Thursday, April 14, 2016

Website Creator

Been looking at different drag and drop website creators on the internet and I think Squarespace seems to be the best option. I like their sleek design for their templates and easily customizable interface.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

21st Century Skills

21^st Century Skills

Definition

The term 21^st century skills refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed—by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others—to be critically important to success in today’s world, particularly in collegiate programs and contemporary careers and workplaces. Generally speaking, 21^st century skills can be applied in all academic subject areas, and in all educational, career, and civic settings throughout a student’s life.
It should be noted that the “21^st century skills” concept encompasses a wide-ranging and amorphous body of knowledge and skills that is not easy to define and that has not been officially codified or categorized. While the term is widely used in education, it is not always defined consistently, which can lead to confusion and divergent interpretations. In addition, a number of related terms—including applied skills, cross-curricular skills, cross-disciplinary skills, interdisciplinary skills, transferable skills, transversal skills, noncognitive skills, and soft skills, among others—are also widely used in reference to the general forms of knowledge and skill commonly associated with 21^st century skills. While these different terms may not be strictly synonymous, and they may have divergent or specialized meanings in certain technical contexts, these diverse sets of skills are being addressed in this one entry for the purposes of practicality and usefulness.

(http://edglossary.org/21st-century-skills/)

In my opinion, 21^st century skills are basically what you need to know how to do to lead a successful life in the 21^st century. The world has improved quite a lot since the days of hunter-gatherers who simply had to survive whatever beast mother nature threw at them, but we humans have created our own challenges to face in order to survive. Whether its technology, society, nutrition, economics, etc. Any human who possess the skills associated with 21^st century skills will most likely be more successful and be able to ‘transcend’ his/her level of existence. In other words, become a greater human being.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela

Associated Skills

While the specific skills deemed to be “21^st century skills” may be defined, categorized, and determined differently from person to person, place to place, or school to school, the term does reflect a general—if somewhat loose and shifting—consensus. The following list provides a brief illustrative overview of the knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits commonly associated with 21^st century skills:

·        Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information

·        Research skills and practices, interrogative questioning

·        Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression

·        Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative

·        Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening

·        Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual workspaces

·        Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming

·        Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy

·        Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism

·        Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism

·        Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method

·        Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding

·        Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health and safety

(http://edglossary.org/21st-century-skills/)

The skills described above are the skills most commonly associated with 21^st century skills. The list below is a summary of the skillsets seen above.

Critical thinking (knowing the thinking process that will lead to success and better decisions)
Research skills (collecting information by yourself)
Creativity (the ability to think ‘out of the box’ to create new innovations, ideas, etc.)
Perseverance (without it, nobody would ever succeed at anything)
Communication (includes language, presentations, public speeches, etc.)
Leadership (knowing how to take responsibility for something other than yourself)
ICT (the 21^st century requires you to be knowledgeable regarding digital devices, media, networking, etc.)
Justice (being able to tell the difference between what is morally right and wrong, and having the self-control to restrain yourself from any actions that are wrong)
Economic skills (the economy plays an important role in 21^st century life, so those who live in the 21^st century should be knowledgeable regarding this subject to a certain degree)
Global awareness (listening to news, or any other source proven to be reliable, regarding global events that may or may not affect your own lifestyle to be prepared for these events)
Science (a universally accepted concept, intelligent beings in the 21^st century should understand it for their own purposes)
Environmental conservation (without the environment, human beings wouldn’t have a home)
Health (knowledge that many people overlook without realizing the great importance it has on our very wellbeing)

Summary

Personally, after looking back on the things that I’ve learned and practice, I feel that I already possess all the skills mentioned above, but I also know that nobody is perfect. Therefore, I feel that my next goal is to improve myself by increasing my database on the skills above. Perhaps once my knowledge increases to a certain a point, I might learn a greater truth than what has been said by those who believe in their own teachings, and one day become the leader that I’ve envisioned myself to become. Until then, all we can really do is continue on in our endless struggle to survive in an ever collapsing world.

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

Alexander the Great

Problem Based Learning

Problem Based Learning

Problem-based learning typically follows prescribed steps:

1.      Presentation of an "ill-structured" (open-ended, "messy") problem

2.      Problem definition or formulation (the problem statement)

3.      Generation of a "knowledge inventory" (a list of "what we know about the problem" and "what we need to know")

4.      Generation of possible solutions

5.      Formulation of learning issues for self-directed and coached learning

6.      Sharing of findings and solutions

(http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-vs-pbl-vs-xbl-john-larmer)

One could say that problem-based learning is a process where students form a problem and acquire knowledge, both about themselves and the world around them, during the entire process described above. To clarify the ‘pros and cons’ of problem-based learning (being careful not to use the acronym PBL, since PBL is used for both problem-based learning and project-based learning which differ only slightly and are really just two sides of the same coin, but they are still defined differently) I would have to raise an example. The best example I can think of is the current project that we are working on. I’ll use the steps defined above to create a ‘table of contents’.

Problem

Main: Us homeschoolers lack our own communication space and experience in working as a team.

Secondary: Problems that our society experiences.

Solution

Creating our own personal website to act as a single subject that we can work together on as a team. On this website we will be able to present information regarding our homeschool network and solutions to problems found in society.

Process

During the process, we should be able to work together as a team (or at least get better at it) while obtaining external knowledge about technology, web design, reporting, etc. We will also receive internal knowledge about ourselves (both are strengths and weaknesses) and others too, while we have our parents (aka. Teachers) there to conduct us during the entire process.

Barrows defines the Problem-Based Learning Model as:^[4]

1. Student Centered Learning

2. Learning is done in Small Student Groups, ideally 6-10 people

3. Facilitators or Tutors guide the students rather than teach

4. A Problem forms the basis for the organized focus of the group, and stimulates learning

5. The problem is a vehicle for the development of problem solving skills. It stimulates the cognitive process.

6. New knowledge is obtained through Self-Directed Learning (SDL).

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning)

Summary

To summarize this report regarding problem-based learning, PBL is basically a learning process that allows students to learn about a subject by themselves while the teachers change their role from being a source to an advisor. It stimulates teamwork, and finishes with a presentable product. I believe that this learning process is probably one of the best options for us homeschoolers and hope that everyone else agrees with me.