I think that teachers have recognized
that content is important, but the way that students learn
and the way that students need today to be engaged.
They want to be a part of their own learning,
they want to have choice and voice in their learning,
and the way that the teacher helps them learn the content
has got to change.
Learning has changed in the 21st century
because our world has changed.
Work has changed completely.
The kinds of skills and knowledge that our businesses
need is completely different than it was in the 20th century.
I think our students are different.
Their expectations for being involved in their learning
are much higher.
They really want to know, "Why do I have to learn this?"
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Our framework that we've developed
over the last several years really describes how learning
in the 21st century ought to be arranged.
So, we believe that there ought to be a strong focus, of course,
on the CORE content, and on interdisciplinary themes,
such as global awareness, financial literacy,
civic literacy, health literacy, global literacy.
But also students have to have the skills in order
to be able to use the knowledge that they're gaining in school.
So the four Cs are the heart of the framework.
They are critical thinking, collaboration, communication,
and creativity and innovation.
We've learned from talking a lot with our business partners
and our government partners, and even community leaders,
that students must have these skills in order to succeed.
One example of the four Cs in action:
when you walk in each classroom, what you will see is--
you probably won't be able to see the teacher
when you first walk in
because he or she will be in a small group
or talking to one student, and is busy.
You will also see small groups of students,
you might see some up at the white board, and in every case,
you will see students who, if you walk up to the student
and you say, "What are you doing?"
they will be able to tell you what they're doing
and they will show you on their iPad
what their personalized learning plan is.
And what their goal for the day is,
what lesson they're working on, and what skills
they are working on.
And so that is a very different picture than the picture
of you walk into the class
and the teacher's at the front of the room,
and you have rows and desks
and some of the students are engaged and some are not.
Or even other technology models where maybe every student
is sitting behind... sort of behind a computer,
kind of isolated behind their computers.
In one of the exemplar schools where we visited,
the students were working collaboratively in groups
in order to build a model of... one of their large projects was
to build a model of a nearby river in the town
in which they lived.
And so the students would-- there were five or six
collaborative groups in the classroom,
and some of them were in charge of researching the geography
and the geology around the river itself.
Another group was researching the history of the model,
and other groups were preparing their presentation
to the school board about how they were going to design
and build and research and build these... the river.
It's a great example of students being able to apply
all of the four Cs and utilize their creativity with...
and technology for how they were going to be able to do this,
how they were going to communicate it,
how they were going to evaluate it and be able to analyze
what needed to be done and actually take action
in a real world setting that had real world consequences.
Technology is a real enabler, an accelerator for the four Cs.
You know, through the resources and the networks
that are available through technology, students can really
engage in real-life experiences through their learning,
they can contact authors and scientists throughout the world.
They can engage in games and other things
that build critical thinking, and they can collaborate
with people across the world.
Some of the characteristics of the teachers
who were really able to do this, to implement the four Cs,
were... are that they are open to innovation,
they are risk takers, not afraid to fail.
And so it's really... many of those life and career skills,
that responsibility, that flexibility,
the teachers that are really implementing the four Cs
are those that are exhibiting these skills
and are passing those skills on and through to their students.
The advice that I would give a teacher getting new technology
in their classroom and wanting to really implement the four Cs,
would be to probably start small.
Start with baby steps.
Connect with other colleagues who are trying to do it
across your school, or across the country,
or across the world.
And build support so that you can be open to innovation
and be willing to try new things.