It’s surprisingly tough for educators to predict what the students in their classrooms today will need to know for the opportunities of tomorrow. Sure, we have some idea, but the fact remains that nobody can be positive of what skills will best serve students in the future and even the jobs they will be holding. This sometimes leads to educational leaders trying too hard to pinpoint exactly what skills students will need when they could be better spending their time by teaching them how to learn. As long as kids remain curious and are given the opportunity to explore all areas of innovation, they’re going to be more capable of thriving in the future. Keep reading to discover how educators can leverage technology, PBL, and the promise of future success to provide their students with skills that will be useful to them for years to come.
Using STEM Education to Future Proof Students
When looking at the best ways to educate today’s students, it’s important for educational leaders to consider which skills they will need in the future. One of the most conclusive things that forecasts tell us is that the skills they will need are going to be almost exclusively geared towards STEM. Students will need math skills for science jobs, engineering skills for math jobs, and technology skills for engineering jobs. In the STEM economy, it’s become clear that a wide range of skills are needed in order to achieve the most success. This has led to innovative school districts designing curricula that are more than just the sum of individual parts. By creating teaching and learning that allows students to simultaneously use a combination of skills and focusing on innovation, students begin learning to solve problems in new ways and gives them an authentic reason to apply 21st century ways of learning.
Since predicting the future perfectly is pretty much impossible, the best way for school leaders to future-proof their students is to be educated themselves. This means they must follow the latest trends in both STEM education and in the economy, creating connections between the two. This will help teachers train their students with the most important skills needed to succeed as the next generation of the workforce. Among the most important trends is effectively introducing STEM learning earlier and earlier. If students aren’t regularly taking part in STEM experiences from early or mid elementary school, they’re behind the eight ball. When they are given these opportunities, they’re better able to build a comprehensive skill set that they can use in all facets of the future. Research shows that children are capable of creativity from a very early age so, if educators are not allowing them to stretch that creativity through STEM initiatives, they’re not helping to get them to a place where they are future-proof.
While much of STEM education does involve the integration of technology tools, it does more than providing tech-based experiences in preparing children for the future. While technology can help students more effectively understand key concepts, such as coding, it’s more useful in the sense that it teaches them how to think like analysts. STEM learning helps kids develop skills, like analysis and evaluation, which are a core part of their future success. And, this is how they will learn how to be creative and innovative. Through challenges that integrate STEM tools and concepts and by designing curricula that encourages relevant skill development, educators empower their students to learn skills that are less likely to be redundant in the future economy. To use STEM in future-proofing students, it remains imperative, however, that teachers get those children started early.
The Future-proof Educator
As educational practices and demands continue to evolve, so too does the role of the teacher. It’s only natural for us to question whether or not educators will be replaced by artificial intelligence or robots and how their roles will actually change. These unknowns make it tougher on teachers who are trying to future-proof their students while remaining future-proof themselves. Consider this: Much of the shopping we do has shifted from in person to online and education is not completely immune from a similar shift. Even before they reach college, many students are likely to have taken part in an online course, reducing the role of the teacher. In order to remain as relevant as they always have, teachers need to establish meaningful connections with students and between their students and the content they are learning. Making learning more personal through human connection solidifies the teacher-student connection as something that robots could never replace. Connection is king—even more so than curricular content.
In order to help students develop the connections they need, there are a couple of key rules teachers can follow. When it comes to developing connections with students, starting with learning their interests is often effective. One teacher said she surveys each student on the first day of school, asking each of them their favorite candy bar, and then presents each of them with what they like on their birthdays. This also works the other way around. When teachers allow students to learn their interests, it shows kids that they are not much different from them. Unexpected gestures from teachers are also a good way to create lasting connections with students. Kids tend to be pleasantly surprised when teachers lighten up from time to time and offer them something fun to do. As kids see how their teachers spark connections with them, hopefully it will translate to them developing the same kinds of connections with their peers and, eventually, co-workers.
Of course, the ultimate goal of utilizing methods like this is to illustrate to students that the connections they make in their lives could help them become and remain future-proof, themselves. A lot of the success they will have in the future can be tied back to how effectively they are able to interact with others. Technology often helps kids make connections with their school work and with each other in the classroom. Plus, it helps them see a bit of what it might be like working with similar tools in the future. When it comes to implementing new teaching tools, teachers shouldn’t be afraid to try those that will offer their kids an authentic look at the future. This also means that teachers should keep tabs on what is being used in education and those tech tools that offer the strongest connections to a better future for their students. Knowing where to look for such tools (like the Eduporium store) is a solid way to increase the chances of both teachers and students staying future-proof and Future Ready.
Future-proofing Technology Plans to Future-proof Students
When it comes to future-proofing, there is more that can be done than preparing just students and teachers for the future. The tech initiatives themselves can also be future-proofed, which, and stay with us here, increases the likelihood that students will become future-proof. As students move through different grade levels and are expected to master increasingly complex things, their classroom atmospheres change as well. This tends to include elementary students moving from brightly colored reading areas to regularly using tablets and computers in middle school. By high school, they may be using high-tech equipment to help them master tech on another level—you just never know. The technology that students use in the classroom not only should correspond with their ages and abilities, it should also include things that are more likely to help them develop skills that will remain relevant well into the future.
The problem with some technology initiatives—mostly in the case of classroom devices—is that different students in different classrooms use different devices. In most cases, younger students use tablets, such as iPads, and older students use laptops, such as Chromebooks. This, unfortunately, creates some inconsistencies and inconvenience when trying to teach students. On the other hand, however, you could look at the fact that it helps expose them to learning different technologies rather than just one. The question is ‘How can schools future-proof their technology plans and account for changes in the most popular classroom devices?’ As students move through grade levels and their personal technology evolves, that technology needs to be interoperable. This is the best way to ensure that classroom tech meets the needs of each student, stays relevant, and remains a worthwhile investment for the school.
School leaders and the classrooms of their educators need to be able to adapt as the technology students use changes. It is so important to research what devices work with each EdTech tool you invest in because, if they are not compatible, those tech tools will be virtually useless. Doing this research could help schools save a lot of money instead of potentially replacing devices every couple of years. A future-proof tech plan should, first and foremost, include technology that can work with any device and on any platform (Chrome, Apple, Windows, for example). They should also be able to be used to teach productively—often being used by students in groups and mirrored on a classroom whiteboard with a projector. Some of the other features to look for in technology is its wireless connectivity, how it supports individualized learning, and its ease of use for students. Now, there is no perfect piece of technology that will seamlessly capture all of this, but getting as close as possible is the best way school leaders can future-proof their technology plans.
Future-proofing Students Could be Done with Purpose Learning
Whether we know the extent of it or not, it seems that artificial intelligence will have a large impact on our lives beyond that of Siri, Alexa, and Watson. It is predicted that computers will take over a number of jobs in the coming decades, including in the highly specialized field of radiology to name one example. In higher education, professors are supposed to help students chart a course for themselves and prepare them for future careers. In an AI-driven world, however, those careers are likely to be more like gigs, constantly being replaced with something new. Some educational leaders are proposing that students no longer go through four years of college before they’re declared ready for the real world. Rather, these students should be taking part in more skills-based learning to meet the rapidly-changing demands of the workforce of the future. What do you think?
Others argue that traditional secondary education models are going to have to be altered in order to account for this change even if they might make school leaders and students feel uncomfortable. If people continue to cling to goal of getting every student to complete four years of college, there is little doubt that many of these students will be missing out on experiences more useful to their goals and future plans. Students should be given opportunities to apply knowledge from one domain to another and experience coherence among their different courses. Perhaps it would be more helpful to students in the long run if they could learn how to solve interdisciplinary problems with real-world implications. There are plenty of those problems that persist in today’s world, like securing cyberspace and maximizing the efficiency of solar energy, for example. Perhaps if students declared missions rather than majors, they could learn specialized skills to help them remain relevant well into the future.
Getting students to focus on mastering a certain set of skills rather than a broad curriculum is something that is known as purpose learning. Through purpose learning, they are better able to work on answers to problems that society does not have yet. This also tends to get students motivated by providing a real sense of urgency and giving their work real meaning. Working on real-world problems allows students to connect ideas without getting bogged down with unnecessary filler information—just focusing on what they ultimately want to accomplish. Organizing learning around content is not always the best course of action and purpose learning could help students develop truly useful skills they can use to adapt and thrive in a future that’s currently filled with uncertainty. The ultimate goal is developing students who are least at risk of being replaced by computers—something that can be done when they empathize and align their skill sets with resources, content, and knowledge that’s purposeful.
Using STEM Learning to Future-proof Students
For all that we remain unsure about when it comes to future generations, the careers they’ll have, and the skills they’ll need, one thing seems to be a bit more certain and that is the fact that a solid STEM education is likely to set them up for success. Just looking at the workforce and doing some quick research reveals that STEM industries and jobs comprise a significant portion of the careers that graduates are scooping up. What’s even more telling is the fact that there are still not enough skilled workers to fill all of these positions, though that gap is gradually narrowing. Is it fair to say that the graduates who are not able to fill these STEM jobs were not ‘future-proofed’ to a large enough extent during their K-12 education? Or, is it more likely that they’re simply not interested in one of these career paths?
In any case, they’re not able to fill these vacant jobs, leaving educational leaders with the need to return to the drawing board for future generations. In doing that, teachers should focus on using STEM education as a means (not necessarily an end) to get students to where they need to be. By regularly experiencing STEM challenges, students will not only learn about STEM concepts, but they’ll also learn key STEM skills by default. There are the obvious STEM skills, like coding, that students greatly benefit from possessing, but there are also others that they can develop as a byproduct of STEM activities. Some of these skills are more on the soft side, but include problem solving, creativity, collaboration, communication, and others not necessarily associated with science and technology. It is in doing these STEM jobs, however, that students will also need these soft skills to complement their STEM skills, providing them with a complete package of real-world traits.
To put it bluntly, a student with a background in STEM education is going to be more valuable than a student without a lot of STEM experiences. The correlation between STEM exercises in K-12 settings and the real-world workforce, though different in magnitude, is largely apparent. Students can use age-appropriate tech tools in grade school to mirror some of the more complex problems they are going to be tasked with solving once they enter the workforce. As soon as they are able to build a STEM foundation, they’re able to develop it. By the time they reach high school, ideally that foundation will be able to serve as a foundation for continuing their STEM education in college. And, the STEM skills they build in college could serve as their STEM foundation for the rest of their lives. The connection between remaining relevant in the future and STEM education is something that cannot be ignored and, for educators who are serious about future-proofing their students, STEM experiences are not to be ignored.
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