Innovating the 21st Century High School

ACOT2 is the next phase of Apple’s ACOT initiative that investigated how the routine use of technology might change teaching and learning. The recently released ACOT2 is more specifically focused on how to create a learning environment that will support the teaching of 21st century skills. The result: “Six Design Principles of the 21st Century High School”.

1)    First, but not trivial: understanding what is meant by “21st century skills and outcomes”.

2)    Relevant and Applied Curriculum  Educators increasingly understand that they need to be able to answer the question: “why do we have to learn this?” In addition, the 21st century classroom will be more project-based and multidisciplinary.

3)    Informative Assessment  This was another example of the convergence that was evident throughout the conference. Informative assessments were central to the session on “Assessing 21st century skills”.

4)    A Culture of Innovation and Creativity  Another concept that was reinforced throughout the conference related to the importance of developing the creative abilities that are inherent in every student. Teachers can help create this environment by providing opportunities for students to engage in deep, complex thinking in an environment that is positive and tolerant of failure.

5)    Social and Emotional Connections with Students  It was somewhat surprising to hear this from someone from a technology background, but one of the key design principles for the 21st century high school is providing students with a social and emotional connection to their school, in order to fully engage the learning process – which relates back to the first session on brain research. As an example, she told a story of a principal who made a point of identifying how every student was connected to the school, either through a particular teacher, coach or adviser.

6)    Ubiquitous Access to Technology  It almost goes without saying that students need 24/7 access to information, resources, and technologies in order to do research and analysis, to communicate, and to publish their work using a variety of media to varied audiences. This recognizes that the typical student experience is one of collaboration and being always connected.

While it could be said that Apple has a vested interest in this – for many years their products have been recognized as well-designed for educational purposes – their work struck me as another example of doing well by doing good.  In that same vein, Apple has begun to assemble a vast array of public domain educational resources that they have collated at iTunes U. (This can be found at the iTunes store, and can be searched by subject area, or by source provider.)