Molotech

Intel® Learn Program demonstrates success in teaching 21st century skills

June 27th, 2007

The Intel® Learn Program is a global education initiative to teach children the 21st century skills needed to work in a knowledge economy: technological literacy, critical thinking and collaboration. The program is a hands-on, interactive curriculum comprised of two 30-hour units entitled Technology and Community and Technology at Work. Using a project-based approach, the curriculum’s activities and projects demonstrate to learners how technology can contribute to and help improve their communities.

Has it been successful in teaching the desired skills? According to a Review of Evaluation Findings for the Intel Learn Program published in 2006 by SRI International, the answer is yes. The two-year evaluation focused on eight countries where Intel Learn is offered to a total of 192,691 learners, mostly in informal educational settings. In general, children who participate in Intel Learn make gains in the three primary program goal areas. Key findings are as follows:

• Across ages, genders, and regions, learners show high levels of engagement in program activities and motivation to attend. 97% of participant learners complete the program.
• Improvements in technological literacy: program instructors overwhelmingly report that learners in the program improve their technical skills (graphics, word processing, spreadsheets and multimedia are measured). Further, local evaluators who worked with SRI International documented that in Egypt children are teaching the technology skills they have learned through the program to parents and siblings.
• Critical thinking: a majority of educators observed positive change in learners’ critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities by the end of the course.
• Collaboration: students in all countries learn to work effectively as members of a group, relying on each other to gain new technical skills and solve technical problems, to develop their ideas for projects and activities, and to review and revise their work. Students in the program come to see their peers as key resources for learning.
• It’s not only learners that benefit from the program: teachers generally find that the program lets them rethink their role to place less emphasis on dispensing information and more emphasis on promoting students’ active exploration, problem solving, and creativity. One classroom teacher noted the new insights and capabilities she gained from the program, saying, “Even though I was teaching for the last 2 years, it is now that I understand how to facilitate [student learning].”

References in the report that are of particular interest:

• ICT, education reform, and economic growth
• Changing how and what children learn in school with computer-based technologies
• Learning for the 21st Century.

Entry Filed under: Technology, Education