Chapter 1: A New Essential Curriculum for a New Time

What do we need to know as faculty to prepare our students for the future?

It is critical among faculty to be aware of the basic fact about the prevailing myth, the standards
movement that exists to prepare students for their future. Teachers of the future are today’s multifaceted
teachers educating and preparing students to meet the demands of the 21 st century and job market.
According to Jacobs, teachers need latitude to help individual learners reach proficiency targets. Yet, in
practice, classroom experience too often locks in rigid standardization with an overemphasis on low-level
testing and dated standards. Teachers of the future must focus less on testing and more on the teaching
skills that place students on a trajectory to meet testing demands and beyond. Paper-pencil tests have their
place in assessing a student’s level of understanding of concepts. Life is filled with tests, many of which
will not be on paper but on one’s ability to apply various skills. Allowing students take on a major role in
steering their learning through projects (project-based learning) or through opportunities to serve others
by applying concepts learned in class (in-service learning) makes learning real for students but of course,
objectives aligned with appropriate benchmarks and competencies must be considered in creating the
alternate assessment. Critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, collaboration and communication skills
come to mind. These are skills under assault by technology that encourages solitary activity, hence, it is
important to incorporate skills that provide equilibrium and reach all learners that will teach them beyond
standardized test but real life lessons. Jacobs stated, “it is critical that we become active researchers and
developers of innovations and new directions.” Teachers of the future must become more adept in their
ability to use data to diagnose problems and prescribe interventions that assist students in going to the
next level.

Chapter 2: Upgrading the Curriculum and 21st Century Assessment Types and Skills

Might we consider the 21st Century Pledge (see pp. 22-23) as a way to begin to upgrade a unit at a
time?

Jacobs states the importance and consideration of the 21st century pledge as a way to begin to
update one unit at a time. As technology struggled to find its way into the classroom in all sorts of ways,
from projectors and televisions to computer labs and student laptops, yet, the current units used in schools
are the units used prior to this technological advancement and advent usage of it and the method needs to
be changed and updated. Faculty must improve the way students are taught, it is also vitally important
that students learn to use computers to improve their own work and prepare for careers in a world where
computers have become as common as the pencil and paper. Education has benefited from the inclusion
of technology and computers by making it easier for students to keep up while helping teachers by
improving the way lessons can be planned and taught. Students should be allowed and encouraged to use
technology in the classroom and at home as we live in such technological civilization. Upon the rise of
these technological tools affecting and changing the whole scenario of our educational system educators
need to think of ways to train today’s generation to be responsible and ethical life-long learners of the
digital age. Teachers must demonstrate, guide, and help students practice appropriate and professional
behavior while actively participating in authentic learning experiences.

Chapter 3: Upgrading Content: Provocation, Invigoration, and Replacement

What makes content such a challenging area to upgrade?

According to Jacobs (2010), upgrading content requires deliberate provocation. Content

replacements require us to carefully articulate what is timely and timeless and to concurrently find what
we can let go, he added. Thriving in a period of rapid change requires curiosity and open-mindedness to
try new things, agility to adapt to change, and pivoting to work around roadblocks. A curriculum defines
what the learner will learn and can possibly guide when the learner learns the information from the lesson
with its content. Content, on the other hand, is a central element in curriculum design and can be
organized within disciplines or through interdisciplinary designs (Jacobs, 2010). A curriculum offers
teachers the ideas and strategies for assessing student progress. A student must meet certain academic
requirements in order to go to the next level. Without the guidance of a curriculum, teachers cannot
be certain that they have supplied the necessary knowledge or the opportunity for student success
at the next level, whether that the levels involve a high school, college or career. Providing a platform
for students to acquire these required knowledge, skill and develop positive attitude, values and beliefs.

The overlap between timeless and timely learning continues to expand. Timeless learning such as
developing literacy skills should, whenever possible, incorporate timely enhancements such as using tools
like laptops, mobile devices, programs, goggle, ect. to help with comprehension, or  educational
techbook to access vetted, developmentally appropriate, resources. But there are varieties of challenges
facing of upgrading the content of curriculum, the process of globalization, accelerated pace of scientific
and technological progress, radical transformation in the work field, increasing social inequalities,
progress of democracy and human rights, multiculturalism, the feeling of insecurity, and moral decline.
 Timeless learning is not limited to the intellect; it also is connected to the emotions, the body, and
soul/spirit. Being able to adjust the content of the curriculum, learners can establish effective relationship
with their immediate environment be it their families, schools or communities only if their
communication and interpersonal skills improve significantly. Therefore these skills should be included in
the curriculum as a subject, and widely incorporated into other subjects and their school life whenever
appropriate. In selection of teaching content and learning activities, teachers should provide learners with
opportunities to practise the skills of conveying ideas and expressing feelings, so as to promote
interpersonal skills and co-operation. Apart from it, teachers can also observe and assess learner’s
progress.

Chapter 5: Five Socio-Economic Trends That Change Everything in Learning and Teaching

How might we as a faculty or leadership team embrace these trends productively?

The biggest potential impact on learners of technology in education in 21st century will be the
opportunity to nurture skills to help them succeed, increase the quality of learning across mixed-ability
classes, and protect students’ online safety. Innovations and trends in technology are giving more
advanced tools and better forms of edtech to improve school’s results and enhance teachers’ pedagogy.
Innovative teachers, meanwhile, are getting more creative with their edtech, finding ways to use
technology for differentiated learning and increased engagement.

Today, many learners own a mobile device. Tapping this technology for learning in will improve
engagement and motivation across all learning abilities. Mobile learning will also offer greater flexibility
and accessibility for learning at home. Connecting mobile technology and devices within the classroom
will allow teachers to provide a fully immersive, integrated learning experience for all learning styles and
abilities. Shared applications and documents on the cloud, such as Google Apps will allow learners and
teachers for more social lessons. They could be in the same room or in different countries. These are all
good skills for learners to have. Of course, these collaborative tools are also very useful for teachers.

It starts with understanding that technology is a tool–a means to accomplishing an end, but not an
end itself. It’s important to not just leverage technology for technology’s sake. There needs to be a
purpose behind it. For example, besides simply having iPads in the classroom, schools need to have goals
in place for using them. Perhaps the goal is enabling kids to create with the iPads—like build their own
apps—versus simply reviewing materials on the device.
 What we must remember is that when schools adopt new technology and services, they must be
evaluated. This way, as a school, you know if they are successful and what improvements are needed.
Staff will also need training, you can't expect staff to use new technology if it they are not confident users
or creators. Any initiative is doomed to failure without well trained, confident staff who can see how
technology can support and benefit teaching and learning.

Chapter 6: A Classroom as Wide as the World

How can our school and our teachers bring global perspectives directly into each subject and
classroom?

Those students across the pond are their future co-workers as much as they are their competition.
There’s a need for them to know why we each believe the things we do, and what about our environment
shapes those beliefs. That’s why in an increasingly globalized society, it’s crucial that our learners
understand the world around them. One of the most valuable lessons students can learn these days is how
to understand and appreciate perspectives other than their own. As the world becomes “flat” and people
move from one country to another, educators must teach global tolerance with an understanding that the
new workforce may work for a foreign company or abroad. Therefore, educators must equip students with
knowledge about global economics that will have a direct impact on students’ future job choices. As jobs
continue to be transferred overseas, institutions of higher learning are placed at the forefront of training
bilingual and culturally astute workers for the global market.

However, in today's increasingly interconnected and globalised world, tradition is being

supplemented by new and exciting ways to bring the world into our classrooms. Modern means of
communication such as social networks and video conferencing can ensure that our students experience
foreign cultures with unprecedented ease. Global awareness and international collaboration during the
formative years results in more rounded individuals, encouraging our pupils to see things from different
perspectives and helping them to make informed decisions, acquiring transferable skills that will be useful
to them and will remain with them for life. 

Globally competent teaching does not require a separate course or unit of study. Instead, teachers
infused global content into the required curriculum, regardless of subject area. For example, math
teachers used real-world global challenges as contexts for introducing new concepts. For instance, using
word problems on population growth as a way to teach the rules of exponents and language arts teachers
used texts that represent diverse cultural perspectives and that take place in settings around the world to
teach literature and informational texts. Teachers can also provide real-world audiences for students to
engage with around global issues. This took the form of pen pal and Skype exchanges with schools in
other countries, service-learning projects emphasizing issues of global concern like access to clean water,
or working in teams to devise and debate solutions to real-world problems, such as climate change, and
sharing those solutions with government leaders. Notably, these activities were student-centered and
inquiry-based.

Chapter 8: Media Literacy: 21st Century Literacy Skills

How can we help our learners realize that that "all media messages are constructed"?

With the advent of digital technologies, awareness of media is acquiring crucial importance.
Media literacy, information literacy and digital literacy are the three most prevailing concepts that focus
on a critical approach towards media messages. Media literacy is concerned with helping students
develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the mass media, the techniques used by
them, and the impact of these techniques. Media literacy also aims to provide students with the ability to
create media products.

When we say that all media messages are constructed, we mean that all media messages have
been assembled by someone. That “someone” could be a single person, or it could be a large
organization. The messages and values embedded in this particular piece of media are those of the people
who created it. The media do not simply reflect external reality. Rather, they present carefully crafted
constructions that reflect many decisions and are the result of many determining factors. Media Literacy
works towards deconstructing these constructions

The reason this is important is because not all media messages will have messages learners agree
with, since personal experiences and ideologies will be different from those of the message’s creators.
While you may experience a certain media message in one way, there are others who will most certainly
experience it in a completely different way. For example, while you may find a particular media message
amusing, there may be others who find it offensive.

Chapter 9: Digital Portfolios and Curriculum Maps: Linking Teacher and Student Work

How does the work with digital portfolios affect curriculum decision-making?
 Digital portfolios, e-portfolios or web folios are the same as traditional portfolios only its
presentation format differs. The content of a digital portfolio is presented in a digital format. Digital
portfolios are the best way of displaying students' achievements. In this era, where the use of mobile and
computers is extensive in schools and colleges, having digital portfolios is important for students. E-
portfolios allow students to collect their work for future use. Students can easily curate, archive, and
analyse and keep their sample work for past as well as future learning at their fingertips.

Digital portfolios have the great capacity to impact students' learning.  Now the question is, how
do digital portfolios help students? Having a digital portfolio helps students to brand themselves based on
the skills that they want to showcase to potential employers or school administrators. At the very least,
having a digital portfolio is a starting point for a dialogue with people that are interested in the same
field/industry or can contribute to knowledge sharing. Digital portfolios allow for practicing digital
citizenship, become Googled with educational, share quality projects for college entrance, provide
authentic connections outside the classroom, show understanding etc. Portfolios help students develop a
sense of belonging and to own their learning. I think their power goes beyond helping students document
their work and learning experience. We are living in times where the sense of authorship is a must, when
the information 'that needs to go in books' will be outdated by the time it is published, so portfolios give
us an edge on that. Portfolios are useful as a support to the new instructional approaches that emphasize
the student's role in constructing understanding and the teacher's role in promoting understanding. 

Chapter 10: Educating for a Sustainable Future

How might we inject and upgrade curriculum content across disciplines with an emphasis on
sustainability?

A famous poem from Rumi and I quote,

“We began as a mineral.

We emerged into plant life and into the animal state,

and then into being human,

and always we have forgotten our former states,

except in early spring when we slightly recall

being green again.”

 The diverse crises that the planet faces will only be solved when institution and communities
implement authentic and innovative sustainability practices. It is therefore encouraging that there are an
increasing number of schools now including sustainability as part of their campus management programs
and curriculum. According to Timpson (2006), sustainability represents an interconnectedness of factors
and force —environmental, economic, and social—that require new and more sophisticated analyses,
teachings, and interventions. Sustainability requires integrating the knowledge base of individual
disciplines to create a holistic program that brings together the economic, social, and environmental
understanding, practices, and policies of a globally and environmentally connected world.

Education in this context is education that is incorporated into daily activities in an inter-
disciplinary and inter-cultural setting. Education of this kind requires a new pedagogy, which sees
learners develop skills and competencies for partnership, participation and action. Where individuals
develop skills to enquire critically and think systematically about problems in a way that allows them to
explore the associated complexity and the implications for a more sustainable way of being. The aim is to
provide students with the capabilities to seek out and examine concepts of sustainability within the
context of their discipline, and encourage them to see sustainability as more than simply a definition with
a list of associated short-term simple solutions, but as an integral part of any decision making process
with long-term implications for both the built and natural environments.

It is almost a daily reminders of vanishing polar ice caps, rising sea levels, and horrific weather
patterns give us every reason to wonder if we are doing enough to assure a sustainable future on this
planet. But teachers can employ a variety of educational methods by embedding in the curriculum in an
interdisciplinary and holistic manner, allowing for a whole-institution approach to policy making,
share the values and principles that underpin sustainable development and promote critical thinking,
problem solving and action, all of which develop confidence in addressing the challenges to sustainable
development. Also by addressing local as well as global issues, and avoiding jargon-ridden language and
terms. And looking to the future, ensuring that the content has a long-term perspective and uses medium
and long-term planning.

The graduates leaving schools now are entering a very different world from that encountered by
their forebears even a decade or so ago. It is marked by uncertainty, complexity and rapid change,
manifested through a bewildering array of global issues relating to economic instability, climate change,
inequity, loss of biodiversity and migration, to name a few.
Chapter 11: Power Down or Power Up?

How can our students make rigorous and meaningful contributions to the school and to their own
education?

A famous quote from Alan (2010), "If our children are to grow up to make important
contributions to our society, it is essential that we provide them with powerful tools and experiences
across the curriculum. This will require a new culture of teaching and learning that engages students as
contributors." Every teacher is committed to providing their students with the highest possible quality
education. They rigorously focus on their classroom, curriculum, academics, and other aspects of their
students’ education. Positive, productive learning environments are key to students' academic, emotional
and social success in school. Unfortuntely, positive learning environments don't just happen on their own
they must be created. 

All of this means students are shouldering more responsibility for their own learning. And they
are expected to develop the kind of critical thinking skills, not just rote knowledge required for "real
world" success. As a result, advocates of student-centered learning say it provides superior preparation for
both college and career. Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and
assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good
thing. Allowing students to share in decision making by placing students at the center of their own
learning requires their collaboration. They need a voice in why, what, and how learning experiences take
shape. Allowing children to, with some adult guidance, choose what they want to learn and how they
want to learn it gives them more control over their lives. This can eliminate resistance, help frustrated
kids become more cooperative, and show all children that learning doesn’t have to be boring.

Since students are playing a very important role in their own education and development, teachers
must make sure that they are mentally and physically participating in learning what they need to know
and where they need to develop. Placing students at the center of their own learning requires their
collaboration. They need a voice in why, what, and how learning experiences take shape. Their ideas,
preferences, learning styles, interests, expectations, all are taken into account whilst planning the teaching
actions. Students bring much to the table that would engage and deepen their learning journey.
Chapter 12: Creating Learning Connections with Today's Tech-Savvy Student
How might we use social networks for our own professional growth? How might we use social networks
to stimulate the growth and knowledge of our learners?

Social media is playing a larger role in conversations at education industry and professional
development events. With social media becoming an everyday communication method for individuals
and organizations, it’s logical to incorporate its use into instructional approaches. Social media tools are
rapidly changing the communications landscape. Their emergence has impacted significantly how
students learn and the way instructors teach.

Social networking is a popular tool that many classroom teachers use today to help them stay
connected with their colleagues as well as other professional educators. Today’s technology, meanwhile,
allows educators to connect with people all over the world. These powerful technological tools can make
it easy to maintain professional development relationships by simply commenting on someone’s photo,
status, or by privately messaging them. Having social media accounts are also a great way to showcase
yourself. They can act as an informal resume, where potential employers can learn more about you
through your profile and newsfeed, as well as browse through your qualifications and experience. Social
networking allows teachers to share ideas with other educational professionals. Sites like Facebook and
Instagram make it easy to share teaching techniques as well as learn from others. By comparing notes on
techniques and learning styles, teachers can easily enhance knowledge and learning experience in the
classroom.

The influence of social media on learning and teaching environments is growing more each year.
Social media applications can reinforce class material and positively influence discussions, collaborative
work, and authoring.