21st Century Learning

How do you define 21st Century Learning? Is it the content? Is it the tools? Is it how you deliver content? Does the room matter? Is it virtual? I find the idea of defining 21st Cent Skills odd in some ways, and difficult in others. We can't predict the future, and in our current society, technology and lives change at an exponential rate compared to the last century. So how do you build skills for the future? You add flexibility, yet set ambigious guidelines that allow for the ebb and flow of change. But how do you set standards that encompass 21st Century Skills? How can you categorize something that is so hard to nail down? We currently live in a EOG & Standards based world - and that isn't about to change anytime soon.

So when I look at the 21st Century Skills Initiative - that NC is apart of - I'm not surprised to see that this is an initiative driven by businesses and industry. Maybe this is where the flexibility we need to define skills - by business needs and the funding to make it possible can come together. Maybe....