Chapter 1

Leading 21st Century School: what schools leaders need to know

In Chapter 1, “Leading 21st-Century Schools: What School Leaders Need to Know, ” It is discussed many of the changes that students and teachers face in today’s world. Here, there are some new ideas about literacy and learning that are impacting the need for administrators to take leadership and action today in order to transform schools and districts into 21st-century places for teaching and learning. 

The main idea of this book is to help to prepare us to take advantage of Web 2.0 to educate students in ways that will help them live successfully and thrive in the 21st century.

"People in the 21st century live in a technology- and media-suffused environment, marked by access to an abundance of information, rapid changes in technology tools, and the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology". —Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org) "

Tip 1:

To be a successful leader in the 21st century, school leaders need to be open to change, know how to manage change, and be risk takers.

NEW LITERACIES 

Being literate in the 21st century requires more than knowing how to read, write, and compute. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills initiative (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org; 2004a) helps us see the necessity of infusing information literacy, critical media literacy, and information, communication, and technology (ICT) literacy into every subject taught in our schools. Without these skills, and others—including visual literacy, multimedia literacy, and cultural literacy—our students will not be able to adapt to changes coming their way.

Web 2.0, which involves an interactive Web where many people have come together to create new tools for learning and teaching that are not static but are highly interactive and that do not operate in isolation but require collaboration and communication.

WHAT DRIVES THESE CHANGES? 

While a changing world, globalization, a changing economy, and an uncertain future are some of the drivers of changes school leaders see in education today, they will continue to affect schools in the years to come.

Administrator Standards 

As you may know, in 1996 the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) developed a set of common standards and indicators for the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that school leaders should possess. These standards for administrators were updated in 2008 and adopted by over 30 states and a dozen affiliated professional organizations that participated in the development of these standards. At heart, these standards are about learning and teaching and the learning environment.

Content-Area Standards 

The challenge in implementing the newest technology standards for students has been to find ways to promote and integrate them within the context of all the other requirements for student learning. All school leaders are familiar with the content standards for students and probably routinely provide professional development activities for their teachers and themselves. It may be unknown, however, that all the content-specific standards now include technology in very clear and compelling ways.

Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, and many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to: Develop proficiency with the tools of technology Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

21st century skills

Students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century: 1. Core Subjects and 21st-Century Themes (including English, reading, or language arts; world languages; arts; mathematics; economics; science; geography; history; government and civics). It also includes integrative themes (global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy; health literacy). 2. Learning and Innovation Skills (including creativity and innovation skills; critical thinking and problem-solving skills; and communication and collaboration skills). 3. Information, Media, and Technology Skills 4. Life and Career Skills (including flexibility and adaptability; initiative and self-direction; social and crosscultural skills; productivity and accountability; leadership and responsibility).

Challenges of Teaching With Technology 

Yes, Web 2.0 tools are nearly all free and they are readily accessible on the Internet. However, that means your students have to have access to the Internet and your teachers have to know how to make use of these tools. Many of your teachers and just about all of your students already know about these tools and use them daily outside of school. But not all your veteran teachers know about or use Web 2.0, and not all your students have access to the Internet in their homes. W