a thousand miles out, I was able to see the bright spots of innovation that were occurring all around me. All across the province teachers were engaging students in project based learning, technology rich curricula, truly authentic experiences and assessment strategies, stretch learning, community based projects and an appreciation for the world and our place in it.

From my vantage point, it was obvious that there were many teachers out there who were already engaging students in the kind of experiences that had come to be known as “21^st Century.” The ripples created by these teachers were having a tangible impression on policy makers and stakeholders as the impact of global economies on our workforce and the reality of the technology age created a new set of expectations for public education. In many ways, I believed that the 21^st Century movement was well in place before policy and official dogma caught up to it, that it already existed in pockets.

Our job as I saw it was to find those pockets of innovators, nurture them, and use them to create fertile ground for others to follow suit. However, I was also of the opinion that this shift in educational paradigms was going to happen regardless of our intervention. The train had left the station; the toothpaste was out of the tube. No matter how you looked at it, 21^st Century learning was here to stay, driven by risk takers and innovative educators. The gaps in best practice would get smaller. Policy and conventional wisdom would always be in catch-up mode.

Recently I was afforded the opportunity to return to an administrative position at a high school and to work directly with teachers and students. I embraced this next phase of my career without hesitation. This move has ultimately given me a fresh perspective on the state of 21^st Century Learning in Canada – “nose to nose” as opposed to “from a thousand feet out.” Because my previous view was so distant, I may have been premature in my assessment of the state of 21^st Century learning in my province. At ground level, the view was somewhat different.

I have been in this role for a semester now and I see evidence of 21^st Century educational practice literally everywhere I look in my school. The gaps that were obvious from orbit seem much smaller and less well defined on the ground. Indeed most 21^st Century practice that I encounter on a daily basis is seamless and not necessarily overt. Educators aren’t nearly as preoccupied with the 21^st Century Learning moniker as they are with creating world-class experiences for their students. Sure there are examples that stand out more than others. There are even examples of practice visible from space. I am convinced however that public education is much further down the road than previously believed. The ground is more fertile than ever before.

My view on policy hasn’t changed a great deal. Society no longer needs convincing that the purpose of education is changing rapidly. Likewise it needs no convincing that education itself must match pace with that change. Policy is not likely to get in front of the 21^st Century movement. At best it will keep up. That isn’t to suggest that policy is a waste of time. In a perfect world, policy is needed urgently to encourage and reward innovation. It must cultivate those regions of excellence and create the expectation that the gaps in practice will be filled in to promote a seamless 21^st Century landscape across education.

Economic and social factors in the world are conspiring to change the purpose and face of education at a pace that matches that of technological change. The role of C21 Canada, as I see it, is to provide an overarching vision and to exert pressure on the powers that oversee public education in Canada. In the absence of a national authority for education, C21 Canada is destined to provide insight, resources, research and a means for collaboration between educators from all corners of the country. C21 Canada stands poised to provide guidance to jurisdictions across this country so that the inertia remaining in the system can be overcome.

As an administrator and change agent I am excited to play a part in the upcoming symposium. The future demands that we define the next evolution of public education in Canada.

December 7, 2012 by admin

A Guide for Facilitating 21st Century Learning

Brock University professor and C21 Canada supporter Dr. Camille Rutherford contributes this guest post. Check out her blog for insights on leadership, teacher education and technology.

Students do not become 21st century learners on their own. They need learning opportunities that challenge them to utilize 21st century fluencies and integrate the five dimensions of 21st century learning. These dimensions include:

Collaboration
Knowledge-building
The use of ICT for learning
Self-regulation
Real-world problem-solving and innovation

The following is a set of guidelines developed by the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research program to help educators understand how they can create learning opportunities that will facilitate the development of 21st century skills. In addition to a brief description of each of the five dimensions of 21st century learning, the guidelines include a scale/rubric which educators can use to determine the degree to which each dimension is present during a specific learning opportunity.

Similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy, educators should seek to create learning opportunities that challenge their students to demonstrate the highest level on each scale. While educators may strive towards the highest levels of each dimension, it is important to note that these scales/rubrics should be applied to a sequence of lessons or unit plan and not individual lessons. Even though an individual lesson could focus on a single dimension, it is not possible to achieve the highest level on all of the scales/rubric within a single classroom lesson.
For the full description of the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research: Learning Activity Rubrics and Sample Student Work Rubrics please visit: http://www.itlresearch.com/home.

Collaboration

To challenge students to the highest level of collaboration, students need to have shared responsibility for their work, and participate in learning activities that requires students to make substantive decisions together. These features help students learn the important collaboration skills of negotiation, agreement on what must be done, distribution of tasks, listening to the ideas of others, and integration of ideas into a coherent whole.

1 = Students are NOT required to work together in pairs or groups.

2 = Students DO work together: BUT they DO NOT have shared responsibility.

3 = Students DO have shared responsibility; BUT they ARE NOT required to make substantive decisions together.

4 = Students DO have shared responsibility AND they DO make substantive decisions together about the content, process, or product of their work.

Knowledge Building

Knowledge building happens when students do more than reproduce what

they have learned: they go beyond knowledge reproduction to generate ideas

and understandings that are new to them. Activities that require knowledge building ask students to interpret, analyse, synthesize, or evaluateinformation or ideas.

1 = The learning activity DOES NOT REQUIRE students to build knowledge.

Students can complete the activity by reproducing information or by

using familiar procedures.

2 = The learning activity DOES REQUIRE students to build knowledge by

interpreting, analysing, synthesizing, or evaluating information or

ideas; BUT the activity’s main requirement IS NOT knowledge building.

3 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS knowledge building; BUT the learning activity DOES NOT have learning goals in more than one subject.

4 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS knowledge building; AND the knowledge building IS interdisciplinary. The activity DOES have learning goals in more than one subject.

Use of ICT for Learning

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is becoming increasingly

common in the classroom, but ICT is often used to support practice on basic skills rather than to build knowledge. This dimension examines how students use ICT—whether or not the use of ICT helps students build knowledge, and whether or not students could build the same knowledge without using ICT.

1 = Students do not have the opportunity to use ICT for this learning activity.

2 = Students use ICT to learn or practice basic skills or reproduce information; BUT they are not building knowledge.

3 = Students use ICT to support knowledge building; BUT they could build the same knowledge without using ICT.

4 = Students use ICT to support knowledge building; AND the ICT is required for building this knowledge.

Self-Regulation

In 21st century workplaces, people are expected to work with minimal supervision, which requires them to plan their own work and monitor its quality. Learning activities that give students the opportunity to acquire self-regulation skills last for a week or more and require students to monitor their progress. Teachers can foster self-regulation skills by giving students working in groups responsibility for deciding who will do what and on what schedule.

1 = The learning activity can be completed in less than a week.

2 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more; BUT students ARE NOT given the assessment criteria before they submit their work and; DO NOT have the opportunity to plan their own work.

3 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more AND students ARE given the assessment criteria before they submit their work OR DO have the opportunity to plan their own work.

4 = The learning activity lasts for one week or more AND students ARE given the assessment criteria before they

submit their work AND DO have the opportunity to plan their own work.

Real Problem Solving and Innovation

In traditional schooling, students’ academic activities are often separate from what they see and do in the world outside school. True problem solving requires students to work on solving real problems, and challenges them to complete tasks for which they do NOT already know a response or solution. For the result of this problem solving to be considered innovative it must require students to implement their ideas, designs or solutions for audiences outside the classroom.

1 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS NOT problem-solving.

Students use a previously learned answer or procedure for most of

the work.

2 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving; BUT the problem IS NOT a real-world problem.

3 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving AND the problem IS a real-world problem; BUT students DO NOT innovate. They are NOT required to implement their ideas in the real world.

4 = The learning activity’s main requirement IS problem-solving AND the problem IS a real-world problem AND students DO innovate. They ARE required to implement their ideas in the real world.

Here are some learning activities to review and determine where they would rank on the five dimensions:

Consider ways to revise these learning activities so that students would be challenged to demonstrate the highest level of each dimension.

November 28, 2012 by admin

A National Conversation?

Guest blogger Chris Kennedy, Superintendent of Schools and CEO with the West Vancouver School District, writes about the need for national engagement in education. He regularly writes at Culture of Yes.

In reading the Programme for International Students (PISA) results, Canada is broken up by province, while all other nations report as countries. Of course, this speaks to the responsibility of education in Canada as a provincial matter while in most countries, it has some Federal coordination. While it is a provincial matter in Canada, there are times where some national engagement is important.

We often look to Finland (guilty as charged with these posts 1 and 2) as a possible model for the way forward, and look to the United States as a model we dare not, or want to, emulate (Many in Canada worry that Texas curriculum or online learning from Florida will make its way north). Yet, we spend very little time learning from other provinces. We know far more about reform in New York than we do in Winnipeg, and about improvements in Helsinki rather than Ottawa. It is quite interesting how we look outside of BC (and I think across Canada) for learning partners, examples to follow or avoid, without fully engaging in conversations across this country.

There are some efforts and organizations trying to bridge this gap. The Canadian Education Association (CEA) has been in existence since 1891, bringing together educators from a variety of roles across the country and advancing ideas for greater student and teacher engagement. This past week CEA’s Chief Executive Officer, Ron Canuel, launched a challenge around Why Do We Need Innovation in Education? The CEA has a series of projects to link jurisdictions across the country including several awards programs and a series of national research reports.

Other nationals include C21 Canada, shaped somewhat after the P21 Organization in the United States, is a not-for-profit organization advocating for the 21st Century models of learning in education, and has recently released Shifting Minds: A Vision and Framework for 21st Century Learning in Canada. Another organization, is The Learning Partnership, a national charitable organization dedicated to championing a strong public education system in Canada through innovative programs, credible research, policy initiatives, executive leadership and public engagement. Two of their more recognizable programs include Take Your Kid to Work Day in November and Welcome to Kindergarten.

There are also a number of other national organizations including the Canadian School Board Association (who will host their national conference this coming July in Vancouver), Canadian Association of Principals, the Canadian Teachers Federation and the Canadian Association of School Administrators. Clearly, there are no shortage of education organizations working at a national level.

So, returning to my original question, and my interest in writing this — somehow, we need to have more conversations linking education work across the country. There are huge learning opportunities from other jurisdictions and while there is value in learning from Finland, Singapore, or New Zealand, there are also great possibilities in learning from our fellow provinces, many of which join BC at the top of the PISA scales. Whether it is the Inspiring Education efforts in Alberta, the work in assessment and evaluation coming out of Manitoba or the early learning lessons from Ontario, among many others, there is a lot to share.

I have also noticed another shift in the BC Education mindset in recent years –our schools are becoming less competitive with one another, and I also think the same holds true for our districts. There is no pride taken when one community in BC struggles, while others flourish; we do need to move this to a national conversation and a real sense of national ownership. This is more challenging, but is a laudable goal.

We should/will keep learning and networking with countries around the world, because that is what one needs to do as part of a global conversation, but this should be alongside rich, national conversations on the same topics.

I am part of a free event this coming Friday morning (November 30), that will try to view education through a national lens. The Action Canada Public Dialogue: Challenges and Change in Canada’s Education Systems is at the Work Centre for Dialogue in Vancouver. The event, moderated by Tom Clark, Chief Political Correspondent, and Host of the West Block on Global TV, hosts three panels: Standardized Testing in Canada: Real Accountability or an Illusion of Success?, Teaching Questions Not Answers: Adapting Canada’s Education System for the 21st Century, and Who Cares About Young Caregivers: Children’s Rights and Education. I will be part of a five-member panel on the 21st century system question. Full details are available here including registration information.

October 3, 2012 by Robert Martellacci

News Release: Shifting Minds: A Vision and Framework for 21st Century Learning in Canada

TORONTO, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012 – C21 Canada, Canadians for 21st Century Learning and Innovation, is set to release its Shifting Minds document on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at the C21 board meeting in Toronto.

Shifting Minds is a national vision and framework for 21st century models of learning in Canada. Global leaders in education and other sectors of society have identified a number of competencies and skills that are now critical for personal and societal success in the knowledge and digital era. Founded on Seven Guiding Principles, the document serves as a guide for integrating these key competencies and skills into Canada’s learning systems.
“CSBA is proud to be a founding partner in C21. The release of Shifting Minds provides the education sector and in particular school boards the opportunity to reflect and inspire new and innovative practices in support of student outcomes in a global economy,” stated Sandi Urban Hall, President of Canadian School Boards Association.

The Shifting Minds document evolved from the inaugural C21 Canada Summit held last February, which convened 50 of Canada’s education and business leaders in the field of 21st century learning, with the belief that public education in Canada must be transformed to position Canadians for success in the knowledge and digital age.

“Shifting Minds provides Canadians a vision of what their education systems should aspire to become and a blueprint of how to get there,” stated John Kershaw, president of C21 Canada.
Shifting Minds reflects broad input from the private and public sectors. The document is available at http://www.c21canada.org/.

Download: Shifting Minds: A Vision and Framework for 21st Century Learning in Canada (English)
Transformer Les Esprits: L’Enseignement public du Canada une vision pour le XXIe siècle (Français)

-more-

C21 Canada’s Founding Members: Canadian Education Association, Canadian School Board Association, Dell, EF Educational Tours, IBM, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Microsoft, Nelson Education, Oxford University Press, Pearson, Scholastic Education, SMART Technologies.

Secretariat: 21st Century Learning Associates, MindShare Learning.

###

Contact: Robert Martellacci
Vice-President, C21 Canada

President & Publisher

Mindshare Learning Report
Cell: 416-569-2106
robert@mindsharelearning.com