In 2012, Microsoft announced a new professional development program called 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD), formerly known as “LEAP21”, that helps teachers build innovative pedagogical practices and develop resources for designing learning activities that foster higher order skills. It includes:
- practice-based professional development, so new ideas are used immediately in the classroom
- collaboration among teachers to share risk as well as motivation
- flexible content that can be adapted to meet teachers’ own unique situations
- ongoing, structured work that doesn’t end after a workshop
- meaningful recognition of progress in teaching and a way to measure its impact on learning
21CDL also includes resources for educators, in the form of rubrics that help them analyze and redesign their own lessons to develop students’ higher order skills. Problem-solving, collaboration, knowledge construction, and communication skills are all needed by students as they prepare for a globalized knowledge-based economy.
Now these rubrics are available under a Creative Commons license globally, so that they can be freely used, republished, and re-mixed to adapt them to local contexts, curricula and pedagogical cultures. The new rubrics include both Learning Activity and Student Work rubrics for:
- Collaboration
- Knowledge Construction
- Self-Regulation
- Use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for Learning
- Skilled Communication
- Real World Problem Solving and Innovation
You can find and use the new 21CLD Rubrics that are the foundation of the 21CLD workshops here or at the following URL: http://www.itlresearch.com/itl-leap21
