Part one of our book gives an overview of what 21^st Century learning means. It traces the differences in how society has progressed in the value and content of education. The overreaching goals are the same, for example, “Contributing to work and society”. As society progresed from the Agrarian Age to the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age we went from the basic need to grow our own food, to learning to apply engineering and science to grow food with less effort and to feed more people, to learning to work in partnership with nations from all over the world to produce food for a global market.

The needs of our world have changed and we must change with them. Gone are the days of a single lifelong occupation. The students of today will hold at least 11 jobs throughout their adult lives. Our students need the following skills and at this time they are not graduating from high school or college with these skills.

· Oral and written communications

· Critical thinking and problem solving

· Professionalism and work ethic

· Teamwork and collaboration

· Working in diverse teams

· Applying technology

· Leadership and project management

In order to accomplish the goal of the Knowledge Age we need to help our students embody these skills to be successful.

The authors have hit the nail on the head with the following quote.

“One of education’s chief roles is to prepare future workers and citizens to deal with the challenges of their times. Knowledge work—the kind of work that most people will need in the coming decades—can be done anywhere by anyone who has the expertise, a cell phone, a laptop, and an Internet connection. But to have expert knowledge workers, every country needs an education sys­tem that produces them; therefore, education becomes the key to economic survival in the 21st century.”