Ok, I’m guilty!  I used one of those eye-rolling, meaningless edu-speak phrases that many people use to describe modern learning:  21st Century Education.  Not only did I use it in a sentence, I also used it in my site’s title.   What does that phrase even mean?  I hear a lot of people say it, but “21st Century Education” is so broad, vague, and complex at the same time that nobody can ever really settle on a shared definition of it.  It reminds me of when I taught the concept of ‘energy’ to my physics students.  We could all describe the uses of energy and give examples, but we couldn’t clearly define it.  Same story with the concept of money.  We can easily explain what money is used for and attempt to define it via symbols of it like currency, gold, gems, etc.  But getting a shared definition of money from a large group (excluding bankers and economists) is very difficult.

I feel the same way about the phrase “21st Century Education.”  I feel like it is a default phrase that people use as a place holder for a complex idea of teaching and learning in the modern world.  When pressed to further explain what they mean by ’21st Century Education,’ many people can’t clearly articulate their own personal definition of it.

I chose to use ’21st Century Education’ in my site title because it encompasses my two research strands: Comparative Education & Digital Pedagogies.  Also, by using it in my site’s title, I’m forced to narrow in on a definition.  That’s one purpose of this blog… for me to create my own personal definition of ’21st Century Education.’  By the way, we’re already almost two decades into the 21st century.  If we’re going to better define this phrase, we should do it soon so we can get it working well before the 22nd century arrives.  I’ll start by offering up a bit of my thoughts that contribute towards my working definition so far.

• I believe there are already many great teaching practices happening in classrooms that are applicable to the modern world.  My working definition of ’21st Century Education’ doesn’t mean throwing away current curricula and teaching practices.  Instead, it involves figuring out which practices should be used more frequently in schooling and which ones should be used sparsely (or not at all).
• I believe the concept and role of “teacher” is changing.  Teachers are still very much needed in schools, but I think their role is going to change pretty significantly.
• I believe there are large areas of learning that schools do a poor job of engaging students in.  Publishing & collaborating with wider audiences than classmates, applying learning in meaningful ways, and global citizenry are just a few learning areas that I see schools struggling with.  I don’t know anybody in education that doesn’t think those are important for students, but I think schools struggle with them because they need examples of these and ideas on how to incorporate them into the learning experience.
• Besides teaching practices, there are also other schooling factors that need to be reconsidered when designing schools for the modern world.  My own biases point towards things like GPA, bell schedules, and facilities as schooling factors that should be researched and possibly redesigned to make schooling more applicable to the modern world.

That’s all I have so far.  I’m sure as I continue reading, observing classrooms, and conversing with colleagues and principals I’ll find examples that will help me to create a better personal definition of ’21st Century Education.’