Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The website for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills national organization serves as a huge resource that advocates 21st century readiness for students and educators. The website offers a wide variety of resources, including skills frameworks and outlines, professional publications, blogs, interactive tools, videos, lessons, and numerous other resources that have been developed to help educators bring their students into the 21st century educational and professional environment. The organization looks to serve as a link between the traditional three Rs of education and the more 21st century-minded four Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation). Their mission of building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders looks to change modern education in a way that will bridge the gap between skills learned in school and those necessary to compete and exist in the 21st century community and workplace.

I was surprised by the amount of content found on the website. I knew the idea of developing the 21st century classroom was a prominent one, but it almost felt as though it was still a grassroots movement. To have an organization like this, that has developed so many resources intended to change the climate of modern education, was actually a little shocking. The seemingly already large acceptance of the ideas presented by the P21 was also a bit surprising. To see 14 states already involved with the initiative of the program, as well as the countless educators that have contributed to the organizations resources and ideas, is quite astounding. The movement towards more modern education in the 21st century is certainly on its way. I was also somewhat surprised by the negative feedback that existed in response to some of the content on the website. There is definitely a faction of "old-guard" educators that are reluctant to the changing environment of 21st century education, but I was surprised to see them use this format to voice their opinions.

It is hard to disagree with anything on the P21 website. They have clearly stated their mission and goals for changing education in the 21st century, and have done a good job of presenting information and providing resources that can be used to develop their program. I could possibly see issues arising between the business element of the initiative and the local governments involved with education. What type of draw and pull will businesses have with the initiative? How will the business world define what is happening in the classroom? I can see traditional education minds rejecting the business world's impact.

What are the implications and the impact of such an organization on my classroom and my students? Is it just another tool or resource to help advance my class into the 21st century? That is yet to be determined. I do think there are some powerful ideas and resources made available through this website that can certainly help advance my classroom along with the mission of P21. The goal of this organization and website fall directly in line with the types of material that we have previously encountered through our technology impact course. This is the type of organization through which you can place a solid foundation for a classroom initiative that can advance your students into a productive 21st century classroom. The tools made available through the P21 website can set your teachings in a direction that can form the necessary bridge between the modern classroom and the modern business world.