"The Cloud" and 21st Century Learning

I probably have too many thoughts going on at once to make a sensible blog entry, but I've got to get with the program and keep the cobwebs dusted off of this site. An article was brought to my attention by a teammate. The article concerned student learning and cloud computing and the potential that's out there. Some of that article talks about advantages of students in a university setting creating their own 'cloud' of learning tools rather than relying on school-provided resources. It made me think of the possibilities we have in the K-12 space and, honestly, I took a detour and began to think more broadly about "21st Century Skills" and spent some time looking at the framework established by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

As I look through the details of those framework definitions, I see mention of core content subject knowledge accompanied by a huge number of necessary 'other' skills lumped into "Learning and Innovation", "Life and Career" and "Information, Media and Technology". These are the desired student outcomes and I'll rattle off several of these:

Think Creatively and Work Creatively with Others
Implement Innovations
Reason Effectively
Use Systems Thinking
Make Judgments and Decisions
Solve Problems
Communicate Clearly
Collaborate with Others
Access, Evaluate, Use and Manage Information
Analyze Media and Create Media Products
Apply Technology Effectively
Adapt to Change
Manage Goals and Time
Work Independently and Be Self-Directed Learners
Interact Effectively with Others
Manage Projects
Guide and Lead Others

I tired out and skipped a few here and there, but you get the idea. The design mentions several necessary support systems such as properly integrated standards and assessments, PD, learning environment and curriculum and instruction. Keep in mind that we're just now adopting common core standards for English and math. If we've struggled for years to adopt common standards in a few of the core subjects, how will we ever be able to properly assess how well a student applies technology effectively or reasons effectively. These skills are necessary but are also very subjective and, I think, would be difficult at best to properly assess.

Touching on the cloud-based computing article, I believe there are many readily available tools to help with some of the 21st century tasks noted above. I manage goals and time with a calendar application within my email client which, with any luck, I use to communicate clearly and collaborate with others. I can also collaborate with others using web-based productivity software from any number of providers. I can at least try to guide and lead others with blog posts such as this. And so on...

I could develop a lengthy list of conundrums we find ourselves in, only one of which being "how can teachers allow students to be self-directed learners when they are so hard-pressed to cover a list of content standards within the specified number of days/hours of instruction?" Technology alone isn't the answer, but it is a tool that can help get us there if properly leveraged. Some students are honing their 21st century skills on their own, using modern tools such as smartphones and any number of collaborative web resources. Some are undoubtedly using it for the wrong purposes, but I look forward to the day when we collectively allow more of this collaboration to take place as part of the classroom experience. With any luck, the benefits gained will far outweigh the issues that might arise.