iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

""Artificial intelligence is an increasingly prevalent part of our everyday lives. From live-updating, turn-by-turn driving directions to responsive voice-controlled digital assistants—all in the palms of our hands—we are constantly interacting with computer programming where machines learn from experience and adjust to new data to perform human-like tasks.

For children growing up right now, AI will undoubtedly be a part of their future lives and jobs. It impacts every field of study in education. So, it’s critical that students understand computational thinking and know how machine learning works."

Changes in the economy, technology and the future of work are already having broad implications—but the benefits are not distributed equally.

Put simply, education resources are scarce for the working class. Today, the federal government invests $139 billion in postsecondary education, of which the lion’s share is for financial aid for those who are enrolled in undergraduate degree programs. Out of the $170 billion that employers invest in formal training each year, the majority of that funding (58 percent) is channeled toward workers who have already earned bachelor’s degrees and work in higher-paying professional and managerial positions. In fact, we are already leaving behind a significant swath of our population, who are not prepared for a shifting job market and who are not well served by traditional colleges that expect learners to stop their lives and come to campus for long periods of time.

Need a little inspiration and seeking to add a little fun to middle, high school, college, PD or independent technology learning as this school year opens?
Google just launched Applied Digital Skills, designed to help your students succeed online and prepare for their careers.  The program includes free lesson plans and digital skills videos designed for an evolving job market. You’ll want to share these with your computer science department, your technology clubs and integrate them into your own program. If yours is a Google using or Google Classroom school, this is going to be a perfect match.

Today, more than 70% of Canada’s leading jobs require or benefit from a background in STEM (science, technology, engineering & math). And the number only goes up with each passing year.

Does that sound like a lot? Well, the range of careers open to people with STEM backgrounds is wider than you might think. And STEM careers aren’t limited to people who wear lab coats with pocket protectors (not that there’s anything wrong with that)! They also include a variety of opportunities in the skilled trades and technology. There are also many careers in the fields like business, law, sales and the arts that benefit from a solid STEM background.

Your students can learn more by attending our online STEM career panels! We will be holding a series of three online events in both English and French. Panellists from across Canada will talk about their interesting STEM-based careers and answer your students’ questions. If your class can’t participate in the live events, videos will be posted on CurioCity afterwards.

I never really learned how to cook. Other than scrambling eggs over a fire during Boy Scout camping trips, it just wasn’t something I was taught growing up. Because I never learned how to make a healthy meal for myself, I ended up eating a lot more fast food than I should’ve—especially when I was young and early in my career.

That’s not the case for Robert Hand’s students.

Robert works at Mount Vernon High School, which is about an hour north of Seattle. He teaches family and consumer science—what we would’ve called “home economics” when I was in school. In other words, he helps his students learn how to take care of themselves after high school, including how to make a nutritious and delicious homemade meal.

When I Grow Up! is TVO Kids’ latest television series for children ages 6-11. The new show produced by Riverbank Pictures is all about inspiring our future leaders and helping kids make the connection between their interests, education and the exciting array of careers that use science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  Viewers follow Mikaela on her quest to determine what she wants to be when she grows up. Her adventures are fuelled by her curiosity and a passion for STEM.

Research from the Let’s Talk Science 2014 Spotlight on Science Learning report played a key role in informing the guidelines and rationale for this new fun and engaging show for kids. By aligning with the values and interests youth identify with, the series aims to show kids that many careers they dream of have a firm footing in the world of STEM.

“We want to excite kids about STEM and show them that school science is transferable to countless exciting careers,” says Co-producer & Education Consultant, Sara Poirier. “We are hoping it’s the type of show that kids and their parents will want to watch together and sparks conversations about careers in the future and the importance of studying science and math in school.”

Chances are your job description has changed over the past five years. Or maybe your role didn’t even exist a short time ago. The workplace of today and the future looks quite different due to technology, the economy, the environment, and politics, according to the Institute for the Future (IFTF), a not-for-profit think tank that helps organizations plan for the future.

The evolving workplace is creating a skills divide, says Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone, a talent management software and systems provider that partnered with IFTF to create a future skills study. “We have a very large group of jobs that require relatively few high-level skills, and a lot of those jobs will become obsolete in the future, being automated away,” he says. “On the flip side, highly technical jobs are wide open because there aren’t enough people with the skills to fill them. Whether or not employees recognize it, the half-life of their skills is shorter than it used to be.”

If you want to compete and stay relevant in the marketplace, you’ve got to master five “super skills,” according to IFTF:

Students in the United States are being left behind in the great race of the technological revolution. The reality is our country’s students are not competing with talent from other nations, whose students pursue careers in computer science more often. A projection of computer and information technology career growth by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals this sector will expand 12 percent between 2014 and 2024. With an estimated 488,500 new roles expected to be introduced, the median salary for these roles is also expected to grow from an already high $82,860 in May 2016.

Another alarming trend is the tendency for women and people of color to bypass careers in computer science. In January 2016, under Barack Obama’s presidency, The White House revealed its plan to increase student engagement for girls and young students of color who were underrepresented in computer science and noted, “…in the fewer than 15 percent of all high schools that offered any Advanced Placement (AP) CS courses in 2015, only 22 percent of those who took the exam were girls, and only 13 percent were African-American or Latino students.” To ensure students are prepared for careers in computer science, start education in this subject early and use the following strategies to ignite interest in this field.