I recently attended a public forum in East Palo Alto titled, “Closing the Computer Science Gap in K-12 Education” hosted by Assemblyman Marc Berman who represents CA Assembly District 24. There were 2 types of panel speakers - people from industry and those involved directly in education. Marc Berman and San Mateo County elect Superintendent Nancy McGee were also on the panel.
 Considering the short time allotted for the event, many important points were touched upon during the discussion. From the industry’s side, there is a significant need for more people to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and CS (computer science) opportunities during their K-12 years in order to fill the ever-growing number of jobs that require qualified people. This included military and government needs as well as private industry.
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From the educator side, there was a commentary on work for high school computer science courses to be accepted as a way to fulfill core requirements for graduation and a discussion of discrete versus integrated teaching of computer science concepts. In addition, there was a conversation related to the challenges of messaging to students and parents on computer science, the stereotypes of what computer science is and simply having students and parents understand the breadth of careers that can benefit from this type of learning.

 As an educator involved in STEAM and computer science integration, the discussion was relevant and engaging for me. It also highlighted the multiple stakeholders involved and the complexity of the topic. However, I didn't necessarily hear new information but rather the continued conversation on the needs and challenges to make digital literacy and computer science fundamentals considered basic skills versus “nice to know about” subject matter in our educational system.

 While I agree this is a “marathon” versus a “sprint” to work on in education, the need for ensuring we expose students to computer science and certain ways of thinking is a great need now. Our society’s economy and the ability to thrive is becoming increasingly challenged to maintain without proper funding for education with truly relevant learning for our current and future workforce. Our ability to grow and sustain a healthy U.S. economy is directly dependent on the educational opportunities that are provided to the 6,220,4153 students enrolled in California public schools (Fingertip Facts on California Education).  

​We are technically in the 4th Industrial Revolution. You may have already felt this shift in our society or read about it in the news. It is a time of great excitement, innovation and breakthroughs in many aspects of our lives, but with that comes fundamental needs and changes in our schools to bring our world to the next level. When you hear about people having their jobs disappear and not having skills that can transfer to other areas, it is tied to this global, technological evolution.
 
The job market is changing at a dizzying speed. By 2030, 50% of current jobs will no longer exist. Educators are preparing students for jobs that have yet to be created (SMCOE CTE Center, 2017).  A student currently in elementary school will be entering a very different workforce landscape. In these rapidly changing times where technology dominates everything, new skills and ways of how to think are needed in order for students of today to be prepared for success in a new type of workforce. These skills are not just applicable to specific fields but for many different ones. We cannot stop change and technology, but we can adapt and modify our foci to be an education that will help the future of our world grow in positive, healthy and innovative ways, one that is practical and applicable to our economy.  One such way is by giving access and equitable learning to all students in the language of computer science.
 
In industry, we are at a point where technology has currently surpassed our ability to use it to its full potential. We have the tools but we do not have enough people that know how to interact with these tools or know the right kinds of questions to ask to help us solve large, complex problems that affect not only our country, but our global society. This is why it is vital that we give access to all of our students such experiences. Not only do we literally need more people involved in these fields, but we need a diversity of backgrounds, minds and experiences to ensure that major industries shaping society are not solely reliant on one type of person or gender. ​

What skills related to CS are relevant for today’s student?
 

• Understanding large data sets/ data analysis
• Understanding fundamental programming languages such as html, python, and other core languages and the ability to interact with them
• Understanding of technology network structures
• The ability to creatively approach a problem that doesn’t have a concrete answer
• The ability to utilize computational thinking processes to approach complex issues
• Being a flexible learner, the ability to adapt well to new things
• Being able to work collaboratively as a group. Computer science (along with many other areas our lives) thrives on being able to work as a team.

 
What are direct challenges?
 
Funding. When is it not funding, right? Lawmakers in California support the idea of computer science education, but the conversation about how to fund it quickly becomes nebulous. Training and professional development for teachers in computer science fundamentals is a great need. Most teachers do not come from a computer science or engineering background. Teachers are wonderful in that they will do what is best for their students but without the ability to fund their training or time to learn, this becomes problematic.

Vision: It is difficult enough to navigate the many standards and requirements placed upon districts. How do you teach it all in a 6 1/2 hour day? How can computer science skills be integrated into other core subjects in a way that is understandable for teachers to embrace? 
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Stereotypes/Role Models. Much like the stereotypes that have been placed on women over the decades in advertisements and media, so are there stereotypes of those involved in computer science. Look no further than HBO’s Silicon Valley as an example. Often a socially awkward, white male comes to mind as the typical programmer, bent over a computer for hours at a time in isolation or in a small group of similar folks talking technical jargon. Other stereotypes come from teachers who perceive certain students, often white males, as naturally gifted in the area. The reality is often the child has had the opportunity to learn CS fundamentals outside of school or has a parent who knows CS.
 
Messaging: If you asked someone on the street what they thought computer science was, what would they say? Educating parents and students on the benefits of CS fundamentals and STEM experiences can open opportunities that were simply not known to them. As an example, a survey conducted of 956 early- and mid-career, Black, Latino and Native American professionals found that “a lack of career information (was) the driving reason preventing STEM and non-STEM majors from pursuing careers in tech.” (Study: Tech Workforce's Lack of Diversity goes Deeper than Pipeline)

Support. I have heard numerous stories from women and underrepresented people in STEM related fields about their journey. Many times, there was a person, an organization or experience that changed their trajectory or opened up a world they did not previously consider for themselves. If we do not encourage and support children to take risks, persevere and try new things, we are doing a disservice to them and to our global community.
 
What Can You Do?
As a parent, educator or a general taxpayer, you can help. Your voice matters!
 
Contact your local government official - Whether it is an assembly person, senator or governor,  your voice can help guide and push the conversation with policy makers forward.

Learn about your local school district’s vision - Attend a monthly public board meeting and inquire about their goals for computer science and STE(A)M learning opportunities during the school day or email your local school board.​
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Connect your skills or company with a local school district - If you are in a STE(A)M related career, work at a university or for a company that has invested interests in being able to draw from a strong job pool of qualified people, consider how you can a) volunteer b) create a partnership c) donate resources/time.




 

The issue of fake news has been growing rapidly out of control in society. There are many ways to spread misinformation in today's digital age. Many adults have a hard time discerning what is real or not, let alone younger people. A recent study from Stanford revealed, "that 'digital natives' may be savvy but are easily duped." During their study, they found "in every case and at every level, we were taken aback by students' lack of preparation."

It is important to start as young as possible with conversations and practice of evaluating media. We want the future to be well informed and to think critically of information that is presented to them in order to avoid pitfalls and hurtful untruths. In addition, misinformation can have social-emotional consequences, such depression, anxiety or moral/ethical confusion on what the world or society stands for during a child's developmental stages.
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If you do a search for 'fake news lessons' for elementary, middle or high school, you will find a variety of articles and ideas. However, here are a few to help you get started: 

• Easy Bib: Infographic and Links -The infographic can be great to use with elementary or middle school students. There are also links to videos, questions and even fake news sites/stories to use to test your students' skills. Have students refer to the infographic as a way to help them with considering the information.
• Ted-Ed Video Talks: How to Choose Your News and How False News Can Spread. Discussion questions and questions are included on the right-hand side.
• News and America's Kids (Common Sense Media)- Scroll to bottom for parent and educator resources.
• 5 Ways Teachers are Fighting Fake News (NPR)-Read this article to learn how teachers are integrating these skills into their day.
• Is Fake News Tricking Kids?  (CNN) This article discusses the consequences of young people and adults, including gender bias and secondary emotional reactions to what they read (depression, anxiety, etc) 
• Evaluating Sources in a 'Post-Truth' World (NY Times) - Here are more lesson ideas as well as different types of fake news to consider.
• How to Teach Fake News to Students (PBS, Gr.7-12)
• Fighting Fake News Lesson Plan (KQED)

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School and City Librarians- Don't forget, your librarians are happy to help support you with this topic! Media literacy can address CCSS standards and easily be incorporated in ELA lessons, or even have a math component. How can you modify a lesson to bridge a home-school connection How can students help educate adults? 

• One idea is to have an assignment where students ask parents to evaluate a series of headlines or a short article and then answer a few questions. This information can then be charted on how adults answered in class. 
• Another extension to learning is for students to survey different people on fake news and come up with a solution on how to help educate their local community or younger peers on evaluating media sources. 
• One last idea is to have students survey households on what news stations, online sites or social media their family uses for information. This can be charted and then further discussed in the classroom. 

Project based learning (PBL) is nothing new to education. PBL is the act of designing a project that incorporates specific concepts or standards that a student is required to learn in school. PBL is a way to make learning concepts interactive, engaging, and fun for a student, as well as to establish how to work with others.

The updated Smarter Balanced Assessment (SB) standardized testing that the majority of the United States is now using was created as a way to ensure that all states are addressing the same standards at the same level of competency and that all students in the US were receiving the same type of information in school. Prior to this, states had more options to choose the degree of rigor in their state standards and testing. This made transitioning for students relocating to another state with different standards challenging, as gaps of their skills or knowledge and lack of connection to the same curriculum could occur for some . This also made norm-referenced analysis of how students across the nation were doing compared to each other difficult. While not the be all end all of a student's skill or knowledge, criterion based assessment and norm-based assessment can both prove useful in education.

The format of SB has lessened the amount of true/false and multiple choice questions and has attempted to have the student interact more by the ability to highlight content, watch a video,  by incorporating more graphics, as well as writing as justification of answer. These are all positives in the eye of many educators in order to help address the need for more critical based thinking to occur in the classroom and in the world.

So, how do you meld the two? How do you create enriching, motivational projects that excite students to learn while knowing that the content of your project will transfer to content found on a Smarter Balanced test?

Here are some ways to evaluate the transfer of student learning while utilizing PBL:

Pre-assessment. By giving students a pre-assessment that can be scored first with all content standards and goals is valuable. This data will enable the teacher to create or modify a project.

Clearly define the standard or goals of learning first. Show students the standard(s). Discuss what they mean in simpler terms and outline the goals students are to strive to learn from a project. Key vocabulary should be incorporated in both the assessment and project.

Integrate writing in all projects. Writing is a huge component on the new SB test. A student must be able to explain their thinking through words in both the English Language Arts and Math test. I often tell students, if you can say it out loud, you can write it down. However, this is easier said then done. Allowing students to type answers is helpful, as many students become quickly frustrated with writing (a whole other post). Typing is also an essential skill for students not only on assessments, but for life. Show examples of quality answers as separate lessons.  Give feedback on statements. By chunking writing into small, but consistent bits in class can assist in the common burn-out factor that students often feel in the classroom on assessments or writing projects in general.

Student choice/make projects flexible. Everyone has their own strengths and challenges in the classroom. By empowering student groups to help generate ideas for a project and to give multiple options to also choose from on presenting the content is a great motivating factor. Be open and flexible to help encourage innovative thinking.

Incoroporate technology tools/devices for practice. There are many, many amazing apps and programs for the educational realm. Expose students to ones that you find helpful or meaningful for a project. You don't need to be an expert in all things technology, so don't feel intimidated to introduce something tha is also new to you. Often, I learn new things about a technology tool right alongside the students! It also helps students feel empowered and important by figuring something out for an adult.  This can apply to K-12 students.

Reflection on Project. Reflection questions can help a student tap into their critical thinking skills without feeling it is a "right or wrong" answer. Incorporating opinion questions is also a way to further practice critical thinking and feel empowered that their voice matters in their own learning. These types of questions can be valuable for a teacher in understanding what a student has gained from a project.

Post-Assessment. Giving the exact same post-assessment makes comparison of growth solid in data, which is a driving force in districts today.

The challenge with this format is finding curriculum that can address all these components. In my years, I found the best projects were the ones I created or pieced together or that another teacher had made and I modified for my own needs. This is why it is even more vital for educators to create and actively engage in their own Personal Learning Network (PLN) in order to see and share what is working and what are challenges with standards.

How do you address the challenge of creative project-based learning while ensuring the transfer of knowledge for standardized testing success? 

When I woke this morning and started my standard routine of catching up on news, I stumbled on Money magazine’s list of best colleges for your money.  Their list was created using a multitude of statistical measures around three main categories: quality of education, affordability and outcomes. As I perused the list, and saw the same popular colleges names I have seen for decades, I couldn’t help but sigh. According to The College Board’s Trends in College Pricing 2012, the average annual cost of in-state tuition, fees, room, and board at a four-year public institution is $17,860 for the academic year 2012–2013. For a private institution, the cost of tuition, fees, room, and board is $39,518.

Part of the sigh was the perception that seems to have increased over the years with the idea that you need to attend a top, elite brand-name school to reach what many might deem as a successful career. Yes, you can receive an extraordinary education at such institutions, but you can also receive an immense amount of debt. The other reality is not every environment is necessarily the best for every person.

You can receive a great education at many colleges or secondary educational institutions that are not considered prestigious for less money. I personally believe large part of one’s educational experience is individual effort and motivation – the more you put yourself into your studies, you more will receive back.

Partly what people seem to be paying more for these days are the connections that certain colleges have with people or companies. While networking and who you know has always been an advantage in the work place, this has become an even larger factor in choices that students and parents seem to be using when it comes to education, but at what cost? I agree that connections are invaluable, but do you really have to pay a ton of money for them? There are other ways to network and make connections without breaking the bank.

Making choices for higher learning should not be primarily focused on brand, connections, what the media tells you, or where “everyone wants to go.” Here are some questions that can help students and parents reflect on when thinking about the right type of higher education:

• What do I value in life?
• What am I passionate about?
• What are my interests?
• What are my natural strengths?
• What kind of experience is right for me?
• Am I ready for college/secondary learning (do I have an idea of a path vs. just going for the sake of going)?
• What kind of financial debt am I willing/able to take on?

Everyone wants his or her child to have a solid education and succeed in life, but there are multiple avenues to achieve this, not just one. Encourage and engage with your child in conversations around the above questions. As a student, reflect on what you really hope to get out of a particular educational experience. Research the 'reality' of a school’s campus life or classes they offer, as well as what job or career opportunities are out there in your area of interest.  This can save families unneeded stress, heartache, extra debt, and help ensure completion of whatever program they enter in the world of higher education.

U.S. public education has always been a hot topic, and even more so over the past decade. It is a field of constant change, debate, trends and new philosophies. You may have heard the phrase, "new paradigm of learning" or "21st century paradigm of teaching" being used in articles or workshops over the past couple years. What does this exactly mean? Is it really new?

There are variations on what one might say when it comes to defining this phrase. Upon researching different opinions, I like Terry Heick of Teach Thought’s version, 4 Goals of Paradigm Thinking, as a way to sum up what schools and educators should be focusing on with today’s learners. Mr. Heick’s version is:

• Self-knowledge
• Meaningful Community Interaction
• Adaptive Critical Thinking
• New (Digital) Media Literacies

Of course, there is a lot of detail and content that can be discussed in each of these categories, but I like a more simple statement versus ones that are a bit bogged down.

As an educator in the K-8 realm, I reflected on what I personally would create as my statement for a “new paradigm of learning” in my own teaching and decided on the following:

• Collaboration
• Process
• Student-Interest
• Global Connection (Awareness)
• Digital Literacy

I used some pretty general terms in mine. The word 'process' however, sums up more for me. It addresses not only the concept of critical thinking, but also meaningful ways to achieve this, such as design thinking, project-based learning, gamification, flipped learning, and so on. The avenue one chooses these days to communicate content can potentially launch learning and motivation to a whole new, exciting level. I think 'collaboration' deserves its own category, as we all know what a valuable skill this is in the real world.

I have become a big advocate of community outreach in my projects and lessons that I design for my classes, which is one I don't see enough on lists. I feel this area is underutilized and is important. This concept falls under 'global connection (awareness)' for me, as the term 'community interaction' did encompass enough of how I view the idea. Not only should students be engaging with their local community, but they should be engaging with the global community as well. This assists in supporting other crucial areas, such as problem-solving and empathy, two areas that are at the top of my list for students to actively engage in during class time. Student-interest is also a big one for me. In a survey, I will ask my students at the beginning of the year what they are interested in learning. Self-interest equals buy-in and self-motivation.

As to the question, “Is it really new?” To me, much of what is touted as new in education is not really new. There have been great educators out there doing all of these ideas long before such lists were being made. Ideas and philosophies in education tend to cycle, even if the cycle is a long one.

One major change in education has been in our ability to connect on a global scale and to learn more about our world today, due to technology. This ability has really opened doors to more creative endeavors and possibilities for the classroom teacher. However, the biggest change over the years is the accessibility of technology and the educational technology tools of today that allow for affordability and much easier integration into the classroom for the average teacher. So many educational tools...but that is a topic for another post.

What would your personal 'new paradigm of learning' be? I encourage you to reflect and create your own. No matter what level you teach, it can assist with guiding your overarching goals as an educator.

A few months back, I wrote about the beginning steps for a project I designed, called The Survey Project, which can be found here. Our class completed this experience. I am happy to report that this project was not only successful and fun for the students, but for the teacher!  Here was the first page of the overview for the project. I made an effort to use my write-up as written, in order to review its feasibility and clarity.

Objective: Students will create survey questions centered around their community using the online program Fluid Surveys. Students will generate QR codes, print them out, and post them at key locations in the community. Students will analyze data collected from their survey questions through tallying and interpreting the information. Students will write a letter and sent and/or present to local council representatives about their results and opinion on how to address an issue, if needed.

Grades: 3-12 (This lesson was originally written for a 3rd grade class, but the concept can be modified and adapted/aligned for almost any grade).

Standards (3rd grade):

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1a Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.1b Provide reasons that support the opinion.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
  
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.6 With guidance and support from adults, use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
  
• CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.
  

Other:

• With guidance from the teacher, student survey questions will be inputted online.
  
• With guidance from an adult, students will interact with their local community to understand what successes and challenges residents face in their town, by placing QR codes in key locations to collect data.
  
• Students will analyze data collected from their survey by tallying and interpreting the information.
  
• Students will draw a bar graph that represents the information collected in their survey.
  
• Students will learn what a council member is and what they do for their community.
  
• With assistance from their teacher, students will make contact via email, letter or in person with a city council member(s) to share their findings.
  
  

Equipment/Materials Needed: laptop, Fluid Survey program, paper or digital text document. Note: the Fluid Survey iPad app version can also be used to present surveys to an audience by the creator. Fluid Survey is a free program, but for for additional features such as graphs to print, a monthly upgrade is needed.

Vocabulary: survey, data, results, graphs, analyze, community, outreach, frequent, axis, objectives, tally

The project was divided up into different activities. Here are the general sections, with my reflection for each one.

Activity 1 - Introduction to types of surveys, vocabulary, and a partner online activity to fill in their Activity 1 worksheet (see attached document below).

Reflection: The introduction went great. It is important to give background information for any project in a way that best works for your student population/age. How can you relate the content to them? Since I have younger students, I found a website for them to directly go to in order to fill out information for the worksheet, but it was up to the students to figure out what information they thought was important to add on their worksheet, rather than me telling them what to write and what was important.  I wanted to see how they were able to understand the information as well deciding how to communicate their understanding. We had a great follow-up discussion, where all students were able to share their insights.

Activity 2 - Brainstorm a topic related to community that student feels is important and brainstorming survey questions around approved topic.

Reflection: The students really took off with this. They were excited at the prospect of doing something for their city that people would participate in. It gave the project a sense of importance to them. They came up with topics related to recycling, littering, types of stores, quality of community parks, crime, and more!

I knew that what makes a good survey question would require more background information. I did end up doing a mini-lesson on a separate day around types of survey questions and the kinds of answers one needs to give a user in order to measure the results. I viewed this as a meaty part of the project. After students brainstormed their questions, I met with each team to review and talk out how to hone their questions. As writing good survey questions is often not easy for adults to do, I was impressed with how most students understood this concept and how some took off with it.

Activity 3- Create their survey online by choosing the best type of question format and typing in their questions.

Reflection: This went very smoothly, for most teams. The UI of Fluid Surveys is pretty straight-forward, which is one reason why I chose their survey program over others I had researched. I gave them a very general overview as a whole class, but left enough out that would require students to play around with the program to figure out. I did have several students who found this more difficult, but that is ok. Every student has their own personal skill set around technology, regardless of what I may have taught them in class. I also encourage students to collaborate and help each other, so my "experts" could help those who needed it.

Activity 4- Generate QR codes, making a poster explaining project, and posting up for people in the community.

Reflection: My class had previous experience with using QR codes. Another reason why I like Fluid Surveys is because they have the ability to generate a QR code within their program versus taking a link, finding a generator site, pasting etc. (been there, not so fun).  Super easy!

Activity 5 - Analyze data by use of tallying answers and meeting with teacher in their teams to discuss how they could view the data in different ways. Students then draw a bar graph that represents the data.

Reflection:  This was the other meaty section of learning. I had students practice first on how to tally and organize a sample survey I had made in partners. This was good practice and pretty easy for the students, as it turned out.  After they tallied their answers for each of their questions, I realized that students would find it challenging to be able to write this information into sentences, so I ended up taking my example survey and modeling how you can "report" the facts. I also did meet with each team to review their drafts of sentences and help them with this, due to their age. It was great practice in writing complete  informational sentences. If you have older students, this is an excellent way to observe and and assess critical thinking skills as well as writing structure. 

Since my students had background knowledge in creating a simple bar graph, this activity was pretty easy for most students. For those who struggled, it helped reinforce math concepts that had been previously taught. Students helped each other out, as needed.

Activity 6- Write a letter about the project with results and suggestions to local city council members
(Optional: Attending a city council meeting to experience first hand our system and process)

Reflection: Instead of having my kids write an entire letter on their own (they had been inundated with writing from other projects and testing), I created a guiding template for them to fill in blanks. I did give them some guiding verbiage to mode, such as "This suggests..." and "I recommend...".  This proved to be very helpful for them and for me. The original intention was to use the guide and have them write the entire letter out into their writing notebooks, but kids wanted to write on the actual worksheet, which I should have realized would happen. I would have made more lines for them to write on. The hardest part was understanding the sentences they drafted during analysis could directly be used in their letter, so I had to direct them where this needed to go in their letters.  After we had writing conference review on their drafts, students then typed up their letter.

I don't know who was more excited to drop off our letters and graphs to city hall, the students or me! It was great watching the city hall employee's expression change from listening to excitement and watch her smile grow as I explained what my manila envelope contained for city council members to review.

Some of the students and I will be attending the city council tomorrow evening. I look forward to sharing this experience with them! Overall, I was very pleased with this project and the multiple areas it addressed. My hope is to encourage others to think about how they can use a technology tool to enhance learner experience. Feel free to email me for additional information on this project.

Last week, I attended an EdSurge Meetup at Nest GSV in Redwood City titled, "The Missing Link Between Researchers and EdTech Innovators." The format was a panel discussion with Q/A afterwards. One of the reasons I attended was due to the panelists scheduled to speak - Gayl Allen, CLO of Bright Bytes, Steve Schneider, Senior Program Director of West Ed, Tamas Makany, Learning Researcher at Glasslab, and Dave Hatfield, Director of Assessment at Kidaptive. I was  already familiar with 3 of the 4 organizations and the great work that they do, and as someone who has taken to reading white papers a lot these days, I was interested in where the conversation might lead. 

The idea of the meetup was to connect start-ups who are looking to create or refine their own education apps, games, etc. with researchers in the field. The conversation discussed the disconnect between educational research and the people who are working to create a product, as well as why using proven methodologies while developing a product can make all the difference. This makes sense, as the typical start-up does not necessarily have an internal understanding in educational pedagogues, developmental stages, and statistical data on what can create a successful learning experience for a user. 

As one of the few teachers at the session, and possibly one of the only elementary classroom teachers in the  trenches of directly teaching younger students, I was happy that this conversation had been initiated. Over the years, there have been many meaningless educational games, tools and apps out on the market. Let's face it - education is a big business and to be able to get your foot in the financial door can be be very lucrative. According to the US Department of Education, ed business generated $30 billion in domestic sales for product and services suppliers in 2011. It is also expected to grow over the long term, as U.S. student enrollments are projected to hit 58 million in 2021 compared to 55 million in 2010.

The first thing a teacher will evaluate or want to know when introducing a technology tool in the classroom is, what educational value will be gained from using this tool? Where is the evidence that this tool will assist in raising developmental understanding or achievement of my student? With the new Common Core  and Next Gen Standards, there is a significant push to integrate and use technology more consistently in the classroom, so the critical lens on educational products is even more important these days.

What I realized during the discussion was the third link- the educator. It became apparent how little many people in the room knew of what life is like in the actual classroom for an educator and what learning looks like for a student. They are the third factor, and having one on the panel would have assisted in the conversation even more. I have been an elementary teacher for 11 years. Not once have I ever been approached by an educational researcher or company that was seeking information for use in a product, and cannot say that I know any other educator who has. Why is this? Educators by nature like to help. By reaching out to educators, a researcher or potential product could gain practical information to assist in the development of their product. 

Another point was brought up that teachers now live in an age of rapid assessment. No longer is it acceptable to wait a month to find out whether a student is achieving expectations. Individualized intervention and instruction is also what every teacher tries to strive for in the classroom. Expectation to bring a child up to grade level (or to their respective next level) as soon as possible is high. Correctly using data collected on a child is mandatory. With today's technology, these goals are more doable. Understanding what this looks like could be of great value to businesses when creating their product.

The other point that was brought up was the lack of professional development and training, which unfortunately is common in many districts across the United States. Lack of time in the day, money, and general understanding of what good training can be is often the norm. Companies should take this into consideration when creating a product, as well as something to offer a school. Give them quality training for free, with follow up. Don't just do the 1.5 hour intro after school when teachers are burned out and leave it at that.  Think, how can you support the teacher to successfully implement your product? 

I enjoyed Gayl Allen's comment that many things are literally thrown at teachers and keeping up with everything that a teacher is tasked with is a constant challenge on a daily basis. This is absolutely true. I also liked her closing point that businesses should consider what they can "give" to an educator or school,  not just "take" from them. Vendors constantly come to districts with the attitude of 'buy my awesome product,' often with ineffective follow up or training, if at all. It is, to say the least, annoying. If companies created a more partnership-like atmosphere, this would help, as the benefits help both parties. Share data and results you discover when working with a school. Follow up during the first year in a manner that makes a teacher's life easier, not harder. 

And the reason Ms. Allen understands this? She was an educator for over a decade. If you have not been a direct educator, it is very difficult to understand the nature of our profession. If you do not have a former educator in your company, consider having one.  Do not view educators as just another number for sales. Value educators for the experiential knowledge and insights they possess from being in the field that others don't have or can understand. Utilize the hard work researchers put into their studies. By establishing connections between researcher, start-up and educator, everyone wins. 

There has been debate over whether emphasizing STEM learning in schools is truly needed or not. Recently, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce came out with a study which indicates that, “STEM, Healthcare Professions, Healthcare Support, and Community Services will be the fastest growing occupations, but also will require high levels of post-secondary education.” The Economic Policy Institute however, argues that their study and data, “…strongly suggest that there is a robust  supply of domestic workers available for the IT industry,”  and "for STEM graduates, the supply exceeds the number hired each year by nearly two to one, depending on the field of study." So, who is right?

As an educator, I see a need for more meaningful learning in the classroom in general and this includes the concepts that STEM content gives to learners. We have fallen away from teaching children what it means to critically think and problem solve in a way that is in need for this time in society. We are leading to (or are in) a technological renaissance. This indeed affects how successful a person can be in our current and upcoming workforce.

What seems to be missing from the argument is that this kind of thinking also lends itself to creative thinking. No, arts and humanities should not be dismissed as subjects. Balance creates a whole package. Making strong connections across all areas however, can be done. Guiding and not instructing students is the goal. This is to encourage thinking outside the box in order to generate new ideas to age-old problems. While there may be a surplus of “IT workers” to jobs, this is only one part of a much larger field. Engineering and technology applies to many fields and science goes hand in hand with both.

The way students have been taught in general has been flat and disconnected over the years. STEM learning and the Next Generation Standards attempt to help students synthesize and make more meaningful connections across subject matter in general. Much like the concept behind an ecosystem, we want students to see the big picture from different perspectives. This way of thinking is something that can benefit the workforce overall and can grow a new generation of people to be the creative innovators that are needed, people who can help continue to solve systemic challenges in the world.

With regard to the point that there is not enough jobs to fill the amount of people gaining degrees in these areas, I am reminded of the adage, “If you build it, they will come."

Studies mentioned:
Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce

Economic Policy Institute