In a survey of 2,135 businesses conducted by the German Chamber of Trade and Industry in April this year, “soft skills” – or 21
Questions such as these were addressed at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) which took place on 7-9 December in Doha, Qatar. Dr. Martina Roth, Intel’s Director for Global Education Strategy, Research and Policy, was a panellist on the “Assessment and Education Improvement” session at the summit.
The session focused mainly on the framework for these 21st century skills and the need to adapt these skills to different cultures and the dynamics of its development. These skills are not only critical at work, they present key socio-economic competencies in a continuously changing world.
ICT plays a role in enabling effective assessment. “Every country – every school – needs to monitor, track, record and store all individual feedback that can then be accessed by the respective audience – be it governments or teachers or others. This can’t be done manually; you need ICT to enable this,” notes Martina.
Intel is currently involvedin one of the most ambitious partnership projects in education at present – the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) – created by over 260 leading scientists under the leadership of the University of Melbourne. The project is focused on defining the 21st century skills and developing ways to measure them using IT. It will address the pedagogical implications and provide evidence on how the skills can best be developed in education. Pilot countries are Australia, Singapore, Portugal, Finland, Great Britain and the United States. Currently, five whitepapers on defining a framework of 21st century skills, addressing methodology issues, technological issues, classroom environments and policy frameworks, have been developed. Task development and cognitive labs are underway and will inform pilots and trials that are due to begin next year. Details are due to be discussed and presented at the Education World Forum in London on 7-9 January 2011.
It is clear, as Martina highlights in Die Welt, that enterprises such as Intel, play an increasingly important role in improving the quality of education. As employers, they identify those skills that are required in the future of the economy. They also promote education in schools and universities through expertise, technology solutions and financial support. In addition, they can help improve education by providing access to cutting-edge technologies and stimulate interest in mathematics, natural science and engineering through events and competitions, such as Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair (IntelISEF).
Education photos are available under http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelphotos/sets/72157625892288045