MAET Blog

Dear Friends,
I wanted to start off the new year by sharing an interesting report entitled 21st Century Knowledge and Skills in Educator Preparation released by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The report calls on teacher education programs to update their curricula to better prepare future teachers to integrate 21st-century skills into their instruction. It also seeks to establish a shared vision for infusing digital-age knowledge and skills into teacher preparation programs and spark a meaningful discussion among higher-education leaders about how to implement this vision.
Sharon P. Robinson, AACTE president, and Ken Kay, P21 president, are quoted in an article in eSchool news (Groups urge updates to teacher preparation programs) as saying: “New teacher candidates must be equipped with 21st-century knowledge and skills and learn how to integrate them into their classroom practice for our nation to realize its goal of successfully meeting the challenges of this century,”
The report seeks to create an ongoing dialog about how to update teacher preparation for a new era in which students are digitally connected and are accustomed to learning in new ways—and employers are looking for candidates who can use digital tools to communicate effectively, collaborate on projects, solve problems, think critically, and innovate.
I had the good fortune to be one of the people who worked on the report, being a former chair of the Innovation and Technology Committee of the American Colleges of Teacher Education.
Also interesting to MAET students would be the fact that one of the ideas that lies at the heart of the report (and is mentioned repeatedly) is that of TPACK. As students may know the idea of TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) emerged right here at Michigan State University – and is the foundation of a lot of what we do in our courses. This recognition of our work is always great – but more importantly it points to how what we are doing in the MAET program is at the cutting edge of work in the field of educational technology and this is positioning our grads to become leaders in the field.
Finally on a more personal note, I would like to share with you best wishes for the new year. Every year (at least for the past three) my family works together to create a video new year’s greeting. This year was no exception. You can see the card below, or on my website.
Happy 2011 from Punya Mishra on Vimeo.
Finally to end, a couple of questions to continue the conversation: How did we create the video that you just saw? Do you see any use for something like this in your classroom? What could you do with this kind of an idea? Share your thoughts with us using the comment box below.
Sincerely,

~ punya