21st Century Teaching and Learning

The student of the 21st Century must be able to learn, apply and adapt in a rapidly changing environment. Students should have a solid mastery of core subjects infused with a global perspective of evolving cultural, economic, health, civic and environmental realities. Creativity, critical thinking and problem solving will be the foundation to new solutions that will be communicated and developed through collaborative and innovative efforts. Students must understand the media that surrounds them and even create it themselves. They need to access, construct, apply and evaluate information. Students should be flexible enough to adapt to a changing world and emerge with the life and career skills that will guide them across cultures and into their future.

Video

How do we get there?

• We must shift from education to learning

• We must shift from consumption of information to participation in production

• We must shift from thinking about institutions to thinking about networks

Learning today is open, integrated, social, distributive, interactive, formal, informal and mobile. College and career readiness means that the student should be able to apply a range of life skill competencies with a mastery of content knowledge, and do so in real world contexts.

Fusing the "three Rs" (reading, writing and arithmetic) with the "four Cs" (critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity and innovation skills) can help accomplish 21^st century teaching and learning. Mastery of the content and learning skills should be indivisible and measurable.  As this infusion occurs, students will gain life and career skills that will be required of them in the future. Students must use technology and media-rich tools to access information, learn and collaborate at an unprecedented scale. Seamlessly weaving 21st century themes (global awareness, economic, health, civic and environmental literacy) into core subjects will promote an understanding of academic content at a much higher level.

Integrating the "three Rs" and "four Cs" along with 21^st century themes and media and life skills will have a significant impact on improving teaching and learning, making the educational environment more relevant, rigorous and engaging.

21st Century Teaching and Learning Flyer

To facilitate this type of educational environment, this district is working diligently to design and implement district curricula in a manner that leverages all available technology resources to differentiate instruction, engage students through student centered learning and teaching and fuse the "three Rs" with the "four Cs." We will offer innovative and proven professional development for our leadership and teachers starting this fall. The district has partnered with Abilene Christian University and their K-12 educator teacher preparation program (ACU Connected Consulting) to facilitate this training. Connected has been chosen by Power on Texas, a project of the Texas Education Agency, as having the top model for innovative educator preparation where the latest in mobile technology is being combined with 21st Century approaches to education with noteworthy outcomes. Learn more about Connected by visiting Power on Texas. 

2008 NECC Gaming and Design - BISD   

Video of Educational Technology in Boerne 2008  

 21st Century Teaching and Learning - 2006

Currently the district has two Campus Instructional Technologist to support the instructional technology needs for the district. 

Laurien Monaghen (secondary)
Laurien.monaghen@boerne-isd.net
830-357-2142
Laurien's Wiki
website

Karen Short (elementary)
karen.short@boerne-isd.net
830-357-2140

Julie Turner
Educational Technology Coordinator 
julie.turner@boerne-isd.net
830-357-2109