Schools are complex communities which need to be equilaterally brought into 21st century learning. The interactions of student to student, teacher, administrator, board, and parents radiate beyond the walls of the building to include interactions between private businesses, community institutions, media, and the world. Each of these parties has a vested interest in moving the educational institution from the 20th to the 21st century. Shifting the educational system will require paradigm shifts in six areas: vision, coordination, official policy, leadership, learning technology, and teacher learning. Without this coordinated system change "isolated changes may generate enthusiasm for a while, but without the support necessary from the other systems to sustain the change, they almost always become short-lived 'experiments.'" (Trilling & Fadel, 2009)
The first area is sharing a common vision of 21st century skills which will focus educators, government, business, parents, and students as systems are changed. The vision must be built with activities which build consensus about the world in the future, the skills needed for that world, and the design of powerful learning experiences that prepare students for that world. Immediately following the development of a vision will be the development of official policy. Policy should address standards, goals, objectives, assessments, and the accountability as well as funding for planning and implementation. Improving technology resources and teacher training will also be critical aspects to be addressed in developing an official policy. Another critical aspect of change is leadership in 21st century teaching practices. This leadership should consist of educational leaders from the classroom up through those involved in education at the national level. These leaders must work with transparency before everyone who will be affected and benefited by this new system of education. Furthermore a broad spectrum of technology will need to be available to students and teachers to create an effective learning environment. Finally, teachers must be trained and held accountable to design learning projects and develop skills tin coaching and facilitating to support the students in this new learning environment. These elements will build a strong foundation on which to build the future of education.
Remaining at the heart of education is the development of standards which define content and skills necessary for students to succeed in the future. These standards should include all levels of mastery as well as 21st century standards for communicating, thinking, and reasoning, and personal and workplace skills including leadership, ethics, respect, responsibility, and productivity. The standards should be interdisciplinary with a focus on real-world problems. Assessments that support these standards should assess the whole child--cognitively, socially, physically, and emotionally, including the health, safety, engagement, and attitude of the student. These assessments will include essays, teacher observations, instant online quizzes, polls, and voting, blog commentaries, simulations, portfolios, and evaluations of internships, and community service. It is believed that half of instruction should be based on inquiry, design, and collaborative project learning while the other half of instruction could remain traditional. The success of this system change will be dependent on quality teacher professional development giving teachers the skills, knowledge, and support needed to be effective in the 21st century learning environment. This professional development must include engaging teachers in the design and implementation of projects as well as guiding them to develop the ability to manage and assess those projects. Teachers must be encouraged to draw from the expertise of a wider community of educators and should be engaged in modeling, mentoring, coaching, and problem solving with their colleagues. Learning environments must also be transformed to support the changes in the move toward 21st century learning and the culture which it will create withing the school. As this goal is realized learning will reach beyond the walls of the school building into real-world learning environments in the community. Education systems will be challenged to be flexible in the use of time in regard to the school calendar year, too. Mobile technology will allow students to learn anywhere, anytime as teachers, administrators, and parents search for learning opportunities outside of the school.
Ultimately the goal of this new system of learning is to move students from skills to expertise. Student experts will notice patterns and features, have a broad base of content knowledge grounded with deep understanding, can draw from that deep understanding to apply the knowledge to solve problems and do so quickly.
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