P21 National Summit-When he is not playing computer games or tracking his portfolio, the guy sitting next to me here at the P21 meeting is promoting software that tests critical thinking skills. He describes it to anyone who will listen as “content independent” and utilizing multimedia and “computer emulation” skills among others. Not sure what he means by the latter. He explains that the assessment is meant to discover whether a student has
-set a goal
-collaborated
-documented his learning
-and presented the results
Hmmm. Those aren’t bad “goals.” But it occurs to us that there are so many important things that have and should continue to go on in classrooms that fall outside this neat rubric. How does “collaboration” help a student to learn the cadences of poetry? How does a student “present results” pertaining to their understanding of the Renaissance or FDR’s New Deal? And what do you “document” while you learn about Leonardo’s Last Supper? Or while you learn how to speak French or Chinese?
There’s simply a round peg-square hole problem when one tries to overlay 21st century skills with actual knowledge. Can this be remedied? Only if the advocates for 21st century skills acknowledge that it exists and make a massive effort to correct it.
Lynne Munson
Tags: 21st century, computer games, P21, portfolio, skills