must have the ability to communicate and collaborate not only with their peers but also with people they have never met who live halfway around the world. It demands that students function not just as information consumers but also as creative content producers. Students of the 21st century have access to so much information that it is imperative that they know how to think critically about where that information comes from, what it means, and how they will use it.
As teachers, we want to fill classroom work with magical teacher-student partnerships. In these classrooms, students own their data, and they set individual and group goals based on the projects they are working on. Looking around these classrooms, you see what we call messy learning or organized chaos. Think of the vibe of a busy coffeehouse, everyone chatting or working independently, depending on each person’s goals. Digital devices are everywhere, but so are collaboration and all types of communication as everyone gathers for different goals.
Like in a coffeehouse, when you walk into a magical classroom, you feel the energy as all students are laser focused on their personal learning targets and as they collaborate with each other. The teacher has set high expectations for each student, and he or she continuously monitors data using a variety of technology interfaces. Parents and other professionals are part of the communication loop with access to goal-focused data. We call these magical classrooms NOW classrooms. We selected that term because our students deserve to thrive in rich learner-centered classrooms now, not in a few months or years. We believe schools are ready to create this type of NOW classroom, typified by technology-supported teaching and learning, and the evidence we’ve seen bears this belief out. Our goal with this book and this series is to help you create them.
Building Super Skills for College and Career
You may ask, “How can I use technology in my classroom to better prepare my grades 9–12 students for college and career?” This book answers that question by demonstrating the opposite of technology misuse. It features students productively using technology, not as a new toy, but to create, to collaborate, to explore, to investigate, and to share their creations beyond classroom walls. This book structures critical thinking and problem solving into every lesson by ensuring each lesson establishes meaningful, purposeful technology use that directly ties into the 2016 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students. ISTE (2016) education technology experts have developed seven standards that call for students to become the following.
1. Empowered learners
2. Digital citizens
3. Knowledge constructors
4. Innovative designers
5. Computational thinkers
6. Creative communicators
7. Global collaborators
In addition to these ISTE student standards, when we think about engagement and our learning targets, we must think about the important skills of what the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2015) calls the four Cs: (1) communication, (2) collaboration, (3) critical thinking, and (4) creativity. The four Cs, which you can learn more about at www.p21.org, are essential skills all lifelong learners need to be prepared for their future, not just nice-to-have soft skills. These skills are more important than in the past because we are preparing students for a global world of work, one filled with jobs we haven’t identified yet. A comprehensive study by Craig D. Jerald (2009) for the Center for Public Education, titled Defining a 21st Century Education, addresses this shifting world of work and the importance of the 4Cs:
Workplace and corporate change is having a large impact on skill demands. To succeed in ‘flat’ organizations characterized by less supervision and greater individual autonomy, individuals need to be able to act independently to identify opportunities and solve problems on their own. They also will need strong interpersonal skills—written, oral, social—to collaborate effectively with colleagues on self-managed work teams. (p. 15)
From these essential four Cs skills, there are sets of super skills that we believe all students need if they want to succeed in the 21st century (see table I.1).
Table I.1: The Four Cs and Super Skills of the 21st Century
| Four Cs | Super Skills |
| Communication | Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions |
| Collaboration | Working together to reach a goal—putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work |
| Critical Thinking | Looking at problems in a new way, linking learning across subjects and disciplines |
| Creativity | Trying new approaches to get things done, which equals innovation and invention |
Source: Partnership for 21st Century Learning, n.d.
We need to develop these super skills in students because too many of them have not experienced any real voice and choice in their classroom learning, meaning that they haven’t been allowed to decide how they present the information they learn. Classrooms that feature student voice and choice look very different from traditional classrooms because the students who exercise voice and choice own their learning path and goals. No matter the content area or class section, students who develop these super skills become independent directors of their own learning, which we believe will set them up for lifelong success outside the classroom. These elements are what transform traditional classrooms into NOW classrooms.
For high school teachers, it’s also important to note that grades 9–12 students often know as much as or more than their teachers do about using technology. This makes it easy to think that students don’t need their teachers to develop their ability to interact with a digital world. We disagree. As Mary Beth Hertz (2012) puts it:
It’s one thing to use a tablet computer and its apps to learn basic literacy skills; but learning to create, read critically, use online content responsibly and be a respectful digital citizen are not always skills that can be learned without the guidance of a teacher.
The role of the teacher carries more importance than ever as we teach our students to become lifelong learners.
Using This Series
This book is part of the five-book NOW Classrooms series, all organized around grade-level-appropriate themes adapted from the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students. The series includes the following five titles.
1. NOW Classrooms, Grades K–2: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
2. NOW Classrooms, Grades 3–5: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
3. NOW Classrooms, Grades 6–8: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
4. NOW Classrooms, Grades 9–12: Lessons for Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
5. NOW Classrooms, Leader’s Guide: Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Technology
Instructional
