by Jim Hirsch
THERE IS NO QUESTION the three R’s are the hallmarks of every successful education system since the Greek philosophers. Of course, those hall-marks are also the current foundation of every state and federal accountability system.
In today’s classrooms, however, our students have become keenly interested in the three C’s that they use often and effectively in their lives outside of school. Bringing those three C’s: communication, collaboration and creativity, into the classroom is a challenge deserving the attention of every school leader now.
21st
century skills are needed
The work of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and their Route 21 project in particular, is bringing private-industry expectations for their future workforce into this discussion as well. Results from the organization’s October 2007 survey of voters nationwide show that 88 percent of the respondents believe 21st century skills should be part
of the curriculum.
Beyond a greatly expanded core subject list, the learning and innovation skills include creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem solving; and communication and collaboration. Measuring student proficiency on these skills is much more difficult than assessing the three R’s. Embedding learning experiences involving the three C’s is just as challenging, but a necessary first step if we wish to address what the public is now viewing as important educational components for their children.
In the 2007 Project Tomorrow Speak Up Day survey, 51 percent of the K-12 students said they’re interested in educational gaming because games make it easier to understand difficult concepts, yet only 19 percent of parents and 15 percent of administrators favor that idea. In a similar vein, while 53 percent of middle and high school students are excited about using mobile devices to help them learn, only 15 percent of school leaders support this idea.
Modeling applications
This significant disconnect between student learning preferences and adult hesitancy to invent appropriate methods to embed them into typical school activities will be a growing tension point as we strive to provide more student-centered learning and engagement in our classrooms.
As school system leaders, it’s important to model and encourage inclusion of the three C’s in all of our work in the business of education. That can start as simply as requiring your leadership team to keep electronic calendars that provide group access rights, all the way to having online accounts to a free service such as Google Docs and asking your team to collaborate on shared word processing or spreadsheet documents.
Principals and teaching staff will notice
the increased level of innovation used by the district leadership team and may become more inclined to investigate uses of these collaborative technologies themselves. The more experience staff have for themselves with this type of technology-enhanced collaboration, the more
comfortable and confident they will feel in designing learning activities where students can use their understanding of the three C’s.
Facebook alternative
Can the use of the three C’s be done in a safe manner in a school setting? The answer is a definite YES! Consider this example as a working model of appropriate school use of innovative collaborative technologies.
Students often create their own ad-hoc study groups when working on school assignments outside of class. A recent application available on Facebook called Study Hall allows friends to meet each other online, use a common, private whiteboard and collaborate with text, drawing tools and images while discussing reading assignments, math problems or science experiments.
I don’t advocate having students use Facebook accounts while in school, so consider implementing an open-source social networking application such as Elgg on your school server and installing Study Hall as an available application.
To remain a relevant learning experience for students and engage them more deeply in school, consider adding emphasis on the three C’s, in addition to the great work you're doing with the three R’s. 
This article was first published in the September 2008 issue of The School Administrator.
Jim Hirsch is Associate Superintendent for Academic and Technology Services in Plano ISD, Plano, Texas. In his 34th year of public education, he directs many school programs in his district. Contact Jim by e-mail at info@psi-solutions.org.