Gateway to 21st Century Skills

January 2008 - “If I only had a nickel for every time….”

$750,000.   Did that get your attention?  It should because it is a lot of money.  You’ve all used the expression, “If I only had a nickel for every time….”  Now, what if I told you that $750,000 equals 15 million nickels and every nickel represented one lesson plan or other learning resource offered to educators visiting the Gateway since NEA started sponsoring just a year and a half ago.

Chief Technologist Don Blake of NEA asked that we try to convey just what numbers are important to understanding how much the Gateway has done in providing its services to educators.  And, as the true educator that he is, he asked that numbers be conveyed in a relevant way to the readers of this update.

As any educator knows, conveying the size and meaning of large numbers is always a challenging task and when discussing technical matters such as web traffic the problem is compounded.

To that end, we at the Gateway offer the following very brief explanation of what those web traffic numbers really mean in terms of the value of the Gateway’s contribution.

There are many ways of calculating web traffic including hits, page views, bandwidth, visits, unique visits and a multitude of other statistic that experts refer to in measuring the utilization of a website.  And, as any expert will tell you they all have their degree of accuracy and inaccuracies.

Let’s focus on the number of page views.  A page view is when someone looks at a page, pure and simple.  This happened 2,907,924 times starting in July of 2006.  Let’s round this figure to 3 million for the purpose of this discussion. 

Three million pages were viewed. The first page view would be counted when landing on the Gateway homepage.  In a typical visit, the next page view would be counted with the return of a search result.  Each search return page displays 10 items that meet the visitors search criteria.  If the visitor clicks on a record link and visits the resource, they leave the Gateway and the subsequent activity is no longer counted in page views.

Extrapolating that 3 million page views could result in 1.5 million potential searches with 10 results per search means that 15 million resource records were presented to educators for their consideration.

In this “Google” age we are somewhat jaded about big numbers and the World Wide Web.  After all, a Google search for the word volcano produces 1,090,000 returns, as of January 4^th, 2008.

Now think about the nature of what is cataloged on the Gateway for searching compared to Google.

Let’s use volcanoes.  Google returns anything with the word ‘volcano” in it.  It could be a lesson plan but, more likely, it could be a product, an ad for Hawaii or it could be a blog mentioning volcano as a euphemism for who knows what.  In other words, it could be anything and presents a huge problem to try to sift it down to a more educationally useful subset.

With a search on the Gateway, the word volcano returns 278 items but, every one of those items is already identified as some form of learning resource and with a click or two we can narrow down the return to be just volcano lesson plans useful in the fourth grade, and in fact we find 14. 

The Gateway to 21^st Century Skills has provided 2,907,924 page views of learning resources to educators in that time, been visited 739,830 times and created 29,968,675 hits on the site since it became sponsored by NEA.

The bottom line is that the Gateway has provided a very specific return of potentially 15 million learning resources since July 2006.  That is where 15 million nickels come in and a nickel for every learning resource offered to educators in the timeframe would equal our $750,000.

The hard part is to quantify the value of the time it saved visiting educators in successfully finding the right resources.  We do know that in the month of December 2007, 63.3 % of visits came from bookmarks of the Gateway.  One must conclude that the results were helpful enough to justify that 2/3 of all visitors go to the trouble of adding it to their favorites.

Therein lays the huge contribution that NEA has made in sponsoring and supporting the Gateway to 21^st Century Skills. 

What’s New?

NEA and your state affiliate recognize that great public schools are the result of motivated students, involved parents, and well-prepared, innovative educators. The Gateway is a great opportunity for educators to expand their professional repertoire, exchange ideas, and individualize instruction.

NEA has partnered with the GEM Exchange, Gateway to Educational Materials, and JES & Co to support Gateway to 21^st Century Skills, a website that combines state-of the art search technologies and a complete database of state academic standards for core subjects. The Gateway is your link to the resources you need to make learning meaningful and fun for your students.

New information about 21^st century learning resources is being added every week to the Gateway.  Don’t miss out on these great new additions.  Here are just a few more recent examples of new items that you can find on the Gateway for you and your students:

Dateline: 442 B.C. Antigone

Students work in groups to write, produce, and video tape a newscast based on the events in the play "Antigone". The students will describe the main events, analyze the main characters, problems, conflicts and resolutions within the play.

I Love Navarre

The Navarre Beach area (or your area) is growing rapidly. The Chamber of Commerce wants help in creating a brochure for families with middle-school students who may be moving to the area. Students engage in a project-based lesson to provide the needed information. This lesson can be adapted to serve any community.

Oh Where, Oh Where, Can My Industry Be?

Young scientists conduct observational studies of three ecosystems. Using the Web World Wonders site cameras, they gather data to justify the establishment of an industrialized park at one site over the others.

Formation of the Solar System: Gravity and the Asteroid Belt

In this activity, students will learn to recognize patterns and inductively arrive at generalizations about the relative position of the planets in the solar system; the formation of the asteroid belt; and the formation of the solar system itself, and the role of gravity in its formation.

Bloom's Connection II

Students will apply the Bloom's Connection strategy in their social studies or science class. Students create questions and answers for a chapter in their class text based on Bloom's Taxonomy. They then evaluate their understanding of the chapter, and the effectiveness of using Bloom's Taxonomy in this way.

Careers in Criminal Justice

In this lesson, students identify and describe the career opportunities and prerequisites in the criminal justice system using multimedia and technology.

Environmental Mathematics

In this lesson, students explore what food sources are needed to survive in the wild. Then the students will plot on a graph the best food sources for their environments, and the survivability rate for each member of their group.

Quickly learn to search the huge collection of free learning resource.  (Click this link to view our video!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqho-SN-m4)   Our brief, seven minute, instructional video is now available on the home page of the Gateway.   It’s never been easier to boost your professional skills, add more fun and individualized instruction to your repertoire of competencies.  Join our cadre of 21^st century educators today.  

Make your search for resources from the Gateway or great benefit from your NEA membership easier and faster.  Simply visit: http://www.thegateway.org and download the National Education Association Toolbar from the link in the middle of the page.  The toolbar is ready for you!   It easy and it’s FREE!

Did You Know?

The Gateway to 21st Century Skills receives thousands of visits a month from dedicated educators all over the world.  Monday and Tuesday were the busiest days for the Gateway in the month of December.  In fact, the Gateway is such a valuable and powerful tool that over 42% of the visitors added the Gateway to their browser Favorites or Bookmarks!  In the last month, over 63% of the traffic came from people who have already bookmarked the Gateway to 21^st Century Skills.  Spread the word and help your fellow educators to realize the tremendous value NEA has provided for its members. 

Are Your Members Using the Gateway?

Hawaii,  Maryland, Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, South Dakota and Tennessee have also created versions of the Gateway that display the state affiliate logos. 

And now, not only will your affiliate members be greeted with a view of your logo but anyone who declares that they hail from your branded state will also see that affiliate’s logo.  This will underscore your local commitment to provide the members of the profession with the tools and resources they need to succeed in driving up student achievement.

We want to hear from you.  What would you like to see added to the Gateway?  What improvements would you like to see?  Send your suggestions, thoughts and observations on how we can make the Gateway to 21^st Century Skills a more valuable tool for you, your students and your fellow teachers.  Contact Bruce Walker at brucew@jesandco.org.

Gateway to 21st Century Skills Statistics for December 2007 – Another record breaking month!

 December 2007 set another new record for traffic to the Gateway with over 1,379,163 hits.  In the month of December 2007, adjusted measures of traffic showed that 39837 visitors and visited 138177 pages. 

These figures illustrate the growth of the Gateway traffic over the last year.  December 2007 results showed a 17% increase in visitors, a 19% increase in page views and a 16% increase in hits over December 2006!

Who’s Joining the Gateway?

Educators who love to teach!  That’s who is joining the Gateway.  And, just to show you what we at the Gateway have noticed we did some research for the word “love” in the biographies written by new members applying for Gateway membership.   

Here are some excerpts from the biographies of recent Gateway applications for membership.  Members show their support for the Gateway by joining and it is Free!  Membership allows you to make notes and comment about the resources you find on the Gateway.  You can share those observations with your peers or make comments that are only for your use.  It’s like your own personal Gateway to almost 50,000 quality learning resources. 

K.L.G. – Kentucky

I am a school social worker working in a Child Guidance position. I am presently working with K-5 students. I love what I do.

P.C. – Texas

I am a retired teacher who substitutes and tutors students in elementary math and reading. I love to learn and teach students.

V.B. – Tennessee

This is my fourth year to teach 8th grade English at Mount Juliet Middle School. I returned to college to earn my Bachelor of Arts and my teaching degree after my only child finished high school. After years in the business world, I can honestly say that have found my place in life. For the first time, I can declare that I love my job. However, I still need guidance and resources, so I am looking forward to using this site.

V.D. - Ohio

I am a Licensed/Certified K-12 educator in the fields of Health & Physical Education. I have had teaching assignments K-12 in the last 20 years. I am also a Nationally Certified Athletic Trainer and Licensed by the state of Ohio. I concentrate my studies in exercise science, exercise physiology, health appraisal & enhancement, fitness, nutrition, and sports medicine. I believe myself to be more of a mentor and facilitator of learning than a direct methods teacher. I love to bring the outside world into the classroom and use currently technology.

E.F. – Texas

I am a second-year fourth grade bilingual teacher in urban Houston. This is my second year, and I love it. At least on my good days.

C.G. – California

Science educator, grades 1-8. Beginning 25th year of teaching in Catholic Schools system. Also teach at Youth Science Center (public) in the summers. Have taken educator courses through Space Camp Alabama, Woods Hole Marine Institute, Smithsonian, JPL and the Hughes Medical Foundation. Served as educational consultant to Metropolitan Water District in development of curriculum materials. Love teaching.