Changing the World

You may have read or watched the story of a 17 year old in New Jersey finding a way to change the new iPhone so that it was no longer tied strictly to the AT&T network. Tracy Weeks writes on the LeaderTalk blog that this could be an example of a student using 21st century skills and provides us with motivation to extend the learning that must occur for our students to be successful.

We have seen our country evolve, quickly I might add, from an industrial economy, through the information-based age, to what could be called the innovation age. Daniel Pink writes in his book A Whole New Mind, that creativity will be of utmost importance for success in the future. Psychologist Robert Sternberg states that analytic, practical, and creative skills will be required in this new economy.

Looking at the learning elements that the Partnership for 21st Century Skills sees as essential, one sees creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem-solving, and communication and collaboration. The iPhone change provides us with examples of all of those skills. (According to the student, this is legal based on his knowledge of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.)

For example, what was the motivation that compelled this student to try to change the iPhone? In his interview with MSNBC, the student says that the problem was that he couldn’t use the phone on his network. But, he also says that he wouldn’t have done it had it not been fun for him to do. The motivation came from a problem that was relevant to the student and was in an area of interest. This provided the focus to spend 500 hours on the project.

In addition, this student, from New Jersey, collaborated with others around the world to come up with a solution. Technology is allowing people from around the world work together to communicate, learn, and solve problems. As educators, we must find ways to help students not only learn these 21st century skills, but to demonstrate the learning as well.

The combination of merging strengths and interests with 21st century skills provides the intrinsic motivation for students to seek the knowledge needed to solve authentic problems as well as the skills to find the solutions. It should make for interesting times ahead.