 Name: Michael Stevenson Title: Vice-President of Global Education, Cisco Systems, Inc. Education: M.A., Classics, Oxford University. England Michael Stevenson is responsible for developing vision and strategy for Cisco’s “21st Century Schools Initiative.” The corporation’s focus is on international K-12 education, particularly urban schools. Stevenson, who has a background in broadcasting for the BBC, is based in London. He recently spoke with HotChalk about what he sees as necessary 21st century skills and how the U.S. is doing in this area.
Q: What are the critical issues in K-12 education? A: Globally, the key issues are ensuring that students leave school with a set of 21st century skills, by which I mean critical thinking, complex problem solving, and the ability to work in teams.  Q: How will education systems be able to do this?
A: Making sure that happens requires rethinking teaching and learning, specifically ensuring that teaching and learning are inquiry-based, that they cross subject boundaries, and that they deal with real-world problems. To support that kind of teaching and learning, you need the collaborative technologies that are now perfectly equipped to help young people work in teams to create new knowledge. Q: What’s an example of these collaborative technologies at work? A: Imagine a group of learners in Arizona, another group in London, and another group in Singapore. They’re all working on a single project, which is supporting the creation of a real building in London’s Hyde Park. It’s a temporary structure, it’s a very special piece of architecture, and each year a new one is commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery in London. Imagine that this team of youngsters in three countries is tasked with helping the London architects design the building. There are all sorts of academic challenges. The main ones are around the physics of putting up a complex structure, but what’s going on here is working in a global team with real-world experts on a real-world problem. That’s the way those youngsters will acquire the skills we’re talking about. Obviously you can’t do it without the Internet as the platform and the collaborative technologies to help you. Q: Where’s the U.S. in terms of teaching these skills? A: The U.S., like a number of countries, has developed curriculum and assessment that primarily test for facts and knowledge rather than skills. If anything, the emphasis on math and literacy that we have seen over the past 10 years has intensified the problem. Q: What strengths in the U.S. system can be built on? A: The U.S. has introduced a whole set of important reforms over the last decade or so. They include a strategy to strengthen school leadership, an investment in better teaching, accountability for student outcomes, and standardized curricula. As a result, we have seen improvements in almost all states and real excellence in some, for example, Massachusetts. But all of that reform only provides a platform for the next phase, and that next phase has to be about the 21st century skills.  Sheila Riley is a San Francisco-based freelance journalist. She is also an experienced online editor and ESL curriculum developer, and teaches ESL at City College of San Francisco.
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As product companies shift the various pieces of the value proposition for an offering to the most efficient geographic marketplace for delivering those goods or services (a wave we are now well into) the basic skill of collaboration across borders becomes table stakes.
I think your observation Michael, that the last ten years of drill/test for knowledge was besides the point, is spot-on.
It won't matter if you can do the math, if you don't know how to connect with a supply chain partner in Singapore, resolve fit and finish issues on a design at the spec'd quality levels within the market timing window that sales and marketing are marching towards.
We've got to turn our attention, and teachers, to these basic ideas if we're going to maintain our position in the global economic hierarchy.