Read a summary of the Making 21st Century Connections event in San Francisco

"It is the worst of times... It is the best of times. "

This was essentially what we heard at the " 21st Century Conections" meeting.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Jenny House of RedRock Reports, noted that the 2007 Federal budget indicates a declining financial commitment to education, juxtaposed against the demands for improvements required by NCLB. Although textbooks include digital content and many web-based tools are available, school finances are stretched and these resources are worthless unless teachers and students have a way to use them.

In spite of these constraints, the world keeps moving on, however, and so do many of our students. We need to meet this pace."Did you know...?" by From Howie DiBlasi and shown by Carol Dowling, with FutureKids showed statistics which stated that:

1. Students spend 6.5 hours after school with media-- 1/3 of it on the internet.
2. China and India have more honors students than we have students and the US Dept of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38.
3. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet.

She quoted Alan November- "We need to teach our students to deal with massive amounts of information," We need to teach our students to be self-directed and understand how to organize more and more of their own learning."

By this time everyone in the room was wide awake, in spite of it being early morning and some having driven long distances to get to the meeting. The speaker stated that certainly one more of the skills we need to teach our students is flexibility along with a sense of adventure.

"I don't have to hire one more person in the US... I don't have to invest one more dollar here' and we will be just fine" was the quote from S. Appleton: CEO of Micron in "Global Economy" -5-2007.

Sharp intakes of breath were heard.

A quote from Albert Einstein- "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

A number of "hmmm"s were heard.

Carol launched into her presentation comparing the older classroom to what is needed in the twenty-first century, saying it must be learner centered, with the teacher as facilitator. She also stressed the importance of collaboration and the use of multiple sources of information in the classroom.

"Learning how to learn" and the completion of "authentic projects" as part of genuine learning were emphasized as necessary to deal with the future demands of society.

She stressed the need for both beginning and later assessment of projects, the importance of Individual Learning Plans, professional development for the teachers- and the importance of good leadership to achieve the goal of improved education.

Practical aspects of education were also showcased as part of the "hands-on" authentic learning for the teachers and administrators attending the meeting.

A representative of Adobe showed a full classroom of educators how to use Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements in classroom projects and provided a series of resources for teachers and their students, expanding our knowledge of how multimedia can enhance learning with "hands-on" curriculum.

A speaker from Lenovo provided a rationale for and introduction to 1-to-1 computing (a laptop for each student)

After lunch participants were divided into small discussion groups according to our interests, and spoke with knowledgeable roundtable leaders about "pain points" such as where to find the necessary funding, professional development, setting up infrastructure, educating and maintaining leadership, encouraging women to enter IT careers, content management to streamline education and integrating multimedia into the curricula.

In the meeting's conclusion, trends and funding ideas were presented: how to use the new version of the Perkins Vocational Education funding program, high school reading and after- school programs and grants which are available so we can prepare students with the necessary skills for this century.

This meeting provided participants with a great deal of useful information and encouragement. It was altogether worth the attempt to cross the Bay Bridge with traffic that was so slow that the pigeons meandered among the lanes looking for food! It gave us food for thought and paths to follow that will successfully lead our schools into the new century.

By Janet Meizel