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[edit] Futurekids, Inc.
25-year old Futurekids, Inc., is a privately held American professional development and educational software company. The development and deployment of verbal and tactile skills needed by teachers to achieve computer literacy so it can be taught is one of the company's chief pursuits, offered via continuing education that keeps educators abreast of 21st century technology and teaching practices related to technology, within the general framework of lifelong learning.
Founded in 1983, Futurekids' early pioneering work in computer education has benefited tens of thousands of teachers around the globe. Today, educators in 65 nations employ Futurekids professional development curricula. The firm also develops and deploys computer-based software curricula for students, educators and administrators to facilitate information literacy and 21st century skills consistent with the International Society for Technology in Education; [1]Gateway to 21st Century Skills; the Software and Information Industry Association;, and the [2]Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The company is headquartered in El Segundo, California, USA.
In the state of Pennsylvania, Futurekids is a partner in the Commonwealth's [3]“Classrooms for the Future” technology initiative, a three year $200 million program "to prepare students for an ever-changing global marketplace." The initiative is aimed at high school administrators, teachers and students. Partners provide hardware, software and professional development services and include Lenovo, CDW-G, Adobe, Promethean, Polyvision and Apple Computer, in addition to Futurekids.
Futurekids’ develops curriculum products for students. Its leadership product is [4]Real Journeys in Technology, an [5]ISTE NET standards compliant suite of programs that introduce K-12 students to computer literacy skills. It is structured around a sequence of 500 learning objectives in ten key computer-centered skills, such as word processing, graphics, spreadsheets and the Internet. In the United States, Real Journeys is in use at [6]schools in 25 states. Globally, it is in use at [7]schools in nearly 40 nations. The company also hosts online services that provide a gateway for collaborative classrooms.
Through [8]Technology and Learning Magazine, a partnership dubbed [9]21st Century Connections includes Futurekids, Intel, Adobe and Lenovo. It enables students to explore ways to learn new skills and use new technology tools.
== Contents ==
1. Background: 21st century skills
2. Software
3. Services
4. References
5. External Links
[edit] Background: 21st Century Skills
With education squarely in the crosshairs of global technology providers, [10]Leslie Conery, deputy CEO of ISTE, asks
“How do we prepare students for living in a global society and increasingly complex world? What new knowledge and skills are needed for productive collaboration in the 21st century? And what types of learning environments foster the development of those skills?”
The growing importance of the role of technology in education can be seen in the mission statement of the [11]Laptop Learning Community:
In order to prepare our students to be successful global citizens, we need to guide them to be self–directed in their learning and to be lifelong learners. Ubiquitous computing such as that in a school with laptops allows students to be self–directed in their studies.
[12]Project Tomorrow aptly embraces the task of "Preparing today's students to be tomorrow's innovators, leaders and engaged citizens." The organization says: "...by supporting the innovative uses of science, math and technology resources in our K-12 schools and communities, students will develop the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills needed to compete and thrive in the 21st century."
The [13]Gateway to 21st Century Skills, a consortium, provides entry to United States achievement standards in education, organized by state. The Gateway states:
Today’s education system faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn. Schools are struggling to keep pace with the astonishing rate of change in students' lives outside of school. Students will spend their adult lives in a multitasking, multifaceted, technology driven, diverse, vibrant world -- and they must arrive equipped to do so.
The confluence of technology with education is nowhere more visible than the global stage established by Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child project created at MIT's Media Lab. Media coverage of the project by CBS [14]"60 Minutes" cemented images of students in third world nations, able to develop a fulsome, hopeful and optimistic understanding of the world around them, enabled by pervasive technology that had found its way into their hands. The OLPC's modest goal, "To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves," forms a compelling [15]educational proposition:
It is critically important to adequately educate all the children of the emerging world. Simply doing more of the same is no longer enough, if it ever was. If their citizens are to benefit, as they should from the spread of the technology-based, global information economy, these nations must rethink the old top-down classroom paradigm, and replace it with a dynamic learning model that leverages the children themselves, turning them into “teachers” as well as “learners.”...
[edit] Software
(Undergoing Development)
[edit] Services
(Undergoing Development)
[edit] References
(Undergoing Development)
Education
Primary education
Secondary education
Compliance with standards through support for the activities of the Software and Information Industry Association
[16]International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
Educational Technology
Instructional Theory
[edit] External Links
(Undergoing Development)
[17]Futurekids website
